EDUCATION IN OTHER LANDS

Marlborough Express, Volume XLII, Issue 92, 18 April 1908, Page 7

EDUCATION IN OTHER LANDS

THE INSPECTOR-GENERAL'S ADDRESS. On Thursday afternoon Mr Hogben delivered the second portion of his j address, giving his opinions of the! working of schools on the Continent, in America, and in England. He commenced by saying that the same feature which struck him prominently in the schools of Italy was also noticeable in those of Switzerland, France and Germany. That was the manner in which the pupils were taught the use of the mother tongue. It was not .narrowed down to the mere conventionalities of speech, but the pupils were taught to use their powers of observation and to describe things seen by them. In Germany, however, he noticed that the teachers were rather more strict as to the form of the language used, and he had seen a boy somewhat sharply pulled ■up for using what was considered to be not quite grammatical language. This was perhaps owing to the military system which pervaded everything in Germany, and was responsible for the thoroughness which,was shown everywhere. That was a lesson that the teachers in New Zealand could learn. There was one thing which we in New Zealand were not in any great fear of, and that was overwork. When we remembered that the German schoolboy worked from 32 to 38 hours a week, it would he understood that he had sometimes noticed a look of fatigue at the end of a day's work. In Switzerland there was one point which stood out prominently, and that was civics. It twas woven into the life of the school, and became a part of the pupil's every-day life. For example,.there were in certain towns special industries, as, for instance, at Geneva, , where they made watches, and somehow you felt by the associations of the industries in! the pupils' minds that it was a place wherte they could and did make' watches. It seemed to be part of the life of the community. In New Zealand our trade formed one compartment of life, and our school another, and so on, but in Switzerland the two went hand in hand, and though it was but a small country, he doubted whether even Germany could conquer it, so much had the military system become a part of the national life. Another method of teaching that was made great use of in Switzerland was the school walk. The pupils .were taken out by a teacher, but not put under rigid control, and were allowed fully to use their power of observation. He remembered having seen one in Berne and one in Frankfort where a number of little dots were taken for a walk of about half a mile, and one in New. Zealand might learn a good deal from this method of teaching. '' The speaker next briefly referred'to the Berlin and other school, museums, which were worthy of many towns in New. Zealand. Of all the drawing in the schools every bit was from nature—nothing-'1 fronv copies. That kind of thing was gradually disappearing from all ,the best schools. Referring to the British schools, the Inspector-General/ said he, visited schools in Birmingham, Cardiffj Manchester, Glasgow, and London. In the Michael Faraday School, London, no arithmetic was done by means of slate or paper in standards up to and including the fourth. / It was all blackboard and mental arithmetic. The blackboard was an even greater feature of American schools. The freedom in arithmetic at the Faraday School wars something to enthuse over. They had no rules but one, and that was in; simple addition. He wished they in New Zealand could get rules out of their .heads. The children of those schools knew numbers in a concrete way, too, and one could not puzzle them with any number up to 100. The work was very good indeed. Another feature of the Faraday School was the development 'of oral composition. It was equal to • that of the. Continent. In the upper classes of that school he saw in operation a system that might with immense advantage be copied in New Zealand. For two-thirds of the school day the individual boy was'allowed, to work out some subject he had chosen. He had-full liberty to go to the reference library' pf the school and investigate /to his heart's content, making notes the whole. One boy had elected to investigate the tramcar system, and had got together in a month's time a remarkable amount of edifying information about the subject, which was read to the other boys at the end of the period. Another boy would take literature, and so on. In New Zealand, as in Germany, they were apt in their enthusiasm to over-teach the children. They should be allowed to work things out for themselves. What a benefit such a system would be in the country school where there were many classes and a sole teacher! Of school gardens Mr Hogben had much to say. He saw only two in France,, and these were in the most noxious stages of weediness. One presentable gardeh he did catch sight of, but, found on inquiry that it was kept solely to supply the master's table with vegetables. .(Laughter.) In Germany he did see gardens that \ were well used for the purpose of getting eihibits for object lessons, but nowhere on the Continent did he really see the children in the position of proprietor^ of the gardens, though he believed such conditions were to be found m Austria, Hungary and I foilicia. In England, Canada, and America there were good gardens. He thought that at the present day *6W ~ealand had a better proportion ! or school gardens than any other! country. Whether they were used as they might be was a question. i THE AMERICAN SCHOOLS. Mr Hogben then took his hearers in imagination to America. The longer he was there the more he felt how English the people were. He felt this more in the United States even than in Canada. He meant this oy_ the term ''English", the underiin€ genius of the race came out in ail the Americans did. It was simply ■} , tney were Anglo-Saxon. Their ideal of school work, from the elementary schools up to the universities, was that education was a means or developing social efficiency. That was the aim, and it was a very noble one, (sometimes it might be given JJmS On- 1U a.r«%io«s form, and SSL5ftl le? cy all the same. It infPr?fLf^ T m^ ods and their subSo%s^ I all- he saw of the b6st §X l/rf 1 they suited the .British people better for examines than did those of foreigners The child was not being merely prepared ror life; he was living hiTife now as an American citizen. And • not merely as an American citizen but as a citizen of the world He found a readiness amongst Americans to criticise themselves, and not only outsiders. , •* At the George C. Putnam School,

Roxburgh, Massachusetts, which he visited, and where he met Mr Clatt, the well-known writer on educational subjects, nature study was being develpped right through the school. It was hard to say which lessons were nature study and which not, for ■it entered into the whole study of the school. There were three school gardens of different kinds. One was for observation, one for ; ascetic observation, and one for demonstration purposes. He saw these three things in combination also in Canadian schools. In New Zealand these three things could be combined, as we had a better climate;

He happened to visit the Putnam School on a children's day, and throughout the day the teacher did no questioning; it was all done by the pupils, aged about 14 years. In English they were distinctly ahead of what in New Zealand teacher^ usually got. He had felt very humble" indeed. They practised composition in a much freer way than he had seen in Germany and Italy. It was done on these children's days. In arithmetic lessons questions were asked involving measurement and weight. Each question was set by a boy and put by him, while all the class had to work it. Then the one who had set the question had to demonstrate it on the blackboard. Then others criticised,' and the teacher gently guided the whole proceedings—never led them, merely gave a word here and there. Some of those children had demonstrated clearly and beautifully the methods they had used. They were free to one another, but very polite; always speaking in the third person, always to the " chair." He had inspected their notes. The system distinguished between note-taking and notemaking. The children had to "make" their own notes, never being allowed to "take" notes. Each pupil's .book was a record, in his own expressions, of the work done during the year. The teacher, of course, corrected and inspected the notes. The Ejiglish work ""was very well done. One never heard a word of ."grammar" in the school. They said we had too much grammar. After having be6n " slated " for the way he had abolished grammar in New Zealand he had found this very 'refreshing. . In conclusion, Mr Hogben said he had said very little about the good features of the New Zealand system. He had rather hoped they would get some benefit from what they saw in other systems. The address was concluded amidst applause. At the instance of Mr Strachan, a, hearty vote of thanks was accorded the Inspector-General for his interesting addresses.