EDUCATION ON THE CONTINENT.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLII, Issue 91, 16 April 1908, Page 5

EDUCATION ON THE CONTINENT.

THE INSPECTOR-GENERAL'S IMPRESSIOx^S. INTERESTING TALK WITH THE TEACHERS. At the Teachers' Training School this morning, Mr Hogben, InspectorGeneral of Schools, gave a most interesting address embodying his observations of educational methods and standards in Europe, in the course oi: his recent tour of the world. He commenced by referring to a school lie entered in Port Said, where the lessons were all conducted in Arabic —and, as he gathered, noisy Arabic at that. The usual contribution boxes not being observable at the entrance of this school, he offered the teacher a silver coin. What was his dismay to note that the teacher pocketed the donation, at the same time casting a hurried glance about him to see if he were observed. Mrs j Hogben had remarked that that was i the last the cause of education in | Port. Said would see of the silver j coin ■•■'•.

Passing on throughl various countries, including Germany and Switzerland, the lecturer took up his quarters in Home, where he stayed for some time. When one reached Italy one got to a country in which education was at all sorts of stages. He supposed they would hardly find any worse schools than there were in Italy. The people were poor and the conditions different from those in Great Britain or New Zealand. Indeed, in the country schools there was, very little,to learn. When he got to Rome, however, he thought to find a little improvement, but very much the same style of things' was niet with there—at first. After going around the schools for a little: time; however, he found, to his- utter astonishment, that a great many of the schools were exceedingly good, and well worth attention. There he saw one of the hest elementary schools on the Continent. He also saw in Rome the best secondary school on the Continent—Germany and Switzerland not excepted. He therefore thought it .worth.while spending three, whole days isi tho large secondary school, called T.lm Licep Diseonti. Now, there were some ways in which all the schools of the Continent were superior to tho average school in Great Britain—not only in respect to primary schools, but to all kinds. On,e thmg they excelled in Avas the training they gave the children in the oral uso of the mother tongue— lie was not speaking of the written language, but the or ail. And he did not think they needed to make an exception in the case qf New Zealand. They, must recognise ; the superiority of the schools of the Continent in this respect, and profit by it. How was it that the secondary school pupil of 18 or 19 years in Rome • ..-ould orally treat of subjects they had been taught in a way that pupils in New Zealand of a like age could not do ? After he had been to the Lieeo Disconti.±wo or three days and got to know all the classes and the masters and pupils, he was asked if hs should like to see a science lecture, a weekly event in the highest class, where the ages of the pupils would be from 17 to 19 year's. There were only six or seven girls, for the school had only been lately opened to the- fairer sex, and as a consequence they were slightly senior in years to the boys—say, 21 or 22 years old. The lecture' was on physics—the discoveries in electricity from the year 1882 till 1905. The science teacher, himself a distinguished physicist, gave the lecture, and it was illustrated by experiments of a kind that could not be excelled m any college in. New Zealand. These were carried out by four senior pupils, who illustrated the discoveries of Tesla, Marconi, Sir Wm. Ramsay, and others. He was rather inclined to think the lecture had been got" up for a purpose, but on perusing the syllabus found that it was in its appointed sequence. After a two-hours' lesson one of the senior boys was asked to stand up and give an account of the lecture. This he did by summarising the lecture in a masterly manner, his remarks,' given with a clearness of enunciation and perfection of pronunciation that was delightful, occupying a space, of about 15 minutes. At Mr Hogben's instance a not particularly apt-look-ing boy was invited to deal with a part of the lecture not touched upon by the " signior," or first boy, and this he did readily and fluently, after having stood for several minutes cogitating in silence. This deliberate act of preparatoiy thought- seemed to strike no one as being peculiar; it was an every-day feature of the school life. The boy could not have

been reciting a briefer lesson, for he (Mr Hogben) had the ' lesson books before him. The master afterwards assured him that most of the pupils 'could/uo. similarly. Being asked if he should like to hear one of the girls put to a test, he selected Signorita v Campanello, the daughter of the physician who had been attending Mrs Hogben in Rome; She was one of the brightest girls in the school. He asked her to giye her ideas of any practical xises in life to which any of the scientific discoveries had been put to and could he put to. He spoke in French—for he did not desire the New Zealand Department of Education to be brought into even slight disrepute by the utterance of bad Italian—and" the pupil understood perfectly. Some of the points she made he understood clearly, and she set forth some of the practical uses of wireless telegraphy and other discoveries, and actually explained the means whereby it could be used, showing/there was no doubt in her mind. He was satisfied, however, that there was one weak point in the science lessons, common to all the schools of the Continent—not enough practical demonstration. The explanations were clear, and in the case of the Italians there was a natural freedom of style tha^t served for set demonstrations. This lack was particularly noticeable in Germany.

Referring to language, Mr Hogben proceeded to point out the encouragements the young Romans received from their classic environments to learn the dead language. He described how, seeing a monument that supplied the key to an allusion in an ode from Horace learned by the lecturer when a young man, he went into the secondary school, and asked one of the boys, who were learning the very same ode that moment, if there was any monument on the Capitol that was the subject of the allusion referred to. The boy replied with great intelligence, giving the history of the family of which the original of the monument had been a member, and telling the class all about it. He had gone rather far, however, and added some observations of his own volition A second boy. rising, remarked chat he thought the added comments

were out of place, and only " irrele■vant rhetoric," as they should say. The master said the second boy's comments were fair criticism.

Everywhere, said the lecturer, he had found the same power to explain clearly what had been seen. In this way both "nature observation" and "language" lessons were taught. He gave an instance. One day he had observed a black cloud in the sky, which afterwards turned out to be a cloud of birds. The swallows had come; and they ssttled down in the beautiful gardens of the Palace of Queen Marguerita. The people of the streets behaved like children, and everywhere exclamations of joy were heard. "The swallows have come." "The swallows have come from Africa." The "sweet and gushing children of nature," as Artemus Ward had called them, were beside themselves with delight. A few days later, he visited a model Roman school, where there were IyOO children, divided amongst 76 teachers. It was in a building of five storeys, and was known as Queen Helena's School. In the "maternal" clasSj containing 27 or 28 gir,ls of the age of six years, the children were supposed to have reached tne stage of "observation and expression." Thej were asked a question upon something, and the teacher insisted upon the proper reply, the proper expression, and upon complete, sentences.- I'he first little girl, a child of six years and eight months, was asked what she had seen on Saturday. She replied in seven clear and connected sentences. "I saw the swallows come ; "I think they came from Africa" ; "They are small birds with large wings"; "they are white underneath," etc.-—stating definitely all she knew of the matter. The development of the faculty of observation proceeded throughout the twelve years of the school course —the "gymnasio," as it was caned —and it was little wonder if at the age of 17 or 18, pupils could give such lucid and correct accounts of lectures tney had heard. The vowels had to be properly sounded, and the language heard was as good as that of the Minister for Education (Sienor Rava) himself. Language expressing what had been observed—that was what they strived after.

Now, concluded the speaker, if they could in New /Zealand gst hold of that idea, without losing any of the good things they possessed, they should get all they mean by composition and all they meant by nature study. Their language lessons were related to, what tiiey had seen just before in" the school grounds •or in tlie streets. If they could get that they should hove secured something even from a people they regarded as being at a low ebb in educational matters. ' '

Mr Hogben is again addressing the .teachers this afternoon, dealing with I his observations in England x and"1 America. , . • i