LEARNING AT SECOND-HAND

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23202, 28 May 1937, Page 10

LEARNING AT SECOND-HAND

Sir Richard Paget's suggestion that under the perfect system of education book reading would not begin until children were 12 years old is not really so revolutionary as it sounds (says the Listener). It is the obverse side of a complaint frequently heard on educational platforms, that the grown-up population is content to take far too much of its information, tastes, and opinions at second-hand—a social malady which surely traces its origin back to wrong methods of instruction in the classroom. Sir Richai'd suggested that books and lectures ought to be postponed until the child had been educated at first-hand, and pointed out how many of the greatest and most original minds had lacked booklearning. The attempt to force knowledge on children through reading at an early age may result in a considerable number of cases in stunting the faculty of direct observation of life. The powers of noticing, watching, analysing, and synthesising by eye, the powers of listening and assimilating by ear. can easily be lost. Education by book learning also encourages the indifferent and lazy teacher to prefer a method of gentle " cramming" by reading and dictation, to the training of personality and intelligence through oral, teaching.