CENTRAL SCHOOLS.

Northern Advocate, 19 June 1920, Page 4

CENTRAL SCHOOLS.

SUGGESTED FOR THE COUNTRY

ACHIEVEMENTS IN OTHER LANDS

Interesting sidelights on the achievements possible under a system of centralisation of schools in the rural districts were thrown by the Director of Education (Dr. W. J. Anderson) in the course of a general commentary oa educational matters at the sitting of the Council of Education. He emphasised that for post primary education: the scholars in the country districts must be brought together .11 some central institution. We were not any nearer to the ideal of centralised schools than we were a number of years ago. One difficulty in the way was the matter of the conveyance of children to centralised schools, and this unfortunately had been accentuated by the conditions that obtained after the war. At the same time, despite this and other difficulties, he was convinced that they should consistently keep before thhir minds the question of having centralised schools of superior character for intermediate and primary education "dotted all over the country."

To achieve this ideal was not impossible. It had been realised all over America. In the State of Massachusetts, for instance, the single-room school had entirely disappeared. In another Slate the conditions were very much the same: some 5000 children were being daily conveyed to a centralised school, and something like 700 small schools had been closed, and approximatey from 350 to 400 vehicles constantly employed in conveying the children.

SOCIAL AND INTELLECTUAL LIFE

Dr. Anderson declared that a school of that kind might be made, not merely a centre for day school instruction, but also a centre of intellectual and social life for the adult community in the immediate surroundings. There might bo evening lectures and something in the direction of the culture of music and aesthetic taste generally, the same as obtained in the Canadian and United States schools. Thorc was no need in the cities of the Dominion to combine the primary and intermediate schools, the number of children being sufficient to justify separate institutions.

Touching on another point, Dr. Anderson said that he did not think any serious opposition could be offered to the centralisation of professional courses in one school, and in another school courses of the type dealt with in technical colleges. Such instruction should be given to children between the ages of 12 and 15, or 13 and 15 years. The course of instruction that they should set out to provide for all children, except the ones ricked out for scholarships and the like, should be a continuation of tho primary school courses on advanced lines. He had in his mind the cultivation of literary habits, and composition; the development of arithmetic to elementary mathematics; history and civics; and drawing which was no longer an ornamental feature of the school curriculum. Tho course should also include some-

thing about science.