OUR EDUCATION SYSTEM.

Greymouth Evening Star, 16 May 1906, Page 1

OUR EDUCATION SYSTEM.

\ SVSOOI OF CRAM AM) RRRAKDOWN. DENIED BY INSPECTOR COYNE. DEEMS THE SPUR AN ESSENTIAL. DR. OGSTON SUPPORTS DR. KINO, [ll\ TEI.EGK.U'H— SPECIAL TO THE STAIt.] Dl NEDIN. Tin's Day. inicrvu'wcd by a Star reporter with respco to Dr Trul.y King’s indictment, concerning over-study in onr schools, Mr I . Coven (Chief Inspector of Schools) s.i\a (he eases cited by Dr King in support of his condemnation of onr educational system are, unfortunately, too true n’t to my thinking they do not establish ins thesis. They certainly show that of many hundred scholarship winners, two are now inmates of an asylum, hut they do not. 1 think, p rove a casual connection between our educational system and the unfortunate, condition of the inmates The

eases in question are, E think, well known to me, and from what I know of the temperaments and circumstances of the patients. I may, I think, hazard the suggestion that the effective causes of (heir lunacy are discoverable outside onr educational system. Failure of brain may he attributed to causes that are so deep-sealed in inheritance, (hat are made openly operative only by circumstances, or abuse of circumstances, in which the Train has to work in a highly organised system of education, one must discriminate between cause and occasion. AnyTow, an adequate diagnosis of all such eases seems lo me to require that we should take into account many things besides onr system of education, as for example, home and social environment, and heriditarv, with all its power ami tendencies. The words of Dr King, how ever, ought (o he a warning (o parents of highly-strung, eager-minded, nmbiti ons children, whose physique is not Drong enough to bear the strain of comP'litive examinations. In most, if not in «T. cases of breakdown, responsibility li s. 1 believe, much more with the parents than with schools and system of ed’iealion. In the case of an 'Average i odd there need bo no alarm, for lie will d i just what he most, and no more that "'ill pass the tna •tor in his class. He >'■ eds the spur .not (ho curb. As I read Dr King’s address, the education given in 0 r schools is one of unmitigated cram. 1 do not agree, or do mv colleagues. We c u hi not so rharai lerist ise the work ..one c en in (he worst of them.

Dr Ogston, District Health Officer, and formerly on the professional staff at (he O'ago University, on (he other hand, en dorses what the superintendent at o i ■ b'Y Asylum has staled. lie says I lie whole system is cramming to pass ex-

p' dilations, mid not assimilating know- I h'lge to lie used in after file. Therefore, < 1 1 " system leads to a waste of energy ami I n 1 Hood result, I speak of what 1 know, i Mane young .students have come In me ; 'in their University course, and [ have l sen the evil elfeels of cramming. 1 take ’ oer system to he cramming without edn- j cation. At Home they are abolishing (he I pass system because they found it useless. As regards our primary schools, I have had to advise to take their ■ i hildren from school, hecan.se they were being over stimulated hy examinations. | The work of our primary and secondary schools is unscientific and burdensome, and it, nonsense to give scholarships to ! pupils who gain only 50 per cent of the. attainable marks, it is also a waste of time to push ou such pupils. Nature lias | not meant such children to cram. I am I aware schoolmasters think on the sub- I feet as wo doctors do, that it would he ' far wiser to train pupils just to the ox- ; tent of their capacity and lot dull ones stop when they have absorbed as much i learning as they can. Treated in that ' • way the boys who are not smart at exanimation work would often shine in .something else, if not pressed on to a break-down stage They would gel a fair chance. Some of them would makegood business men if set that way, instead of going forced into the wrong groove. I have in my mind a colleague of my own, who had to confess to being a failure at class work. He went up for examination at the same time as myself, and had to • roly on cribbing to scrape through. His people bad the’ good sense to see his deficiency, and they put him into acomimercial house, and as a young man ho ■was able to return from Ceylon with a ■ fortune. That man if compelled to go through with his University studies would probably have lost heart, and become a failure. Another case comes to my memory of a man who could pass examinations without any trouble at all, but when lie went to apply bis knowledge bv taking to teaching, bo proved no good, and shaped so badly that his nupils derided him and pelted him with snowballs. Ho left the teaching, and became one of the smartest'literary men in-Lon-don. Luckily, bo found out in time his true vocation. Think, too. of the pitiable case of William Smith. Ho and I were at college together. He was (ho most brilliant student of his year. He won a lot of scholarships, went in for the church, became a professor at Aberdeen, and published in the “Encyclopedia Britannica” an article that was regarded as heretical After that ho went to Cambridge as a lecturer. He was the most brilliant Oriental scholar of his day. \ou have heard of his sad end. He died worn out at middle age. His brother, another clever man, died from the same cause before he got his degree.