THE METAMORPHOSIS OF A SCHOOLBOY.

Otago Witness, Issue 2318, 4 August 1898, Page 47

THE METAMORPHOSIS OF A SCHOOLBOY.

EEING A PAPER HEAD AT THE EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTE BY J. A. JOHNSON.

By J. A. Johnson.. 11. ohildhood is in keeping with the clear air, the open spaces of nature — it breathes and lives in an atmosphere of happiness. There is an exuberance of delight in the very fulness of life itself, independent as it is of Time and and Space. Whether the lot be cast on the dy karroos of South Africa or amidst the tropical splendour of the Amazon, or surrounded by the rugged grandeur of our own New Zealand hills, buoyancy of spirit comes unbidden. Pity were it that the claims of this much-instructed generation should draw children away from their naiural joyoxisncss. Let us keep them in touch with the singing of biids, the whispering of the winds, the brightness of the flowers and the sunshine ; le'fc us keep from them any hint of the~toilsome desert journey that may lie in front of them; let us do this because we know that many a disappointed life has grown young again in remcmbeiing the gladness of early years. Ah,, me' what happy dreams we had I And still they linger fondly here; The air seems nimble with the glad,

Quaint fancies of our childhood clear j A id here at least they do appear Half real still , it seems profane To reason them down as fancies ■\ain, [Where all that meets the eye and ear .Brings the faith and gloiy of youth hack

And so the boy enters our schools. Ho comes under the influence of the teacher, under the discipline oi a certain prescribed course of study. The teacher, the study, the method will determine his character at the end. And iirsfc the teacher. It is impossible to overestimate the effect of his personality upon the pupil. Placed as a guardian at the threshold of life, he comes second only to the parent m priority of influence. The man who aspires to this position must have first a consuming passion for teaching, a passion so strong that nothing will tempt him from it. We are told of Colonel F. W. Parker, the man who revolutionised the methods of education in the schools of Quincy, that military preferment, political office, "excellent business positions could not tempt him from his life work. " A teacher he was born, a leachei he would live and die. Even war with all jts horrors did not wholly absorb his mind from itb laviiiiviie theme. Often, as he sat before the camp fire, or lay in his tent at lught, he studied how the mind grows, and planned many of the methods which have since made him famous." But although we have this passion, and although we are devoted to our profusion, yet it is imperative that a thorough course of training be undergone by each man before lie can get even a minor portion of that skill which alone makes teaching effective. When some years ago teachers' salaries were being reduced in this coUny, the cry arose that the training department of the Normal School should not be maintained at the expense of the teachers. It was asserted that the pupil teacher course gave adequate opportunity for a thorough tiaining. I hold that the pupil teacher course is most inadequate in the majority of crises for the needs of young teachers. It is a blot on our national system that only two boards out of 13 make any provision for the special training ol their teachers. "By experience,"' said old Roger Aschsm, "we find out a short way by a long wandering." To leave everything to experience seems to be the principle that guides, those who have this mutter in hand outside the two boprds already mentioned ; the result is many and lo.'ig wanderings before the teacher can find joy in his work, and make the children feel in the schoolroom as in the presence of a giacious king. Far from abolishing our training colleges we ought cither to endow many more or else so equip the two we have that they may become centres of training for al! the teachers of New Zealand.

Let us here follow the metamorphosis of an untrained teacher. Commencing hi? career in- a school where the headmaster was careless, incompetent, or lazy, lie was given a class and left entirely to his own devices. He gets his certificate at the end of his four years, is appointed to a small country school or to an assistantship in a large one. If the Jailer he will probably get great assistance from his chief, if the former he is left to work r<ah his own salvation. The inspector visits hr.n twice a year to criticise and <o report. Tiolnhly ilip. former is severe, the latter i ■ loin-less, Disheartened, he goes from bad to vvcrso; nothing is worse for young tea- .'.'!•<• M.an io got only (ho torpedo-shocks of V! vp n-itirism. Two things might have « vod him and made him a most careful man. 1 .rst. i ; (iff oi hi? four year?' piipil-teachership r.'j had ior two nioic rubbed shoulders with rr. her young toachois, and come under the j. spiral ion of masters of method at our training colleges. .Second, if our boards would relieve fl>e inspectors from a great mass of their clerical work in tabulating useless repuity ard percentage tables, and set free i-ifixi- gen I lemon v/ho are our masters m the firt rf teaching, and say to them: "Here is tJii.s man en whose work you report adVi^oly; he hns not had much opportunity of seeing good methods of teaching; take his «. !:"ol for a ivixk and show him how the w ,ili ba done." Surely such example ■would be worth shelves of reports stored ,'nwiy in the dusty archives of some education oJnce; but reports tint turn the enthusiasm of young teacher* ir.to (badness and .indifitifnce.

Making due [illotvancp for (he disabilities \iii("if!i - which tctichcrs still work we mu&fc admit I hat our In jjolhelical boy enters a schoolroom that has many advantages over the ono of 50 years ago. Educators have awakened to the fact that above all sunshine is necesBiii'v to the development of children ; nnd one of the mo^t pleasing features of the present day is reform in the methods of teaching .with severity reduced to a minimum. The science of child study, which is attracting attention in England and America, is not altogether neglected among us. Thus the boy's first introduction to school life is simply a continuation and an expansion of his early sports aud gomes, with education added in

the disguise of play. Through the agency <-f music, through kindergarten, and more anpen.illy through I.'ie bright presence of woman, our irif.int rooms have becoino places of dtl'ghfc for the little folks. Tnluition Lt^e needs no helx> from science — intuition ivlvch seizes hold of child-needs aud slowiy aids development along rational lines. When tho upper school is reached considerations connected with the individual pass system and with the percentage will militate much against riie harmony abo<. c described. The problem for the teaohtr la how best to | fit each given elukl to a £VOi standard in a ! given time. The teacher must at any cost fit the two in the pWcv fiiuo. If a child has no talent in the din- tion of said subjects which do you tniuk wiU sn.iir in the uniting process? The teacher must liud the means of getting all into the regulation mould, else will his reputation suffer as well as the unfortunate child. As earnest men we have after a long trial good cause to complain of the individual pass system. It prevents education, it encourages cram, it gives many children & positive distaste for the acquisition of knowledge associated in their minds with detention and with useless exactions. The countries in the VAn of educational reform have adopted other means of testing teachers' work. The system has been discontinued in England, and yam" Jamshyd and Bahrain, the great himnot a clog was heard to bark al lls going. You remember in Fitzgerald's " Omar Khayter. Who were these? I think that Jamshyd was the individual-pass system, and ISa'liram the teacher, fostered on the Fame — the man who hunts for examination papers, •for the latest fads of the inspector, and who, by a careiul process ol elimination, seeks to anticipate the coming questions. What is to be the fate of both? This, and we trust it is not tar distant: M<?i: say the lion and the lizard keep Tho comts where Jamshyd gloried and diank

deep. Ami Bahrain, that great hunter — the wild Si imps o'er his head, and he lies fast asleep.

The boy, then, has passed through our standards.'' He is armed with a B6 certificate. He has even di&porled him&elf by the limpid &lreams oi that unknown land, Class X — a land of freedom to the percentagehaia&sed teacher, to the standard-vexed boy — the land of which the poet sang when he wrote :

A ' flowery land, Fair beyond words, that thence I brought away Sotno blossoms that before my footsteps lay.

He has learned to read, but his taste does not soar much above the account of the latest ! football match. Much time has been spent ' in memoiising the battles and d.ites of diverse ! wars, but that courage and devotion which 1 lead men to fight, bleed, and die for honour and for right receive but a passing reference. Some few precious moments pass in determining when the hands of a clock are together between certain hours, but the value of time and the momentous possibility of the 1 present hour do not enter into the calcula- ; tion ; useless lessons have been given on the J nature of strong verbs, but no training in that 1 stiength of will which can say " No " at the j critical moment. His memory has been burt dened with a great mass of useless lumber, j which he has returned in kind to his instrucI tors, much to his own relief, if not quite ito the satisfaction of his tormentors. Boj\s . must have suffered somewhat from the same ■ Me in the days of Epictetus, or perhaps with ! the vision of a seer the philosopher was vrarn- | ing the teachers of the nineteenth century when he wrote : " The sheep are not to produce the grass which they have eatui, but wool and milk."

For two or three years after he leaves us our youth is in a transition state. He has cut himself loose from the restraints imposed upon him as a pupil in the schools. In the majority of cases he shows much respect for his late masters, for when they come suddenly upon him in turning the street corner ho will hastily put behind his back the inevitable cigarette. This is something, indeed much, to be grateful for. He fails not to forget to continue the physical part of his education. His -welcome half-holidays and spare moments are f.pent on the cricket ground, on the football field, or in the gymnasium. There is not much trace of evidence that he spends many evenings in reading aught but penny dreadfuls. Of literature he remains for many years ignorant — probably never enters the portals, unless some hr.ppy accident directs his steps thither. A brave attempt is now being made to do this in a small degree for the children of New Zealand by the publication of that admirable little paper " Schoolmates." And what will a love for literature do for our boj'-s? Reading its masterpieces will supply thought to (he thought lexs; it will inculcate patriotism by its wealth of noble examples ; it gives a youfh a thirst for knowledge and a living intciest in the history of thought; it cultivates the imagination and touches the emotions; it educates that nobler will which is on essential in true manhood. Our youth liiis entered the tiying arena of commerce, or ha labours to attain the skill of the artisan, or he struggles for the endurance of the farmei. What will books be to him? The answer comes in the eloquent words of Daw-

so'i. ''When the body weaves and the nerves fail we fly at once to 'the woods or to ihc rea ; but the words of Snake »peare aro greener far than any that thtsssJ eaithly eyes will ever see, and the seas of yheliey gleam with a wonder and a charm thai no depth or turbulence of earthly waters ever had. Rosalind meets us there, for the forest is the forest of Arden ; Julian and Maddalo, for the sea is the sea. of Italy. There is no tedious journey nor humbling inquisition of ways and means; we reach our piouiiscd land in the beating of a pulse.'' Our boys and girls ought to be led to this promised land, not by accident, but by design. We believe that the public school teachers have the power to do this much more effectively than at present were they not hampered by certain disabilities. Fully conscious of the weakness of human nature, we still demand to be freed from the incubus of over-exoiiiinalion. We ask that the years of our probation be passed in better-equipped colleges for the training of teachers, and that this privilege of thorough training be extended to all the young teachers of the colony. We further believe that with ihe abolition of our individual-pass system our inspectors will be freed to us&ist us materially

in the art of teaching, in making our school tile more buoyant, brighter, and healthier in tone. They will bo welcomed in our schools as elder brothers who from the height of experience are capable of sympathising with our failures, of aiding our efforts, and of removing the incrustations of habit. Further we believe that some special provision ought to be made to bring us into closer touch with the educational systems of older and more cultured countries. In the Homeland, in America, and in Germany rapid strides are being made to advance the cruise of primary education, if the splendid recent literature on the subject is any criterion— a literature entirely new in style, inculcating more scientific methods, urging a closer study of child life, and breathing an intense enthusiasm for the. "New Education." We must look to it that our youth are not left behind while we are offering up incense al the shrine of a tetish. Under a reformed .system, and with the help of better method, we hope soon to adopt in practice as in theory the kinder^-* nen hiotlu, " We live for our children.'"