OTAGO UNIVERSITY.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18673, 30 September 1922, Page 3

OTAGO UNIVERSITY.

HOME SCIENCE SCHOOL. CONFERENCE OF ALUMNM ASSOCIATION. At the conference held by Alutnnm 'Association in the beginning of September (already reported in these columns) the chief work was u consideration of the syllabus by which homo science is taught in the schools. Professor Strong opened the discussion with a vigorous and inspiring address on “Why, What, and How dp We Teach?” Professor Strong deplored the fact that most methods of teaching took no account of the psychological state of the growing child;' tho subject matter was not given in such a way as to fit in with the process of development; rather the child was given the final results of education, the conclusions of adult minds. Teaching had become stereotyped, subjects were summarised iilto lists of logical facts, into fixed schedules; tho results when the attempt was made to lit them on to the child were grotesque; as grotesque as making the girl wear her mother’s dress, the boy his father’s greatcoat. Mature judgments did not suit, did not fit in with the natural njental processes during development. .Continuing, Professor Strong asked—“‘Why dp we teach? What is our ideal? In the words of Dr Georgo D. Strayer: ‘Pupil* at work forming habits of thought feeling and action; acquiring knowledge of nature and of society; forming ideals which make for social well-being; and learning in all of this work to act independently, to function in the society of which they are a part; this is education.' and these are the goals which wo should strive to achieve every day and every hour that we teach. What do wo teach? There are t\yo fundamentals in the educative process, the child and tho race experience. How are we to give children all the race experience we have to help, them to a natural development? Subject matter has been defined as ‘the best way of behaviour yet devised.’ How is the girl going to learn adequate ways of behaviour in the world about her? The girl of to-day nerds primarily to know the principles governing, healthful living for herself, her family, and her community. She needs to learn to moke plans for daily living through right opportunities for •work, amusement, education, wise saving, and spending. The girl of to-day needs to have inculcated a wine attitude of mind towards woman’s work in tho home and outside the home ns 1 producer and consumer. Her growing privileges in social and political life demand for her training which will develop interest in civic and national affairs. She needs to bo taught the relation of the modern home to all these economic, social, scientific, testhetic, and spiritual problems.” How do we teach,? These are days when with an overcrowded curriculum, subjects old and-' new, a great cry of “no time,” we make our girls learn “notes,” “digests,” summaries of facts, in order to pass examinations. The syllabus becomes a sacred thing to be bowed down before and worshipped. The course becomes immobile, static; it loses its reality, its elasticity, its power to educate; the teaching becomes mechanical routine. _ Is this the aim? Is the syllabus, the thing of “minimum essentials” to control us, and not the girl? Dr M‘Murray and many other educators of to-day have been carrying out a new method of organising a curriculum, by the use of problems or “projects,” definite tangible schemes round' which knowledge may collect, “big, expanding, strong, stimulating, concrete ’problems,” which will urge the child on to purposeful activity and thought. Live projects, wisely selected, draw in their wake the knowledge re-, quired for the understanding and solution of the problems involved. They need not necessarily be concrete problems—geography. biography, history, literature—all are most fertile "fields for projects; also science, especially applied science, and dietetics abound in problems. These'are some which have ac_filally been used. The small brother of a girl in the cookery class is very ill with enteritis, hovv'ean the children help the distracted mother? They take up’ the problem, work but suitable diets, cook suitable meals for the child; he improves in health, and comes to think that he should not eat anything the dietetic class has not worked out and prepared. In the meantime, thoroughly acquainted >,wifh the rules of healthy living, the' consequence of breaking these rules, and the joy of service. , . A kitchen in one of these homes is to he renovated and replanned. The class discuss labour-saving: devices, draw plans, offer suggestions; the kitchen is altered’ according to the iplajj,yp.ted most, practical. The class see ft., ■■ changed,., they decide ■whether;-, their..iphiifiiS' sfcjej're good.’ Study has been , organised aljput: this concrete problem and experience gained and collected into a definite; report. How much more information is obtained in these ways than from a digested summary! Tho refurnishing of a living room serves as a project to a housecraft cldss for a whole term,:,s{imulatiiig- Them to .study- old furniture>a'nd', atid style, colour- . and "decoration,. .while they learn, among other things, to clean and polish; to stain and p~tnt. to buy wisely and economically. These, arb some of the topics by which work, yan he organised and stimulated. There is a definite motive, not so much in the mind of the teacher as in the mind of the _ehddj“;in v ; tKb individual girl is aroused ahreaT- desire-to carry- out some work, and• l hEo..;ah > :’‘active participation results. No longer are there dull pupils forced to learn; they do the work and relate it to themselves and their homes—the teacher’s part is to motivate. them, to show them where to get their information, to' guide them wisely. These problems require on- the-part pfythe teacher wide selective much richer and deeper than is required for mechanical methods; tho teacher must be a master both of the child’s individual experience, and of the social world experience—there must be a constant .playing back and forward between the two establishing continuity of growth in the child. The proiect. is objective, practical, and purposeful. It is a complete and .important whole looking towards well_ conceived purposive ends—all the information'gathered in working it out is collected, organised, and applied for a reallv definite purpose. The project is dynamic in its essential forward movement, contributing always to the growth of ideas. The project is constructive; it works out a practical result which is embodied in a situation in real life; its sets up a series of problems requiring continuous rational effort, and as an end result, of the whole movement-from original eoncention to final realisation it leaves in the mind a knowledge product which introduces and explains other kindred proiects. The project. has a future as well as a past, and links up the two: thus it contributes to the continuous organisation of knowledge. Can we_ not "see in our svllabus largo topics, hag objective ■ wholes which will aid ys in teaching? Let us put into common familiar topics a far richer‘ meaning, and give our girls knowledge habits and appreciations which will help them to the best possible way of living.