STRONG INDICTMENT

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXI, 29 October 1926, Page 5

STRONG INDICTMENT

OP MODERN EDUCATIONAL METHODS

CHILDREN FATrqUED (By' Telegraph.—Special to "The Mail.”) CHRISTCHURCH, This Day. Present day educational methods were castigated by Professor J. Shelley and Dr. Douglas Aiiderson at a meeting of the Parents' National Education Union. .Professor Shelley, dealing with Ihe subject of fatigue from overwork, stated that towards the end of the war (he British Government, with the object of increasing the output- in munition lactones in England, abolished overtime. Greater efficiency was obtained through the elimination of fatigue. Industrial psychology had now become a science and was recognised as a power for good in the manufacturing world. Unfortunately, school children did not come under the same wise provision, and girls and hoys were regularly inliguetl at school to the, detriment of their bodily and mental health. Fully 20 per cent, n-f the children during the first year at school increased neither in weight nor height. Athletics could be grouped •with mathematics as a Unit cause of fatigue in children. The examination fetish should he abolished and (he individuality of the child given more scope for development. If homework were done away with the child could have more leisure for creative effort and the expression of the individual would be more concrete. After (he school period was past many children were at a leas and did not know how to employ their time. They were not educated til all. This was a strong indictment of modern educational methods, hut results showed that neither the creative nor the expressive side of the children’s natures had been cultivated.

Dr. Douglas Anderson gave examples of children who were overworked, particularly in Lite matter of homework. Many such cases had come under his notice.