SCHOOLING METHODS

Evening Star, Issue 23451, 16 December 1939, Page 20

SCHOOLING METHODS

ARE THEY DECADENT 7-VIBUAV; REBUTTAL ENCOURAGEMENT OF “ THINKING INTERNATIONALLY " “ Wliat did you learn in school today'''” is a question, which in these days, is liable to produce somew'hat startling, if not negative results, do the average paterfamilias, modern schooling seems to consist of a senes ot experiments, one rapidly succeeding the other, and looking through the pro-verbially-tinted spectacles to the days of his youth, he is inclined to scoff at most of them. Ho is not, as a rule, m a position to investigate for himsel methods of teaching, nor is he qualified to judge by results. Consequently lie is inclined to dismiss the whole matter, hugging tt) himself certain bewildered doubts as to the efficacy of the system. For these, and other reasons, he would be well advised, during the holidays, to make a visit to the Otago Museum in King street, where there is a display which should do much to answer his misgivings. School is over, and the travelling exhibits prepared by the Education Officer attached to the museum, Mr Gordon B, Anderson, are all back for the holiday period. A selection of these has been made and installed in a bay immediately opposite the entrance, not so much for thenown sakes—although they are by no means beneath the notice of anybodyhut to illustrate the e work that has been done by this department. Education authorities are duly appreciative of the work done; its scope is widening rapidly, almost beyond the capacity of Mr Anderson and his assistants, but it is desirable that the general public should see and appreciate. First and foremost, attention _is drawn to the large show cases which are supplied to the town schools. There are two sets, of these, one covering certain aspects of the life of the Maori, the other industrial in origin. Did you know that the 11 ingredients of a wax match are drawn from all the continents ? A light for your cigarette, but its components came from India, Egypt, Switzerland, Australia, South America, England, and Canada. There in the show ease. There are the raw materials. There is the process, illustrated in its simplest form. You don’t need to read. You can’t help absorbing the information. ‘‘So what?” you will say. ‘ I didn’t learn these f ilings at school. I didn’t need to.” But the thinkers of to-day look forward to the time when the nations will be internationallyminded, acclaiming it tho only basis for lasting peace and progress. Here is a generation growing up which takes as a matter of course the knowledge that men of seven nations produced the match that lights tho Christmas candle or the illicit cigarette. An article in itself would bo needed to describe the Maori exhibit. Maori tools are shown in all stages of construction ; and finally finished—and there is not one man in a hundred who has seen a Maori edge on its handle ready for use, or the drilling apparatus with its counterweights, a triumph of primitive engineering. Flanking these exhibits are two sets of photographs. One is a complete set of Pouting’s penguin subjects, taken,, of course, with Scott in the Antarctic. The other is a selection of H. GuthrieSmith’s work, the complete set of which is also available to the children of the schools. Besides these there is a selection of samples sent by the Imperial Institute, London, Sorting these samples, and presenting them in their present form represented an enormous amount of work, but the effort was worth it. In their present form they represent the most pleasant form of learning geography imaginable. But, see the whole exhibit for yourself—tho kiddies will be proud to explain 1