The Star. Delivered every evening by 5 o'clock in Hawera, Manaia, Normanby, Okaiawa, Eltham, Mangatoki, Kaponga, Awatuna, Opunake, Otakeho, Manutahi, Alton, Hurleyville, Patea, Waverley. SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 1913. PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXV, Issue LXV, 15 November 1913, Page 4

The Star. Delivered every evening by 5 o'clock in Hawera, Manaia, Normanby, Okaiawa, Eltham, Mangatoki, Kaponga, Awatuna, Opunake, Otakeho, Manutahi, Alton, Hurleyville, Patea, Waverley. SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 1913. PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION.

It is interesting to find that principles which have been too much belied by actual educational methods in New Zealand, yet consistently upheld in the Dominion by public writers and others, are steadfastly insisted on by some Oi the most thoughtful men in the Or.Country, where school work has also been too much at variance with true education. Not long since a leading educationist in England said that tlie assumption that all children were fitted to profiT by more than the rudiments of academic education was, he believed. responsible for many of our present difficulties. His own opinion was that in the matter of primary education we ; -were proceeding in the wrong order, in that we gave greater prominence to the acquisition of knowledge than to the derelopment of character. There was truth in Emerson's dictum that the best education was that which remained when everything learnt at school was forgotten. "\He thought the spirit of the great public secondary English schools ought to be introduced also into all the primary schools, so as to enable them to develop.amongst the pupils a sense of responsibility, a sense of discipline, and a standard of truthfulness and consideration.' In that connection he had (said the speaker) been much impressed by a report of the Warwick County Council on the establishment of the prefect system in the elementary schools of that, county. He quoted from the head teacher's remarks, and pointed to an instance in which the boys themselves drew up their code of rules, the headmaster adding that he could not have produced better rules himself. Sir Robert Baden-Powell's Boy Scout movement was, in the speaker's opinion, rendering greater service than complicated State machinery in preparing those, who were brought within its influence for the struggles of life, and he thought it a matter for regret that so small a fraction of the children in public schools was able to share its benefits. This view has been upheld in New Zealand, as well as the speaker's other chief contention, that education should be devoted mainly to the opening out of intelligence and the development of character, with simple instruction limited to subjects bearing on the child's actual future life. But this philosophy does not dominate or pervade the Dominion's working school system, which therefore does not give a fair show to either teacher or pupil. Here and there 'there are exceptionally< situated schools at which it receives a reasonable chance to show its good effects, and when Dr E. H. Griffiths, from whose address at the British Association we have been quoting, was in Australia, he visited a great agricultural school whose principal told him that the aim of the institution was—firstly, to build up character in the boys, and, secondly, to instruct them in the science of agriculture. If the principle of this were applied to all school work in New Zealand, education^ would become a much simpler, more ra-. tional, more effective thing than it now is amongst us. But the change will surely come ere long, for many earnest minds are contributing to its evolution. Mr G. M. Thomson, the member for Dunedin North, recently made some well-timed observations on the subject in the House of Representatives. He pleaded for a closer recognition of the importance of the "character years" in a child's life. In this country, he said, parental control over the child had largely ceased, and all children enjoyed an enormous amount of freedom. This might have its good points, but it certainly had its bad points, and he believed that the problem of forming the character of children between 14 and 18 would, in the future, have to be resolutely faced. Parenthetically, Mr Thomson said that he supported the military system becausei he felt that it would morally benefit the young men and the whole community. There was a tendency now, he continued, to glorify children. It was a feature of the age, and it had its dangerous side. There was the tendency to make life too easy for children, that old saying, "It is a good thing for a man to endure hardness in his youth," being forgotten. The primary schools had abolished home lessons to a very large extent. Why, he could not understand. Indeed he looked upon it as a very regrettable thing, for its effect was to fill the picture shows, which, in his opinion, had a bad effect on boys and girls of school age. He also said that, in his opinion, simple means for the promotion and preservation of health were indispensable to the work of character-building and to effectiveness in all legitimate school work.. In fact, he believed that the day was fast coming when the country would recognise the necessity for open-air schools, in order to counteract the diseases to which, children are subject. We were, he thought, coming to the day when children would be trained to occupy rooms with perman-ently-opened windows, and the effect would be very valuable to the community. The fact that these and other kindred opinions are on the increase throughout the Dominion must be encouraging to those who desire to see the true principles of education ing and governing the school work.of the country.