TECHNICAL TRAINING.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15521, 31 January 1914, Page 10

TECHNICAL TRAINING.

PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS.

THE MONTESSOKI SYSTEM.

DOMESTIC SERVICE PROBLEM. , [BY TEr.EGEAPH.—OWN COHRESPONDENT.] ' Wanoanui, Friday. Educationalists will, be interested in several important suggestions which Mr. 0. D. Braik, director of education, has made to the Wanganui Board as a result of his recent trip to Australia, particularly with regard to the training of infants, agricultural education, and the way in which the domestic problem might be successfully overcome. He recommends : 1. That sense training, according to the spirit and method of the Montessori system, should supplement training in nature study, chiefly with a view to the provision of an improved basis for instruction in ordinary school subjects. 2. That when Miss Alexander returns from Sydney the mistresses of the larger schools visit the Central Infants' School at Wanganui for the purpose of studying the spirit and method of the Montessori system. 3. That the board should consider the expediency of establishing separate agriculture schools. The present system of according education in district high schools was a compromise by which book work and agricultural pupils alike suffer. It should be possible for pupils leaving the primary schools to receive on education that would fit them to enter on agricultural pursuits at the age of 16 or 17. The agricultural colleges would look for their supply of students not so mudP to the agricultural schools as to the secondary schools. 4. That the system of woodwork instruction should be remodelled with a view to bringing it into more immediate touch with the everyday lives of pupils. 5. That other boards of the Dominion be communicated with to find out whether they would agree to co-operation in the production of school desks. 6. That to give finality to the work of the girls taking the domestic course at district high schools an effort should be made to give them some insight into the entire range of household management. In connection with the latter proposition Mr. Braik makes the following observations:—" Through the kindness of farmers and others our boys are in a position to learn at first land the management and judging of stock, sheep shearing and wool classing, butter and cheese making, and orcharding. Would it be too much to expect some of our householders to hand over, as a running concern, their houses and housekeeping for a short period to our domestic course girls, under the direction of their instructors, so that the girls may have the opportunity of learning the complete art of Housekeeping? The suggestion, if realised, would at least solve the domestic problem for a time."