READING AND WRITING

Marlborough Express, Volume XLIX, Issue 283, 30 November 1915, Page 3

READING AND WRITING

FACTORS IN EDUCATION,

BUT WEAK POINT IN EDUCA-

TION SYSTEM

COMMENT BY MINISTER

A matter that has engaged the attention of a great many parents and business people was mentioned by the Minister for Education ' (Hon. J. A. Hanan) to a New Zealand Times reporter. Mr Hanan said that his own experience of the public; schools, both as a citizen interested in educational j matters and as Minister in charge of the Department, had convinced him that the children were not always getting the training they should receive in two elementary but highly ! important subjects—reading: and ! writing. Recently he had paid a visit to some of the Taranaki schools and j he bad paid special attention to these subjects when he was seeing what the ! children could do. The schools varied, as might be expected, but 'he had been more than ever convinced that reading, " writing and composi- ! tion should be better taught than , they were at the present time. . » I '/Reading, which affords the best I training for botls teacher and pupil, I ■ appear in some schools to be the I ! weakest taught branch of school work," said Mr Hanan. "While fluency is fairly general, distinct utterance is rare, and an intelligent grasp of the lessons is still rarer. The correct enunciation • and! pronunciation of words do not appear to be , well taught. The subject is one that | ought to receive special attention, i for it gives wide opportunities to the \ teacher and makes demands upon the intelligence of the children. A boy who is reading in a mechanical, monotonous tone of voice is not at all likely to have an appreciation or even j .a real understanding of the sentence ; he is uttering. I have heard many scholars in the public schools read as though they were not mentally awake. ;. "In some schools, of course, I have ! found'the reading matter well select"cd and well understood. But in other schools the teachers seemed to be very easily satisfied. I feel sure that the power to reduce thoughts to definite terms and to express them clearly ' and fluently would be promoted if . there were more questioning and oral [ answering in the schools. I don't , want to see the schools making pub--1 lie speakers necessarily, but the.chil-1-dren would feel the benefit in after | life if they were taught in the ) schools to-express themselves confiI dently arid accurately in speech. 1 | know that the people who have to employ the young people and fit thorn I into the industrial and economic life of the nation would appreciate training of this kind. "The weaknesses of the school ■ training with regard to writing have been mentioned again and a wain. There are some schools where the subject is taught . well, but speaking generally it does not 'receive enough attention. /Nine-tenths of the writing done by the adult is the writing of different kinds of letters, yet many of the children, particularly the boys, leave school without having learned to write a good"letter. No child can be considered a creditable production of our State schools if, when he leaves, he is not able to read well, calculate well and write a well spelt letter or a. methodical report tin on things which ho has seen or heard." The minister mentioned! that he was issuing some instructions to *his officers upon these points with a view to securing improvement. The reading and writing of the school children ought to have the serious attention of the educational authorities.