THE CRUSADE AGAINST CRAM

Greymouth Evening Star, 17 May 1906, Page 1

THE CRUSADE AGAINST CRAM

HI!. KING'S VIEWS ENDORSED. [IIY TELEGUAPIt—SPECIAL TO I'IIE Sl'AP..] CHRSTChTuRCH, Tins Day. Asked for his opinion of Dr Trilby King's lecture on over-study, Dr Levinge, formerly superintendent at Kunnvside, generally endorsed the former's .statement as to the high pressure of our education scheme being a fruitful source of mental deterioration, tending to exhaust, the nervous energy anil vital forces in the voting. 'I he chief difficulty was the anxiety of schoolmasters to get the best possible results. Comparatively few brains could stand the strain of our complex educational system. Parents were often to blame for the disposition to sacrifice the future of their children for too early education. The net result was that the disease of neurosis was increasing. In many eases the children inherited such weakness that it helped early deterioration under pressure. The best remedy against oversi tidy was attention to physical development. Mr Hardie (headmaster of the West Christehurch School) defended the primary system as allowing great freedom to teachers, and declared that the spirit of the present syllabus was opposed to cram. The high standard of the junior university scholarship presupposes an exceedingly largo amount of study over and above ordinary school work. Parents should not, make scholarships their sole aim, and the Slate might well consider the question of ■■pending the money now expended on candidates ch'osen more on the lines of the Rhodes scholars.