Educational Institute.

Otago Witness, Issue 1754, 4 July 1885, Page 14

Educational Institute.

» — ■ (Continued from page SI.)

Tuesday, June 30. There was a capital attendance at the evening sitting, which was held in the Rattray street Odd-Fellows' Hall, to hear the addresses by the president of the Institute and Dr Scott. The President confined his remarks to matters in connection with elementary education. At the outset he referred to the death of Mr Montgomery and Mr Stables, and went on to speak of the constitution of the New Zealand Educational Institute, which, under wise and prudent management, he thought, would be a power working. for good in the educational interests of the Colony. Referring to the working of the Education Act, he referred to the unsatisfactory mode of electing school committees, stating that it was evident the present method failed to fulfil the object for which it "was intended, and while it remained they must be satisfied to see the noisy demagogue who knew nothing of education, and cared still less, and who perhaps could scarcely sign his own name, head the poll; while the intelligent, educatad, and capable man was left out in the cold. The compulsory clauses were undoubtedly the weakest point in the Act, for they had beeii proved to be practically inoperative. Much had been done on behalf of girls and females employed in factories and workshops. There was equally philanthropic work left to be done in protecting children from the greed or neglect of worthless parents by preventing them from being sent to work until they had acquired the minimum amount of education considered necessary to fit them for the discharge of their duties as citizens and as fathers and mothers of a future generation. Glancing at the subjects of instruction, he enumerated them as follows: — Reading, writing, arithmetic, English grammar and composition, geography, history, elementary science and drawing, object lessons, vocal music, drill for boys, and needlework and domestic economy for girls. Supposing subjects to be of equal importance, only, two hours and a half per week could be devoted for the teaching of each. This was making no reduction for roll-call, &c, and he pointed out further that some subjects required more time than others, so that some would have to be cut down considerably. But cut and cram as they would, they were constantly met by the stubborn fact that they could not apportion to any one subject a sufficient amount of time to enable them to teach it thoroughly, and they constantly felt that their work was not being done properly. The utmost they could hope for was to secure sufficient percentage of passes to maintain their own credit and that of their school. He quoted figures to show that since the Act was, put into operation in 1878 till 188-1 the average attendance had risen from 45,521 to 75,391 — an increase of 66 per cent. The speaker concluded his address with a few words on the^ question, " Can the Colony afford to maintain the present educational system ?" After quoting the great expenditure of Germany, the United States, and Great Britain in the matter of education he proceeded as follows :—: — Can New Zealand, then, afford to lag behind in this race of progress? can she afford to fall behind the countries of the Old World almost crushed to earth in the struggle for existence ? or even her sister Colonies in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres ? Several reasons seem, to me to point out that not only cau she not afford to fall behind in the race, but if she is to be true to herself, if she is to fulfil the high mission of the " Britain of the South," she must take a foremost place in it. At the present time the Colony can scarcely be said to be a candidate for immigrants. It has been, and will certainly be so again before long. Now there are immigrants and immigrants. But we may safely assume that no man of the lower or middle classes worth his salt as a colonist, will now leave England, Scotland, or Ireland without inquiring whether any or what means of educating his family exist in the Colony to which he thinks of going, and if he find these means deficient, he will turn his steps in some other direction. Immigrants who care nothing for this we have imported, and may import again, but they do not make even good hewers of wood and drawers of water. I need scarcely refer to the political position. Our institutions are as democratic as the strongest 'radical can desire. Rightly or wrongly, political power has been vested in the mass of the people. Rightly if the people are educated, intelligent, and capable of thinking for themselves ; wrongly if the people are uneducated, unintelligent, and incapable of exercising their own judgment. Unless a high status of education is to 'be maintained, the public safety requires that the franchise be restricted, and vested in those members of the community only who know how to use it. Again, the conditions of labour are changing day by clay. Man is not now a mere worker : he is the guide, the director of machinery impelled by a power infinitely greater than his own. In the workshop, in the mine, and even on the farm, machinery propels ; man simply steers. But to steer aright, to direct to advantage these external forces, requires skill and intelligence ; and skill and intelligence, if not conferred by education, are strengthened and vitalised by it Are our New Zealand youths, then, to be prepared to meet this altered condition of things or are they to be left in the background, to be made the bootblacks of the Colony, while the chief places are taken by those who have been brought up in more favoured lands, or by those brought np in this country whose parents have

boon able to pay a good sum for their c hi'-a-tion ? Is any one of our statesmen prepared to come forward and advocate nieahuire which would have the effect of excluding the great majority of our youths, or maidens oitlu'r, from the most lucrative and moat honourable positions in the Colony? That the Colony will, in some form or other, have to sustain not only the present burden for education, bu,t even a greater one, seems inevitable. This ha-< been further shown by the demand for technical education lately put forword by the public and admitted by the Minister of Education. But while, as has been pointed out by the Minister, technical subjects may be substituted for some of the branches now taught in secondary schools, or rather, perhaps, added to those branches, lot it not be supposed that technical can take the place of elementary education. The former must be based on and supplementary to the latter ; and to attempt to build up the one without first laying a solid foundation of the oilier would be, not building a house on the sand, but building a castle in the air. 'Tis true that elementary drawing, the ABC of technical instruction, is in the new standards to be gradually introduced as a puss subject, having been substituted for history as such. But technical education implies two things — a knowledge of scientific principles and the practical application of those principles in the arts and manufactures. To attempt to throw the teaching of either or both of theso on the public school would simply result in the verification of the old proverb that both teacher and pupil would be Jack of all trades and master of none. To be taught to any practical advantage, the teachers must be specialists. We have in the School of Art, School of Mines, and University institutions which, by extension from within, and by the addition of workshops, would afford a means of technical education .second to none in the world. But all this means money, and the-gradual increase in the number of children in the higher standards, indicating that the people require and appreciate a higher degree of elementary education, moans more money, and the natural increase of our population means still more money. The question before the country seems then to be, not the amount of money to be expended on education, but the judicious and economical expenditure of that amount whatever it may be. That such is the view of the Ministry may be gathered from the complacent remark of the Colonial Treasurer in his late Financial Statement — " The Education Department shows the usual increases for capitation allowances." A hearty vote of thanks having been accorded Mr Mime, Dr Scott followed with a paper on " Physiological Education." Ho contended that an education to be satisfactory must be physiological. It must be founded 011 a knowledge of the nature of the organism and mind o? the child. It should do nothing that would hinder the due development of body or of mind, but should rather aim at strengthening both. He spoke at some length on the importance of a sufficient amount of light and air space in schoolrooms, and pointed out that if the air of a room became vitiated to a certain extent by being breathed, it became highly poisonous on account of the organic matters which were given off by the lungs along with the I carbonic acid gas. The State abused its functions if it enforced school attendance under such circumstances. Ou the question of lighting, he expressed surprise that in the newest and best .school in the Colony — the Dunedin High School — Uiedrawingroom had been lighted from all foiu 1 walls in direct contravention of all recognised 2>rinciple.s. The great importance of physical education was also dwelt on at some length, as having a great bearing on the mental qualities, and in this respect such games as football were cited not only as doing no harm, but as actually warding off an incalculable amount of ill. The great importance of teaching drawing was dwelt upon in an interesting manner, and the devourment ' or retaining of natural habits in accordance with their nature was also treated of, and the speaker concluded with a few general remarks. If education, he said, if ever to be worthy of its name, if the " hodman " is ever to become the "architect," a certain amount of latitude must be allowed to the teacher. He must, of course, teach the essential subjects, but his own individual taste must to a large extent dictate the rest. If teaching these subjects is to serve any end beyond that of keeping children out of mischief, it must come living from the teacher. How else can he breathe life into the bones of his craft ? The children ask for bread, and he give-, them stones if he try to teach otherwise. Carlyle expresses my meaning when he says : " Mind grows not like a vegetable by having its roots littered, but like a spirit by mysterious contact with spirit ; thought kindling itself at the fire of living thought. How can he give kindling in whose inward man there is no live coal ?" If your tastes are literary you ought to be allowed and encouraged to devote yoiu-selves mainly to language ; if scientific, to some branch of science, and so on. Parents, ovou if they have individual preferences, will soon find out that it is far better for their children (o bo under a man who does well what is done, who puts some of the living fire into his work, than to [ have them grounded, or rather stranded in all ! the " olo^ic "

I Wednesday, July 1. | The meeting of the institute was resumed this morning. Mr Milne presided, and there was a good attendance of members. . The Rev. T. Flavell, representative of the I Canterbury Institute and editor of " Schoolmaster" was introduced, and associated with the members. I TECHNICAI, EDUCATION. Mr James Reid (Milton) opened a discussion on the question of whether technical education is practicable in connection with the present system of education. If this or any other country wished to hold its own in the industrial arts it must have intelligent and skilled workmen, and if they were to have skilled workmen attention must be given to the training of the hand earlier in youth than had been the custom. The London Exhibition of 1851 opened the eyes of England to the fact that she was behind such countries as France, Germany, and Switzerland in industrial arts. Efforts were immediately made to remedy this state of affairs, and England made great advances in that direction; but the countries mentioned were still forging ahead. In New Zealand the movement originated by the Minister of Education would, if it went on, tend to the success of the country in many ways. He knew that many industries in the country had been strangled at their birth owing to the want of scientific training on the part of the workmen employed. Near Dunedin some manufactures of textile fabrics had fallen through and a great deal of money wasted for the same reason; while the non-success of the Milton Pottery Works was, he thought, simply due to the workmen not having sufficient scientific training to adapt themselves to the new circumstances in which they were placed when they came out here, The eoap and candlo industry hero had a

hard struggle tct establish itself, while the mining iiiiiiMrv hd.l suffered greatly — both owing to the want of .scientific skill. If thuy wauled to es-ttihlish their educational system ou a firm footing, the tendency of their action must be iow.irdvS encouraging useful .studies. The preson I system was, he thought, simply a huge grinding machine, and the schoolmasters simply percentage grinders— a large uumber of their teachers were percentage grinder.-, of the most useless kind — (applause) — percentages were written _ in their countenances. The public were sated with percentages ; for they could not travel in a railway carriage with a party of teachers without finding their whole conversation to be about percentages. The sooner teachers got out of that rut the better. There were five points in connection with technical education which he would submit. Firstly, technical education implied a general literary culture , secondly, scientific training, generally, and in some cases special ; thirdly, the teaching of drawing ; fourthly, the training of the hand in the constructive art; and fifthly, the teaching of trades. A technical school should be established, to be held in the evening, so that apprentices would bo able to attend them and thus get acquainted with drawing and other things underlying their trades. Elementary science should receive more attention, and special instructors should be appointed in the different centres of population to teach the elements of the different sciences. Science as taught in the public schools would have to be placed on a higher platform. In the teaching of science in eertniu centres some subjects should be equalised — for instance in a district like Milton the chemistry of agriculture might be taught, while in others again, like Lawrence, the chemistry of the detection of minerals might be taught to advantage. He did not think workshops could bo established in connection with our educational system, but in casus where tho master had some skill at using hk hands, the children under him might, with little expense, be taught the u^e of some of the more common tools. That should be encouraged at every opportunity. He could not help thinking that at the present time the energies of our youth were running to waste over a feverish eagerness to excel in athletics. He diil not wish to decry football or any of those excellent games, but really their youth seemed to be thinking of nothing else. He happened to be walking up the street the other evening behind two young men, and he found that their" whole conversation was about half-backs and quarter-backs. — (Laughter). He really thought the energiesc s of their young men were being wasted to some extent in this feverish excitement. Their energies might be turned with advantage into better channels. At his own school he had recently started a class of 14 or 15 boys in the workshop, and he found that they enjoyed the work thoroughly. He concluded by moving the following resolution: — "That in order to give technical education the prominence it deserves, in the opinion of this institute drawing and elementary science should be more regularly and systematically taught in our schools; that in mining and agricultural centres special attention should be given to the teaching of the sciences closely connected with those industries, and wherever practicable, opportunity .should be given to the senior boys of practising the hand in the use of tools." Mr Fitzgkkai'.d (Normal School) seconded the motion. Other countries had adopted a system of technical education, and he thought it was now high time that New Zealand also should have her technical schools. It was a question, however, if they could 'establish independent technical schools in the different centres of population. He believed the efforts here had so far proved a failure, because they hail been made in the wrong direction. They should have been made in connection with the University, the School of Arts, and the Caledonian classes. Mr Reid had referred to their young men playing football. Well, why not ? He went to a football match the other day himself, and he thoroughly enjoyed it. Ho saw there a number of young men whom he knew well, many of them among the best of their Normal School ,and university students — young men who were making a name for themselves in their classes and making a name for themselves also in their games. — (Applause.) That night he walked up Princes street, and the subject of conversation evidently was that Bee had potted a goal, and M'lntyre had made a grand run — (laughter), — and so on with names that he knew well. These were men who could work, and they could play, and they played just as earnestly as they worked. Some young men no doubt devoted all their attention to athletics, but these were only the sort of whom Dr Scott had spoken at their meeting in such strong terms the other evening. In this matter of technical education he was not sure but that the true position of the schoolmaster was the conservative position which Mr Reid had decried, and that the schoolmaster should confine himself to train his pupils in correct observation and accurate perceptions, giving them hand training such as by means of writing and drawing. By these means they would be serving the ends of technical education to a very large extent. — (Applause..) Buys trained in this way would afterwards on entering the technical school show the immense advantage they had by the training they had received in the elemetary schools. Tho Rev. Mr Flavet.l spoke of the great advantages arising from the study of drawing, and suggested that the High School was the proper }jlace in which to carry out technical education. Mr Tindatx, in the course of an amusing speech, said that he did not see that any great advantage would result from technical education, but that teachers should endeavour rather to cultivate among their pupils the proper use of the tongue in the art of speaking, Mr White (Normal School) said^that teachers had already too much to do without having any, more work imposed on them, and that if they were to give technical instruction the teachors themselves would first have to be taught. Mr Pake (William street) thought that before technical instruction was introduced education in plain cookery should be given to the girls. Professor Macgregor would feel regret if the motion passed without full discussion. He dissented from it, as it might lead to burdening the primary teacher in an intolerable manner, and if it tended in that direction in the remotest degree he must oppose it. He would like to hear the subject thoroughly threshed out at the meeting, for he failed to quite understand what the term "technical education" meant. Other members having spoken, Professor Macgregor moved as an amend- i ment — " That in the ' opinion of this institution the need which has found such universal expression under the demand for rudimentary technical training in our primary schools really means that in our national scheme of education the children are urged prematurely into the learning of subjects too abstract for their years, and too many of them, to the grievous neglect of a symmetrical training of their senses and muscles by such means as object lessons and drawing systematically taught." In doing bo ho said tiiat hitherto school children bad b&en

dosed with abstract words and notions instead of having their mental faculties at first properly cultivated. What he wished was that there .should be a return to natural principles. What a child wanted was to be- taught to look at objects for himself so as to have a clear and luminous idea of it. The whole idea of technical instruction for children was a monstrous thing, and he wished it to be said at once that this thing should be- stopped. The whole country had been cursed with the ideas of ignorant, or, at all events, wrong - headed doctrinaires. Children ought to be trained to observe objects before they touched upon symbols and signs. What was the use of teaching them the uoe of tools? Teach them the use of their fingers and of their natural senses, so that they could gain a luminous appreciation of the details of things. A good symmetrical system of training the senses was required, and he boseeched the institute not to assist in crushing the budding faculties of the young. — (Applause.) After some further discussion the amendment was carried unanimously.

Evening Sitting. At the evening sitting the Rev. R. Waddell read a paper on the Culture of the Imagination of the Young. His opening remarks were devoted to a definition of imagination, and he analysed its elements as (1 ) an accurate observation ; (2) the perception in every object of stored residues of passion, of far-reaching memories and hopes; (3) an ideal association and unification of the facts of nature and of life; and (4) the tendency to view everything as if alive, or as the expression of invisible but all-pervading life. Having illustrated these points at some length, lie went on to say that in the child's mind were two things, which are the germs of imagination — the sense of wonder and the tendency to verw everything around it as living. Wonder was the most characteristic element of childhood, and Lord Bacon had even said that it was tho seed of knowledge. The other outcome of imagination — reverence and awe — was of later growth; but if parents did their duty, they would surely come, and without them imagination could not be. Imagination in its final development was but the wonder, reverence, and personalising tendencies of childhood transfigured in the sunrise of an evergrowing intelligence. Now this wonder and reverence and inato tendency to read the universe as life rather than law was lost in, the school periods of nine-tenths of our boys and girls, and with that went the whole imaginative and ideal element of their existence. They had proof of this on every hand — in the irreverence and flippancy of the Colonial youth, and the class of books most in demand in 6hops and athenasums — purely scientific or highly sensational — or again, in ' the utter matter-of-fact-ness of the average man and woman. Mr G. M. Thomson, in a letter to the Daily Times, had recently stated that his experience of boys and girls who gained the Education Board's junior scholarships was that they had lost nearly all that faculty of observation, which is the natural heritage of every human being, and had given it further as his opinion that the present system of education did not develop the faculty of observation at all. Having shown thab bhe idoal imaginative faculty of children was either lost or perverted during school lifo, the speaker went on to assume that it was worth preserving and cultivating, and threw out one or two hints as to how | that could best be done. First the child must be taught to observe accurately, and its observa- | tion needed to be trained — trained how to see and what to see. This was the foundation of everything. It would be best to bring the | children within sight of the objects, instead of simply talking about them. There - 'were opportunities for sightseeing all round. It might be had in the schoolroom, but it was best outside the schoolroom, where children could be brought into contact with Nature's handiwork. In this respect he applauded the Dunedin School Committee's- resolution to take the children into the workshops, and further advocated a plan of walking the children out -with their teachers into the country. Next to observation was production. The child, from seeing things should be led on to produce things. This might be done either by hand or word. The hand came first, hence the kindergarten, and for more advanced children technical education. He expressed himself as entirely in view with technical education, provided the right aim be kept steadily in view. There was a disposition, however, to regard technical education as subservient to success in mechanical and industrial labour. That, he held to be a false and degrading aim. It should be regarded only as a means of mental development, and not as a means of making those who engage in it mere successful machines in filling their own or other people's pockets with money. The rougher work of technical education should be succeeded by modelling and drawing, which latter subject he was glad to see had now been made compulsory. He went on to speak at some length on the great benefits of teaching art in schools, and its influence on the development of youthful imagination. If the present system were overburdened, there were several subjects that might easily bn tlvown over in favour of art teaching, which vould prove more acceptable to the children. A recent Colonial writer, Mr E. Wakefield, had shown that American and French goods were driving others out of the market, just because of the superior art education of the people of these countries, and that should be an argument that ought to appeal even to those practical people amongst us who would like to turn the blue sky into a sheep - walk, and make ribbons of the rainbow. The ear as well as the eye should be trained, hence music, reading, and elocution should have a prominent place in the school curriculum. A century ago Bishop Brokley had stated the question whether half the talent and learning of England were not lost because elocution was not taught in schools and_ colleges, while Professor Serley gave it as his opinion that elocution did more than anything in enabling young minds to acquire a taste for poetry. The speaker gave his testimony that elocution first opened the gateways of poetry for him. But all had not a talent for those subjects which led him to the question of specialisation of study. This had reached tho teacher, and it should also apply to the pupil, who beyond a certain age should be listened to and his request granted. The present system made no allowance for this, its ideal being to turn all out on the same pattern— to reduce all children to a dead level | pf uniformity. It gave them spoonfuls of all the 'ologies under the heavens, and then sent them out instructed, but not educated. They might have had tastes and talents of a sxaecial kind, and if these had been cultured all would have been well. Thus boys and girls left school with their special endowments gone, and a general disposition to bid good-bye, to study of all lands. Thoy were for all the world— at least a largo proportion of them — like the chest of drawers which Bob Sawyer showed to Mr Winkle to hie surgery, <' Dummies, my dear

boy," said he, " half the drawers have nothiug in them and the other half don't open." Now he would have specialisation with regard to the scholar as well as the teacher Boys and girls in whom imagination was strong were not likely to shine in examinations. Their peculiar faculty did not; fit them for such work, and why then should they bo compelled to wude wearily through subjects that they abhorred with a perfect hatred. Lik« little Marjorie Fleming, the' child-love of Sir Walter Scott, " their multiplication was a horrible and wretched plague, and the most devilish think was eight times eight and sb^en times seven." Coming to the last point, regarding the culture of the imagination—the employment of sympathetic rather than the analytic method in teaching, he decried analysis as being made an end in itself, instead of only a means to an end, and urged that boys and girls Should be allowed to read poetry without pulling it to pieces, in accordance with the rulea of syntax, and being made to have a perfect horror of it. If it was thought necessary to have rhyme or blank verse as a field for analysis, then for Heaven's sake let them hire somebody to write it by the yard for the purpose, but let them keep sacred from such degradation the creations of their finer genius. He also r|ip ferred to science as in the direction or evil. Science was made to tear things to pieces and analyse everything. But he did not object to taking the youthful mind into such knowledge. What he objected to was that it should be left there. In conclusion he asked if his estimate of the value of tho imagination was a just one, and went on to show that it was principally for two reasons — one on account of what it had done for the world, and the other that if the imaginative facultydid not work for goodness it worked for evil. The speaker was frequently applauded during the course of his address, and at its conclusion he was, on the motion of Mr A. Wilson, M.A., accorded a hearty vote of thanks. Mr W. M'Elrea (representative of the Milton branch) then read a paper on the Inducements to Cramming offered by the Present System of Education. He argued that there was with judicious handling of the syllabus very little occasion for cramming. j The paper was briefly criticised, and a vote of thanks having <been accorded to the speaker, the meeting adjourned till 11 o'clock next morning.