EDUCATION.

Feilding Star, Volume VI, Issue 1675, 20 December 1911, Page 3

EDUCATION.

SOME„OBSERVATIONS AT HOME

BY MISS ALEXANDER

The following notes are taken from a report .furnished to the AVanganui Education Board by Miss M. D. Alexander, who is on a visit to England prior to taking charge of the new kindergarten school in AVanganui :—

I entered as a student in the Froebel Institute, AVest Kensington, London. This college is the home of the kindergarten in Great Britain. The lecturers in the various departments arc specialists* iv their work.

The usual courso of study extends over three years. As my "time was limited, on consultation with the principal of the college, a special course of study was arranged for me by which I was enabled to choose the subjects both from the junior and the senior sections, which I considered would be of the greatest advantage to mo in my work in New Zealand. AVhile taking this condensed course debarred me from sitting ati the examination for the certificate of the Institute, yet I obtained all the benefits of tho practical and demonstration work of the advanced classes. As this was really the object of my visit! to England I consider my aim has been achieved.

Botany and Biology (nature study)

taken by Miss Fulham, lecturer at King's College University. Under Miss* Fulham's supervision excursions were taken into the country for boanising and always papers had to be written on the work done. ARry often during the form the lecture would bo given at the Natural History Museum and here specimens of every description wore to be found.

Hand Work.—Lecturer, Aliss* Swannell. I found this work most interesting. Everything was taken from a practical point of view and nothing was made unless it ivas to bo of some use to the child.

The Art of Story-telling and Literature.—Lecturer, Aliss Barry. Storytelling is treated in quite a scientific way and takes a very important place in the curriculum of the kindergarten.

A great deal of my time during the last term was spent in tho demonstration schools in connection with the collego where I saw all tho methods practically carried out. The last three mouths I spent in visiting the principal schools iv aud around London, under letters of introduction from the Principal of the College. I thereby gained au insight into school methods as applied under varying conditions from the ordinary decorum o,f tho children in the bettor part of London, to the waifs and strays gathered in oh the streets to the schools in Slumlaiid, where the first pressing need of tho child is attended to, viz., a bath and a change of clothing. The teachers iv these latter schools are worthy of the highest praise for the good work they carry on, both in and out of school. The language of tho street urchin is quite unintelligible to ordinary ears and it requires months of patient work to teach tho child to think and speak in English. Once thjs difficulty is overcome, progress is fairly rapid, for tho children aro for most part naturally bright and intelligent.

AVhen visiting Glasgow I made a point of seeing some of tho big elementary schools, and found it interesting to compare- the Scotch methods with those of the English.