EDUCATION COMMISSION.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXVI, Issue 11655, 10 June 1912, Page 4

EDUCATION COMMISSION.

. (Per Pbess Association.) ; . Auckland, June 8. . At the Educatio.Hi Commission Blanche Butler, .headmistress of the; Auckland Grammar School, saidi there was great need, for correlation of primary and secondary education. She thought teachers in the province ought to meet and' discuss methods so as to get the same uniformity. She thought it a mistake that girls should' be taught by male teachers. There are still several witnesses to he examined, and 1 at the present rate of progress the Commission will not get away from Auckland, before Tuesdav. Mr J. W. Tibbs,-head master of ■■the 1 Auckland Boys' = Grammar School,-sug-.. gested a system of a main secondary, school, with subsidiary schools. The latter should receive junior free place pupils; and the main school should re-;.' ceive the seniors. As the population; increased the subsidiary schools could; 1 ' become main schools. Education boards should' be relieved of the supervision of teclinioarodiicat-ion, and on a''board.- to; attend toV this matter- experts should have a place; Touching, on;, agrictil-'; tural instruction, witness,; as an old gardener, said be had. no'' faith; in 'a? book-taught.. cultivator. His idea ■'■oi-J school gardens was that.they ' were l a pleasant hobby for those scholars ; who -. could not take part in "school games. Their valuo to the agricultural community was- nil- The ground '•■■''■ would be much better taken up, by lives-courts, etc. If the -Governmenthnd a desire to benefit agriculture arid )horticul£ure - ;in the rural districts the' best way to do'.it would be to subsidise the societies which ■arranged, exhibitions in; these.branches. Mr Tibbs thought that. Nature study, could' be undertaken at 'too ' early- an age. Dealing with the-question of primary education in its relations to secbn-. dary education, and where it failed, lie said that in very few ..-primary schools was there any home work. The boy who had done home work, improved more rapidly that the 'boy- who had not-. It-was-'-.a- pity that.it had been, dropped,' and.were there was 'sure.. there was be a'niarkc.d:advantage iiii the' standard of a- ; boy's education-and'.more-keheral interest taken:in-that educatioir' (/f-aboy!s bad said'- the' classes;we|e/so big tfoatJnt'.wquld be-irapossible '^.superviseal'T : theC -home:work,btrt"'yiere,:were a number^of; subjects—poetry, coiiddtbo ; adyaritageously - studied!; at;hcme.' -Homo' : work 7 would exercise ar'salutary. .moral; influence on a. T boy's' life. Bbys> would - not rim ■'a'bout--'tbe'--^ree^,;"anoi l "it]wpuld : a iso .enable tlie^greaiestr-possible amount . (if .good, to :be 'obtained from our very, liberal system iof education. Manual and technical training'should, from .his . point".of vicw,_,rba left..-to continuation classes. It seemed to: him there was too' much "running about" in.cornice- 1 ■t-ioa _with priniary training." To harsj hobbieSi like swimniing,; gardening, and woodwork ''Hiring. - ; school -hours' would tend to riaUe a- boy Unsettled. Mr - Tibbs , madu "a strong plea- "for. the te ; ntion. ot ■;Latin, which lie regarded' as j standing to the literary, side as mathematics did to the scientific side. : If one were made a special subject then the other should also be made a special subject. He was not in favor of doing away altogether with" examinations, which were a "tonic." and enabled pu-; pil. and teacher to- know where they ivere. He was- in favor of scholarships. and felt that they we-ve stimulants to scholars and : teacnere.- •