MODERN TEACHING

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22266, 19 May 1934, Page 5

MODERN TEACHING

UNDERSTANDING THE CHILD FATIGUE AND HOME LESSONS DISCUSSED Some remarks which will be of interest as much to parents as to teachers were made by the senior inspector of schools in Otago (Mr W. A. Service) in the course of an address at the annual meeting of the Otago branch of the New Zealand Educational Institute yesterday. _ “ One point which I wish to try and bring out is that the child iu_ general, while realising the necessity for his attending school, appears to look upon the activities of the school, or at least some ot those activities, as happenings apart from, instead of as an actual pari of, his young life,” said Mr Service. “He. will often take considerable pride in doing things well for his school and because ot the esteem in which he holds his teacher, but somehow he does not always seem to follow through outside. When school is over, he often drops back into his old ways. We, of course, should like to see a more ‘general’ result of our labours on ms behalf. This apparent want of ‘ follow through ’ seems to be one of the most difficult problems which we, as educationists, have to face, Much of my own work during the last 14 years has been directed towards trying to bridge this gap, whicn, I think you will agree, does appear to In connection with education, there seemed, he thought, to be a greater gap between theory and practice than is apparent in most other activities. The foremost lawyers, medical practitioners, engineers, and so forth occupied their foremost position because they had translated theory into practice. A lawyer, had won briefs, a medical man had effected cures, an engineer had built bridges, and so on. But leading educationists had not necessarily taught children. Their time had often been spent in analysing the working of the child mind. They were able to show this working. But what the teachers were not told was how to teach the child in accordance with those principles —how to translate thought and knowledge into action. ‘ . , ... “We as teachers are sometimes criticised for our failure to run our schools in accordance with psychological principles,” he added, "but I am afraid that our critics might do very little better, and perhaps not as well, if they themselves were stood in our shoes. What I da feel, however, is that we as teachers should pay grave heed to what out friends tell us and as practical people should endeavour to mould pur teaching so that it is brought into closer relationship with the findings of theory. We have known teachers who have set out to give the individual child so-called freedom for growth and development, but who have failed to teach the child one of' the cardinal principles of true freedom, namely that he should live in correct relationship to the members of society. We have perhaps set .such teachers down as idealists and wished they would be more practical. We have, perhaps, classed their efforts as failures and our traditional system has assumed correspondingly greater value and importance. “Perhaps ye may consider a lew lines of thought which may assist us to bring our teaching more - into ’ direct relationship with child development. Wo are all quite familiar with the theory of the problem of fatigue. We are told that the child is a young animal needing activity and outlet for physical energy. We, therefore, foster and encourage sports of various kinds. But in the school, particularly in the standard classes, the children out of their natural environment are compelled perforce to sit physically inactive for fairly long periods during the school day. I think that here there is a field for investigation and experiment. We have already done something. Our furniture has improved and we have swung away from the old rigid , sit-up-straight type of posture that was imposed upon most of us when we were young. In other ways,we endeavour to alleviate the position, but it still seems clear that children are still kept in the sitting position too long. If we ourselves are working closely at a problem, say in mathematics, we naturally rise at more or less frequent intervals and so get change of position. The change assists our thinking. Why, then, should children likewise not be free to rise of their own accord? ” Then, there was the matter of home 'lessons. He would say that the primary schools, as he knew them, had made a distinct advance in this direction. The primary period was, ’after all, a preparation one. When they considered the physical and mental drain that necessarily occurred under the present system in the ‘higher education of. young people, they were forced to the conclusion that the primary school was a place rather for the conservation of energy than for its overexpenditure. They had known cases of pupils who, through ■ apparent over-pres-sure, had done brilliantly in the primary school,, but who had petered’ out, as it were, in a higher school, and been outstripped by those whose primary. career was less noteworthy. “Concerning homework,” he continued, "I do not say that, the primary child should not have home duties. These can be made most valuable in the forging of bonds of unity between the home and the school. But I’ do say that home duties should be of the right kind. The doing of sums, for example, is, in my opinion, not a suitable home task. Arithmetic calculation is taken early in the day because of the mental intensity required, and it seems illogical to give such intense work when the child is fatigued at the end of the day. Similarly, I should say that the learning of spelling at night is wrong. After all, the school is the place where the child should be directly taught.” Another feature that could cause the child to look upon school as a thing apart from life was the’ matter of discipline. Here again, he thought teachers had advanced, in that the old drill sergeant style was seldom seen. In this connection, it might be interesting to note that the general advance in infant room method in the last 10 or 15 years appeared to have led to a much more natural discipline than used to exist. He thought also that it was a tribute to teachers generally that the primary school, as a whole, was a much more popular place than it used to be in the old days. Method had advanced generally. If method could v be made right the problem of discipline, largely disappeared. <p As teachers,” Mr Service continued, “ we have to be forceful, we have to exert power, but we have to consider the vital distinction between the force that lifts and the force that crushes. Children must work to their full capacity;, there must be seriousness of purpose, but we must avoid any tendency to mechanised artificiality and inscrutable rigidity of manner. Otherwise we stifle enthusiasm and kill initiative.” In conclusion Mr Service made an appeal for the humanising of teachers’ approach to the various subjects to be taught.