EDUCATION

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26027, 15 December 1945, Page 3

EDUCATION

A FORTNIGHTLY REVIEW By Mentor With the examination season, the north and of the town teemed with secondary school pupils, all wearing their best clothes and looks of deepest concentration. As a result, some verses have come into “ Mentor’s ” hands, written by “ Supervisor ” and “ inspired ” by the school certificate examinations. “ Mentor ’’ must hasten to affirm that this is the very first occasion on which there has been a hint that examinations could inspire anything but loathing. He, himself, always looked on them as exquisite torture. Space permits the reproduction here of only two extracts. I’m sitting at my table, just watching youngsters sweat, Thinking each new paper is the worst that they’ve had yet; I’m looking at their faces which screw, and twist and groan. I ache for one, as, off her guard, she sounds a weary moan. I’m sitting at my table, just thinking of the teachers, And pity them with -all my heart, misunderstood poor creatures; I see behind their faces calm, a year of crushing toil, Of ” prep.” by night, and grind by day, lest failure their year spoil. Thus far, “ Supervisor ” sounds too kindhearted for the job, but in a later verse expresses,an unholy glee at the prospect of the' fat cheque from the Government for services rendered as an overseer of the torture chamber. “Mentor’s ” mind goes back to his own youth’ to recall a supervisor of his examination days who, from his position of eminence on the dais, looked from time to time around the room, his gimlet eyes peering over the top of a large, heavy, leather-bound volume labelled Homer’s “Iliad.” It was not till years later that “ Mentor ” discovered that that massive leather cover hid the latest and most salacious novel of the day. Still, the impression on nervous and perspiring candidates was terrific. Whether his sins were greater than those of the supervisor who perpetrates verse at the expense of poor candidates is. a moot point, but it can be certain that retributive justice will condemn all supervisors, past, present and future, to the torments of Tartarus in the next world, as a penalty for their misdeeds in this.

Of the examination system, which, fortunately, has disappeared from our primary schools in New Zealand, Dr Spencer, late chief inspector, for London County Council schools, has bluntly said: “The good teacher was one who could screw out of these little children, say, 95 ’per cent, of passes. It was evil. It was the piecework reflection of the economic world of the time. Education is always a reflection of the society of which it forms part.” Today our secondary schools have an opportunity, also, of freeing themselves from the shackles of examination domination. Few: too long has the university dominated the curriculum of secondary schools. To-day, with almost universal secondary education, and with only, say, 15 per cent, going on to university, adequate provision must be made for the great majority. Depending on the ability of the principals to interpret it broadly and generously, and of the assistants to adapt and re-orient their own, teaching, the “Thomas” report may or mE\jr not become the charter of freedom for post-primary schools. At first, when proficiency was abolished, the primary teachers found it difficult to use their new freedom. No doubt to-day the secondary teachers are in like case, but the freedom is there, and it is to be hoped that in thus gaining freedom from external examinations, through accrediting, they will not allow the school certificate examination to be welded into a new set of chains to take the place of matriculation.

Many of those who “ screw and twist and groan ” are girls—fresh young girls in their ’teens, in the heart of each of whom is hidden, deep down, the hope that some day she may marry and have a family of her own. Whatever the “career” she is preparing for, she hopes in her heart that it will be only a temporary one. As one examines the examination for school certificate —and I hope interested readers will find a means of examining the papers—one wonders at the futility of much of the “ learning ” demanded by them. In spite of Leacock’s brilliant satire on the subject, A, B, and C still persist; and those three taps still run (two in and one out of the bath at the same time in a mad, lunatic phantasy); and literature and English are still mangled to make an examiner’s holiday. Where is the evidence, for these lassies, of teaching in mothercraft, home nursing and management, home science, sox education, and those N cultural arts which would tend to a happy, useful married life, with full equipment for those periods of leisure so graphically envisaged by our most picturesquely vocabularied Minister of the Crown — those days when the “ washing will be done in a fur coat.” Those huge chunks of half-digested Latin, French, and maths, seem so much less important, at least for girls, than the subjects mentioned above, if, indeed, we do intend to have a new world. “The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world.” Let that hand be efficient cultured in a real sense, and, above all, happy!

Last week the Dunedin Training College closed its doors for another year, and a new group of young teachers was released into the teaching service The importance of the task ahead of them has been frequently emphasised in these columns. On them will fall the work of assisting the rising generation to build that “new world” so glibly promised by politicians. On the efficiency and thoroughness of the training they have been given will depend, in a large measure, the success achieved. The principal of the Training College can well be said to hold a key position in our educational system, for on him, and on the staff he directs, devolves the responsibility of training these teachers of the coming generation. We know that the training giyen in our own college is as efficient as circumstances permit, but we wonder just how much more could be done if the policy, so long asked for by the New Zealand Educational Institute, of a longer period of training were brought into effect. This is a reform which the principal and his staff would welcome, and in view of the vital importance of the work of the college, it is a reform to which the Minister of Education might well give early consideration. The young people about to leave made a goodly showing at the passingout ceremony, and “ Mentor ” wishes each and every one of them a happy and a successful future in their chosen profession.

What Educationists Are Saying: (The position held by the principal of the Training College is such that any pronouncement of his on education should be given full weight and attention. The following extract from his final address to his students is commended especially to readers. “ Mentor.”) “Every now and again tire world of business looks at education with somewhat critical eyes. It might be a good thing if education looked more frequently at the world of business and registered its thoughts with equal candour. “ When you leave the cloistered shelter of this college and go out into the world, what kind of world will you find? . . “ You will find a world that is in the position of being clever but not wise; intellectually ’learned, but socially unbalanced; a world with undoubted genius, but with a genius that runs veiy close to homicidal mania. Wondering, you might look for cause; and, if you do, you might find that throughout the modern age of industrialist) the world has taken its standards, its scale of values, from economics instead of from ethics; in other words, its primary consideration has been ‘ Does it. pay? ’ rather than ‘ Is it right? ’ “What can you do about it? At least you can teach towards social as well as intellectual objectives, and

strike a blow for justice.”—E. Partridge, principal, Dunedin Training College. Tail-piece The literature lesson had been spent in discussing verse-making, and as a wind-up the pupils were asked to attempt a verse with an historical incident as a basis. Here is one attempt which reflects, surely, the influence of the kinema and radio:— William the Norman, by his cobbers called Bill, Came on a day-trip, saw Senlac Hill; Harold resents it, and on poor Bill picks, So Bill blimps him of! —Ten-sixty-six. Greetings To all readers of this column “ Mentor ” gives the season’s greetings, and hopes that, in spite of restrictions and shortages of supply, they may all be fortunate enough to celebrate Christmas in the best of spirits.