OUR SCHOOL BOOKS. Should Uniformity be Aimed At?

Free Lance, Volume VIII, Issue 400, 29 February 1908, Page 6

OUR SCHOOL BOOKS. Should Uniformity be Aimed At?

THE question as to whethei we should secure uniformity of school books throughout the Dominion has for a long time excited discussion in the provinces from north Lo south ot New Zealand. The outgoing School Committees in every count: y town, as well as many of those in the larger centres, have left on record strong lesolutions on the subject. Almost without exception they have advised their successors to urge upon the authorities the necessity Oi providing a -uniform set of school books foi the scholars of the Dominion. Tbese Committees have in turn wrangled with the various provincial Educabion Boards about the matter, but so far with little satisfactory result. Under the present system there is practically no system, "which is a paradox." It is a very unsatisfactory state of affairs from more than one point of view. As matters are, the school books vary in the country districts. They are even different in various schools in the same district. A new School Committee, with their own ideas of what is the correct thing in this particular, will change the old order of their own whims and fancies. This is to the obvious detriment of the scholar whose text-book is changed, and also to the detriment of the purse in the large family. Instances have even been cited in which the books have varied in one school, where a teacher has contracted '"new notions." And why not? Since undei the present wretched system, or lack of system, the whole question of book furnishing is apparently left to the idynosyncracies of teacher, School Committee-man, chairman of the Board, or whoso Tisteth — excepting the scholar's parent. The parent's duty is to pay, and keep quiet. His child is being educated free of cost. What r;ght has he to complain? » • * From the school-teacher's point of view there is often plenty of argument. It may in some cases be to his interest to work m a change. Pressure is brought to bear by publishers and booksellers to dispose of their wares. They have got a new thing, and the head-master is convinced that it is a good thing. Almost any head-teacher can, if he chooses, get discount in cash upon a new installation of books or material. Who can blame him? He •><3 left to his own judgment, and certainly his opinion is as good, if not better, than the other fellow's. • • * But the anomaly goes on. The expenses of these changes mount up, and the big families feel it. The purchase of school books becomes a big item m large families year after year. We cannot afford to handicap and discourage big families. The Dominion wants more of them. But that is just what this present lack of system is doing. It requires stiaightpmng out. And the curious thing is that the Minister -for Education is against straightening it out. He piefers to see British and American books filling our schools, because the cost of setting up our own machinery and publishing our own books would be too great It is a strange position for him to take up, and quite unlike the hon. Minister to attempt to bolster up such an argument. It is a weak, tired thing Any industry that we can conseive to New Zealand is worth while every time. If American brains and industry are equal to the work, what warrant is there for the reflection that New Zealand could not meet her cwn requirements?

Another curious argument, and one that has been used by a section of the press against the uniformity of our public school books, is that uniformity i school books throughout the Dominion would limit teachers to certain set means of imparting knowledge, and would rob them of all initiative. In other words, siich a system would tend i keep education in a groove. Thisargument can be very fairly and strongly met. • • • Books, after all, are only the bases uf education. Many thousands of scholais master the problems of Euclid \eai after year, but they do not all become surveyois or architects. Unifomity of school books does not neoessanlv imply uniformity of mind. The rudiments of learning set out in textbooks only seiveto set the mind thinking upon correct principle lines. So much achieved, the education of the school book has done its part, and the the mind applies itself to any department it seeks. And further, there could always be a periodical uniform change arranged for by the several Boards of the Dominion. What the people need, and what they are very justifiably asking foor, is that the present lack of system and heaping up of" unnecessary expense should be abolished. The time is ripe for the change.