EDUCATING TEE YOUNG

New Zealand Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15501, 7 January 1914, Page 8

EDUCATING TEE YOUNG

PLEA FOR CQMMONSENSE.

THE FIRST ESSENTIALS.

HEALTH AND GOOD PHYSIQUE.

CHANGE IN SYSTEM ADVOCATED.

" The man in the street who watches the round-shouldered, narrow-chested, pale, and anaemic-looking boys who are certified as proficient, going up Wellesley Street to carry on their work at the Grammar School, is apt to shrug his shoulders and long for a new regime in which commonsense plays a part/' said Mr. H. A' E. Milnes, principal of the Auckland Trailing College, in an address on "-Commonsense in Education," which he delivered to the New Zealand Educational Institute yesterday. "Commonsense demands," h<- continued, "that the acquisition of a good physique should be the very first essential of any system of education, instead of which it brings up the rear, receiving only tardy recognition because it is found that, without a certain amount of health, studies are interfered with. Commonsense wants a totally different attitude towards the care of the body, an attitude that will no longer be content with the quarter of an hour per day devoted to physical culture, but will pub physical development first, even taking precedence over that fear-some-fetish. Arithmetic with a capital A. It wants the enthusiasm both of teacher and taught, an earnest desire to see children well-developed, well-nourished, full of energy and 'go,' able to run and swimchildren who understand that fresh air is good for them, and who will not breathe foul air either in the home, the school, or the workshop. Arousing public opinion is the only way by which those who proudly boast Of the aumber of certificates of this and that examination shall be discountenanced, and instead an aim made to turn out the greatest number of happy, healthy children, sound in wind and limb."

Overcrowded Schools. Mr. Milr — ->roceeded to discuss the attention * " .en to the care of the lu_ _ ~ ~-.ve organs of children. Many schoolrooms were overcrowded, and tired and listless children required to be constantly spurred on to nenewed effort, in an attempt to ward off the drowsiness brought on by breathing vitiated air. A remedy suggested by the speaker was the adoption of a new type «f building, known as the fresh-air school. Wherever teaching in the open-air had been tried the result was always the same —the increased efficiency of work done. He went on to speak of the value to health of tuition in swimming and school gardening. The. average school desks, he Laid, were apt to be instruments of torture to the unfortunate children who were compelled to sit-in them hour after hour, and * vast change might be made for the better. The system of teaching writing with the pen pointing toward the shoulder was strongly criticised, on the ground that it was an unnatural, position, and encouraged children to twist their bodies. " Accumulation of Facts." " Granted that commonsense should hold sway in our schools," he continued, " then a complete revolution in attitude towards education will follow.' Instead of it being confined to the accumulation of facts, mostly of little value, attention will be mainly directed to turning out healthy, happy children. The standard of work now reached will not suffer, because the children, ..being in better health and under better conditions, will be able to keep up with their "lessons with less effort than m now required. Better health will mean more happiness, more enjoyment of life, less of life's shadows, and more of its sunshine, and this will react on parents so that the whole world will be the trig' »er. Each child will realise how important it is to keep in good. health; he will take a pride in his body, and be desirous of making it a fit casket for his mind." Mr. Mikes concluded bis address by explaining to the teachers certain apparatus which could be procured without much expense, for the encouragement of chest expansion, and also produced a desk and seat, the latter, being_so shaped that a child could not do other than sit up straight in it.