THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES MONDAY, FEBRUARY, 25, 1907. GRADING IN SCHOOLS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 13836, 25 February 1907, Page 4

THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES MONDAY, FEBRUARY, 25, 1907. GRADING IN SCHOOLS.

Generally speaking tlife necessity that childrert. should be educated in classfes at all is to be deplored ifl proportion to the size of siicli classes. The more numerous the pupils composing a class the less can the individual mental iieeds of each child he studied. On the other l\and, a gbod point about such ddufcation lies in tile stimulus of cbriipetitioii that it but ercn this only tends to make the lot of the sTowipupil more unsatisfactory. Tlio result of the present system admittedly is that the teacher struggling to raise a large class to a certain required standard'is continually hampered by tlio fact that between the power.of intellectual attainment of tile m'ost brilliant arid that of the lfcnst brilliant of tlio scholars under Ilis aire there is a wide raiige within which tile mental powers of the other pupils might be indicated with fair accuracy in a rising or falling scale. I'hfe present system is iniquestionalily hard both on the teacher and on the pupil. Still, that childteii should be taught collebtively is unavoidable. Th 6 t(iiestion that naturally emerges, theii, is as to the extent to which that teaching might be improved. Tlie suggestions made by Mr E. C. Purdie, of Auckland, sit the recent conference - of school inspectors had an important bearing On this quest-ion. Mi 1 Purdio's idea is that all the pupils in classes above the Third Standard should be taught in the si me school. Using Auckland City to illustrate his meaning, he indicated that at present the pupils in Auckland and suburbs who were, in the Fourth, Fifth, -and Sixth. Standards in nineteen schools numbered something under three thousand. According to his view, these pupils should bo taught in, say, three central schools, where a system of grading according to the ability of the pupil could be carried out with a prospect of success on a comprehensivo basis. Mr Purdie's arguments, as more fully embodied in a recent interview, certainly make out a good case in support of his suggested gradiug scheme. Of the advantages that he enumerates as likely to follow its adoption the majority :ire sound and Weighty. Ono or two of them may bo indicated. The dull boys, we are told, would liot be unnecessarily hurried and the bright boys would work without strain up to tfieir capacity and have ."justice done them. Specialists mightbo employed to teach certain subject^ whereas their employment in the present, number of schools is out of tlie qiiestion. The varying capacity of individual pitpils.iri Certain subjects might he provided for. provision could be made for a laboratory and for a manual training school at each centre. Finally, the cost would ultimately be considerably less than at presefftj add teachers might be better paid. With Mr Ptirdie's general classification of pupils as dull, mediocre, and bright there is no occasion to disagree, and the fundamental' basis of a griding scheme suggests itself naturally in this. And, as to the general desirability, from most points of view, that there should be some system of grading children for educational purposes beyond the mere system of grouping in standards there is, 'we take it, little question. Nor was there anything in the proposals brought before the recent conference in this connection that was other than theoretically reasonable and prompted by an earnest desire to initiate a reform—a somewhat drastic reform, it is true—that should partially at anyrate solve oup of the most troublesome problems of elementary education. It is not surprising, therefore, that the conference gave the principle of the proposal its approval. There should be no particular difficulty in the achievement of a satisfactory classification' of pupils of a class according to their mental capacity, but, viewed from tlio standpoint of present practicability, Mr Purdie's schcme is attended with drawbacks bf a rather serious nature, as is almost any scheme that means a radical departure from prevailing conditions. There is the difficulty of distance. It enn hardly be conceived that, if the pupils of the upper standards were limited in choice to three schools in Duncdin, no matter where these schools were situated, there would not he many who would be residing at anything buta convenient distance from school. Parents would, therefore, hardly be likely to view a change in this direction with much favour for this reason, nor, if they were sensitive; would they be likely to appreciate the advantage of having the child who perhaps seems to them unusiliilly gifted classed among the dull scholars of a standard. Then, as a rule aiid naturally, parents like to send all their children to the same school. Further, it might be argued that a result of the adoption of such a grading scheme would be to make tlio

bright children of a class too bright and precocious, arid to intensify the lack of aptitude of those at the other ens) cf tlm scale by uiscbiitngiiig them. Such are sdme of tliti objections that (Mtgge«t thenlsekos to a scheme of "ratling, and while none of them is to be ignored altogether the weightiest seems to be that raised on the score of distance. It is contended that in Auckland, at anyrate, distance, would not raise an insuperable obstacle. If that- is so, Auckland would no doitbfc be a fit centre in which an experiment 011 the lines suggested might bo tried. Certainly Mr Purdio's scheme is too big 'to-bp lightly- under-

taken, though wo would not go so far as to say that it is absolutely impracticable or that its ultimata results might not bo far-reaching,