CORRESPONDENCE.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XLV, Issue XLV, 21 March 1910, Page 2

CORRESPONDENCE.

OVERWORK FOR SCHOOL CHILDREN. TO THE EDITOR, Sir-All wiil cordially agree with Mr Magiuriity that it is highly desirable that the ehildi'L'ii of our primary schools should not suffer from over-pressure of work'; for sound health is of far more importance than learning. But in combatting the suggestion thrown out at the recent conference to lengthen slightly the school hours, is he not, to use a colloquialism, barking up the wrong tree? Only one inspector, 1 believe, was in favour of increasing the number of hours, and though the Inspector-General has suggested that the upper standards might be given a little more time in schools, he has also staled that a« a result of his personal'observation, he considers the' long hours devoted to school work in Germany a greaUmVbkc.

In Fairness t;> IMr Heghen it may bo pointed rut lh:it the w.H'k in our schools is vastly in- !•(■ interesting and varied tlian it was a. tow yours ago. While it makes much obiter demands upon the tact and skid of th,, tcaclier. it is Far less arduous and irksome for the pupil. It is the teacher rather than the child who \v;;u!d sulFcr from over-pressure, were the hours mewed. Of course this will he uninMligible t;i those two sapient membeis of our Education Board who recently slated (hat tea<hers had to work merely fi\e hours a. day: but (he fairly frequent cases of nervous hr-as-d.'wn anions teachers might have indicated to then on" rerson w!iy there are often so few applh-aiiU for vacant seh/ois. namely. !h" hou-'s out of school which a teacher has to devote to the preparation of lessons and cowl inn of' exercises. But the many reforms that ha\e been instituted during the past few years—the abolition of the percentage of passes, the granting of freedom of classification, the great improvement in the syllahus—all these have tended to reduce greatly the pressure of work upon the average pupil. There is. however, one most pernicious f:rm of over-pressure that still exists in our schools and to which Mr Maginnily might well direct his attention, namelv, the cramming up of candidates for the vorious scholarships and bursary examinations. These competitive examinations for children of 12 and 13 arc altogether harmful. The most precocious of our children—the very ones who ought rather to be driven out to play-are stimulated to spend in severe study the time they ought to give to recreation. Some teachers give promising children a great deal of extra work for two years previous to their competing for. a scholarship, and cases have been known of a teacher taking such candidates to live with him, so that every odd moment of the jay might he employed in a little coaching. Needless to say. Mich pupils seldom or never do well in after Jife. But the teacher of course gets a great deal of kudos and, what is more important to him, rapid promotion. The evils of our scholarship competition has been fully d'scussed at meetings of the New Zealand Educational Institute, and the .Minister of Education has been tisked to abolish them root and branch. A few weeks ago the conference of educational experts held in Wellington passed a resolution to the same effect, but the discussion dwelt rather upon the financial than the educational aspect of the (picslion. It was pointed out that the free place system rendered scholarships to a large extent superfluous,« while a great deal of money was practically washd in paying examiners, supervisors, hire of rooms, etc. It is a remarkable fact that Sir J. J. Thomson, probably England's foremost man of science at the p-esent day, should have recently declared that one of the greatest impediments to the advance of science that exists in England, is the huge series of science scholarships that are granted at the English Universities to successful candidates in competitive examinations. According to Sir J. J. Thomson, the cramniiii'/ necessary to secure a scholarship deprives the student of all originality and enthusiasm, and these, he has pointed out. are qualities far more valuable than mere profundity of knowledge. But