TECHNICAL EDUCATION

Otago Witness, Issue 2818, 18 March 1908, Page 15

TECHNICAL EDUCATION

DR DON'S IMPRESSIONS. WHAT IS BEING DONE IN GERMANY, j At the meeting of the Dunedin and Suburban School Committees' Association on the 9th the following paper was read by Dr Don: — The first country at which I made any considerable stay was Japan, where I spent six weeks, and saw a good deal of educational work, from the primary school to the university. Of course one does not expect to learn anything new about Western education in Japan, where the industrious little folk westernised themselves (at the point o£ the bayonet) less than half a century ago; but a good judge has spokten of the Engineering College of Tokio as "the most complete and best equipped engineering school in the world," and though I don't think that critic had visited Berlin, yet one is amazed at the progress made in less than 50 years, and at the sacrifices which a poor nation is ready to make in the cause of education. A good deal of my time in Tokio was spent at the Imperial "University, where I was struck no less by the earnestness of the students than fey the la-visii expenditure on everything that tends to bring the little folk up to the level of the envied Western nations. While I was in Tokio a great exhibition of" purely Japanese art and manufactures •was being held. A foreigner might find a great deal to a3mire in the wonderful carving and other art work at the exhibition, held as it was in the mignificent Uyeno Park, with its charming avenues of cherryblossom, but I thought it a sign of the times that the exhibit which was incomparably the most popular with the Japanese ■was a 12in gun! The important little artillery officer told off lo explain its merits was always surrounded by an interested crowd. As we passed one day the officer was, as my interpreter explained, proudly claiming that the whole of the mechanism was Japanese! With regard to the Japanese student — and he is to be seen in thousands — I heard but one opinion from the many professors and teachers I met. They all affirmed that the majority of students worked, too hard, often on insufficient food ! I wonder, if a poll were taken of, say, our high school and university teachers, whether they would have the same verdict to announce with regard to their students. Mosr of mj time in Japan was spent arcong the mountains, and while I was at Lake Hakone I had a good opportunity of seeing the Japanese student out of school, for some 500 or 600 students of the Imperial University and various technical colleges were spending their spring vacation at the lake. One day, I remember, I met a large number of students from the | Foreign Language School of Tokio on the lake. More than a score of them were learning Spanish. They had promised their teacher. that they would speak only Spanish and ISnglish during the vacation, and, as far as I could judge, many of them spoke Spanish lib© a Hidalgo. When they enumerated the foreign languages taught at their college, and omitted English, I said, "And English, of course." "I" beg your pardon," said the student, " English is not a foreign language in Japan." One was amazed to hear all of them speak English — some of them, quite fluently. In fact, this eagerness to learn English is seen everywhere in Japan. Travelling up country, for instance, one hardly pot clear of the train when one was besieged by youths who offered to show him round, adding, "I ch*rge no fee, but I should much liketo practise my English." I have mentioned the pride with which the Japanese points to bis big guns or engine* aa being- att Japanese work. I happened to ber umpire a* an amusing discussion between two Japanese students, one of whom claimed wireless telegraphy as the invention- of Mr X (a Japanese, of course). He had, he said, got the information from bis teacher of physics. The other student was certain that an Italian named Marconi had invented the system, for were not the messages called Marconigrams? The matter was referred to me. Of course, on the principle that " dog deesn't ea-fr dog," I couldn't give away another teacher; so like Sir Roger de Coverley I looked as if "much might be said on both sides," and gave my decision thai thongh, . of course T the system was invented by Marconi, I had no doiibt that Mr X had greatly improved it! I have a very pleasant recollection of being entertained with song (in both English and Japanese) by another body of students, who had fought a sham fight on the way to the lake, in which 50 Japanese were pitted against 150 "Russians." (Of course, the Japanese won the battle!) You must understand that the Japanese, like the Maori, has the greatest difficulty in pronouncing " I." He uses "r " instead. It was a little amusing to hear the whole company singing lustily of "The rast rose o£ summer reft brooming arone," or "Be it **;*'- so number, there's no prace rike 'home." Really, the singing wasn't half bad. I believe I've heard a. score of students in a university nearer home singing a rol- ! licking students' chorus in nearly as many j keys at a time as the 200 Japanese used. j One leaves with regret the country of these kind, clean industrious little folk ; but the man who thinks at all cannot help asking whether China, with her 5000 students in Tokio learning to look, at Wes- i tern civilisation and science .through i Japanese spectacles, may not have in -her the possibility of a sudden awakening such j as we see in Japan. One wonders whether our grandchildren may not be called on to stand shoulder to shoulder with .the white races of Europe in stemming the torrent "of Eastern aggression. ' However that may be, one does not require to live long in Japan before he eees that there is no policy possible for us in these colonies but the most rigid exclusion of the Mongol. Ws simply cannot afford to allow these intelligent, temperate, industrious folk to compete with us. Whether it is necessary for us to be ready to enforce our exclusion law by training our people to bear arms is, of, course, a matter for our statesmen. As a mere schoolmaster, I " wadna- preshoom " to speak on such high matters ! From Japan I crossed to Vladivostock, and reached Moscow by the trans-Siberian railway. Of course, I merely saw the couri- : try and the people from the railway, there- J fore I am not Qualified to pass judgment on Foster F^aser's book "The -Real

Siberia"; but I can't holp thinking that when Mr Fraser painted for us the brilliant future of Siberia he rcust have peopled it in imagination with Canadian or American farmers We had an. excellent opportunity of seeing the Russian, peasant, since the Russian Government was sending him in thousands from the famine-stricken West of Siberia to the east; and, to put it mildly, I should at leaet say that the moujik is not progressive. I spent nearly two months in Germany, and you will, I hope, pardon me if this paper deals with German schools rather than with those of the Old Country. That, we have a great deal to learn from Germany with regard to technical education is recognised even in England. At the opening of the Leeds Technical Institute in 1903 Lord Rosebery tried to impress on hie hearers the fact that Britain was lagging behind Germany in this matter. " Educate, educate, educate," said the British statesmen. . . It had been hoped that we should have caught up Germany, but. to us the most distressing figures in regard to education were the German onps. Two or three examples may be quoted to chow how Germany hat. profited by the application of scienco in her industries. Take first the dyeing industry. (By the way, thp original discovery on which the German dyeing industry is founded was the work of an English chemist). In 1375 the total prodUC-' tion of coal-tar colours in Germany was worth one million and a-quaiter sterling. In 1905 it reached seven millions sterliDP". In 1875 100 tons of beetroot produced eight and a-half tone of sugar. In 1905 100 tons of beet produced 13£ tons of eugar. Liz ISBS there were produced as a waste product in a German, process of steel manufacture 25,000 tons of basic slag, a manure found to be of great importance because of the phosphorus it contains. In 1905 Germany produced over 1,000,000 tons of basic slag, thus exploiting her iron ores with the one hand and enriching her fields with the other. Surely a system that produces suoh results will repay careful study. That the German system produces an army of men capable of directing the increasingly complex processes of modern industry is admitted on all hands. Now, what are the reaeons for this? One feels hardly able to go so far as the writer iri^a recent number of the Fortnightly Review, when he says, "Every youth in the Gorman Empire is trained methodically and suitably lo his station, and develops according to the amount of intelligence he possesses," but one must admit that the statement con tains at least a germ of truth. My own impression is, not that the German workman is superior to, say, the British, but that his efforts are directed at every point by thoroughly-trained experts, who are the result of the wonderfully-efficient eystem j of higher education in Germany. And I must 6ay, at the outset, that the German system is little concerned about manual training for its youth. The greater part of the energies of Germany's splendid array of teachers are devoted to exercising (1) the brains of the pupils, and (2) their power of oral expression^, When one mentions the manual training of the English schools one is met by the laughing rejoinder, *' Don't you think that your English boy lias enough of activity in his arms and legs? Would it not be worth while for jour teachers- to teach him how to use his thick head?" This indifference of the German to manual training and this exaggera-"tion-'of the importance of oral expression is nowhere more striking than in his science teaching-. One accustomed, as I Have always been, to magnify the importance of practical work in science for each individual student is simply staggered by observing that even in the higher real-gymnasia nearly all the work done in science is pure demonstration by the teacher! The apparatus for the teacher is excellent, and no expense is spared in improving it and keeping it up to date. No practical work is , done by the pupils. But, on the other hand., the master often stops and insists on full oral explanation, of the work done. I have , frequently seen the most important experi- . merits interrupted while the pupils explained with great minuteness the steps that had been taken, and the reason for each J You will, I hope, pardon my " talking shop" at such length, but the demonstration lesson with oral explanation by the pupils was a re\ elation to me. Of Technical Universities, or, as the Germans prefer to call them, Technical High Schools, there are 10 in Germany, with over 18,000 students, and 'it must be remembered that the students come to them at least as well prepared in mathematics, and especi- j ally in the power of understanding the prin- j ciplcs underlying their technical work, and | of fcxpressing- themselves either in speech or writing, as our students who have taken the full course for the B.A. or B.Sc. degree. One would be almost justified in saying that in the theoretical work lying at the foundation of his technical training the student who enters for his degree of Doctor of Engineering at j Charlottenburg begins where cur graduates leave off. In these institution* I was able to give some time to study of methods at Aix-la-Chapelle, Dresden, and Chariot tenburg (a suburb of Berlin). When one mentions that at Charlottenburg Uiere are about 250 teachers and 4030 students, you will understand that even if one were a German scholar he might spena a month there before he grasped the ' ma»n'tudo of the work. I spent two days at Churlottenburg (with an interpreter at my elbow, of course), observing chiefly the work of the chemical department and of those branches of study connected with chemical i research. In order that we may understand how really efficient the German student is before he enters a technical high echool. it may be worth while to sketch shortly the school system of Germany. That system varies slightly in the different States, but roughly German schools may be classified into — (a) Primary. — (1) Lowest or folk schools, either free or witn a very low fee — say, Id a week. (2) Higher primary or middle schools, with a higher fee. In those two classes of schools the vast majority of pupils are educated, entering the school at six years of ago and leaving it at 14 to enter business or trade. Except for continuation schools, which are compulsory in some States, and trade schools in " the cities, these get no technical training-. (b* High schools, which are either classical or modern. In all these M-hcol*, both primary and secondary, the pupils (or rather 95 per cent, of them) are moved up one class each year by the head master. The pupils are not tortured at any stage of their school life by an examiner from outside the school. The district inspector, who visits the schools perhaps once in three or four years, is an inspector and adviser rather than an examiner. Only those in

claes (b), the high school, are allowed to ■ attend the technical high schools. It must be remembered that the high school boy who completes his course creditably is compelled to serve in the army for only one year, instead of the usual two or three. This privilege is, I am sure, of the very greatest value in improving discipline, and in encouraging effort in the German high schools. Several times I wa6 told by German high school teachers who had spent some years in England, and who ah\ ays spoke of the English high school with goodhumoured contempt, " You will ne\ er have higher education worth the name in England till you introduce compulsory military service, and let your workers 6ff with one year of service, while the sluggards must take two or three." Their experience, I should say, had usually been gained in the proprietary "high schools" of England — the sort of school that nourishes in large numbers in many provincial towns. In such schools you will generally notice that a large sign in front announces that the establishment is a " High School for the Sons of Gentlemen." On a smaller board over the side gate you will often ccc the notice, " Entrance to the Kindergarten Department " Where the kindergarten ends and the "' high " school begins is about as clear as the imaginary line drawn between sons of gentlemen and sons of other folk. Few of these German teachers ha.ye. I should say, any experience of the modern day school connected with municipal technical institutes in England, but for all that tbeir criticism ie at least worth noting. Let us see now what work a scholar who inte-ids finishing at a German technical high school must have done before entering. 1. At the age of six he must, enter a preparatory school, and. it must be remembered that even here he is never made to afford material for the unfledged pupil teacher. Every teacher in Germany must have passed a training college course before having charge of even the lowes* primary class. (In Saxony a man may not teach even hit* own children unlece he is a certificated teacher.) 2. At the age of 10 he enters the high school, where he works at least six yeais, but usually nine years. His school hours are from 30 to 37 hours a week, while home work takes up 15 to 18 hours more. His attendance nt school is phenomenally regular. It should be mentioned that neither in town nor in country schools does 1 the teacher's salary depend in any way on the average attendance. The teacher is a civil servant, who?e salary increases with the length of his service, whatever be the number of children he leaches. His pension, too, on retiring usually amounts to two-thirds of his average salary. Notwithstanding the fact that teachers' salaries in no way depend on average attendance, the attendance at all classes of German schoole is, as I have said, phenomenally regular. In the high schools, where the fees paid by .parents are generally from £4 to £7 a year, one understands why this should be so. In the folk schools the keen interest taken by nearly all Germans in the education of their children, and the extraordi nary simplicity of the school attendance law, secure almost perfect regularity. As members of school committees come of my hearers have probably had trouble with' the truant, and have been specially exasperated when the parent of the youth- j ful offender has been let off with a caution i by a sympathetic justice of the peace, j They will be interested to know that " they manage these thing): better in Ger- j many." It may be noted in passing thai. ' in Germany at least, the parent is supposed i to be responsible for -.he upbringing of his I children, and truth to tell, he usually recognises that responsibility. The Gcr- | man police officer would, I should say, ■ have an apoplectic fit if anyone should suggest that part of his duties consisted of " chivying " unwilling children to school . The procedure is as follows i — Every week the names of all ohildren who are absent ' without valid excuse are sent by the teacher j to the head school authority, usually the mayor of the town. They are distributed among the police, who go straight to the offending parent, and warn him. If the name appears on the defaulters' list next J week the policeman collects the statutory j fine on the spot. If the name appears j a third time the offending parent goes straight from hi 3 work to gaol ! No wonder the attendance is good, even in the poorer quarters of the cities. (I saw no slums in Oermany, nor did I see that sight so pitifully common in England — a ragged, j dirty, or neglected child). One headmaster j who had directed a large folk school for ! ! over 20 years told me that he had nevei , ■ been compelled to report a case for which , a. parent, required imprisonment. In the ! country the attendance is just as regular, ! for there are practically no isolated homej steads. All the inhabitants live in the , village, and the children go to school j there. Imagine the relief of school in , spectors and education boards who are I worried about the establishment of new schools in our country districts, if such ( a custom obtained here! I am afraid I have wandered somn die- . tance away from our technical scholars, buL I was so impressed by the perfection of the German arrangements for feeding her . technical high schools that I hope you will . pardon me for referring to them at length. ] In one point, and that you will admit a j most important one, the German system seems to us sadly defieienk We are rightly proud of our " educational ladder, " by which it is possible for a child of the poorest parents to reach the highest position. A-j far as my experience goes, when one looko ' for the German educational ladder it ( simply isn't there. Perhaps lam wro.iy It may be theie, but I certainly didn't see it. ' Turning now to the continuation and trade schools, what of the vaet majority of pupils who have been educated up to ( 14 years of age in the folk schools and the middle schools ? It is well to remember , that they get no technical education as that term is understood in Germany. In j Saxony they must, unless they are receiving higher technical instruction, attend a continuation school. Many of the largo towns are following the example of Saxony, and are compelling their boys to ) attend night and afternoon schook. j Even where these schools are not com- . pulsory one finds that they have the strong" support of the employers, who will- I ingly give their apprentices at lea^t one afternoon a week 6O that they may attend the continuation school. The discipline in these schools is very strict, the teacher being in some cases empowered to give an unruly pupil 12 hours' imprisonment. The morals of the pupils are also etrictly regulated, attendance at public dances or con- , certs of doubtful nature being forbidden. It must be remembered that these con- 1

tinuatfon schools are not in any sense schools for teaching trades. The subjects that receive practically the whole attention of the teachers are German, mathematics, and drawing. Of course, in the large cities there are a great number of trade schools, which are supported by the various trade associations subsidised by the State, and here again one find 6 that the masters are always ready to give their apprentices the time necessary for attendance. A& one large employer put it to me: "All over the world the old apprentice system is breaking down, but by the time they leave the Berlin trade schools our boys know much more of their trade and of the principles on which it is founded than they could possibly learn under the old apprentice system." It would take us too long to glance at, the various agencies in England which have developed from the old mechanics' institutes and their successors the polytechnics. These, no doubt, did excellent work in the past, but of late years the conviction has been growing in Britain that a thorough technical training could be built only on the broad foundation of a sound secondary education. This conviction has produced the municipal technical day schools, which are to be found in i every considerable town, and which must 1 before long greatly raise the standard of British technical education. In these schools are gathered the most promising 1 o.f the scholars who have passed through the primary schools. A great proportion of the pupils hold- scholarships, and the Government makes a most liberal provi- , skin of £10 for the first year. £12 for j the second, and £15 for the' third year to all pupils on regular attendance, whiie £he local authority raises the money ! needed for building, equipment, etc., by means of rates. Practically every town that j maintains night classes has established i a day technical school. These schools are particularly well developed in the North of England, and besides seeing many of ■ them in connection with the Polytechnics I of London, I spent some weeks in Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds, Bolton, and other towns studying their work and methods. Of course, the evening classes, which, like our own technical classes, are attempting to combine the functions of the German trad©, .continuation, and technical schools, still form by far the most important part of the work of these municipal technical schools (the number of day scholars forming generally about & per cent, of the total number in attendance), but the day classes are growing in importance and are doing excellent work in training men to take the lead in, British industry. In my own special science subject (chemistry), for example, when speaking to the professors of those universities at which many of these day scholars finish their course, I heard the , most flattering, reports of the preparatory work done by these municipal day schools. " Before these clay schools were opened," they said, "our elementary classes were crowded with students who knew little or nothing of elementary chemistiy, and whose general .education was, to say the least, unsatisfactory. Now our senior classes and research laboratories are full of students %yho have had an excellent preliminary training at the municipal technical schools." But I must hurry on to give some account of the training in agriculture that I was able to see in Europe and England. I hacf read a good deal about the excellence of agricultural training in Germany. Probably in no other country has science done so much for the farmer. Take a single instance Forty years ago 100 tons of beetroot produced about six tons of sugar. Today each 100 tons of beetroot produce nearly 14 tons of sugar. This amazing re1 suit has been made possible only by the | combination of the most highly trained specialists in both agricultural and manufacturing processes. Sugar, you know, is simply charcoal and water, and both constituents are derived from the air, without taking the smallest morsel of nourishment from the soil, so that German science has bred' the beetroot to rob the air of moro than twice as much sugar to the acre as it yielded 40 years ago. What would it mean to New Zealand, I wonder, if by scientific agriculture "and breeding we could add, say, 50 per cent, to our butter and milk yields without, increasing the number of our dairy cows,? Yet I dare say it is quite possible. In Germany agricultural education is given in : (1) The day schools of the country ; (2) special farm schools and special winter schools of agriculture; (3) agricultural colleges in the cities and special agricultural departments in the universities. With regard to the teaching of elementary agriculture in the country schools, I must confess that I was disappointed. In some districts, where the school inspector takes a special interest in agrioulture, school gardens (which are found at every country school) are most useful in giving the children elementary notions about agriculture, but even here, from my own observation, I should say that the plants grown in the garden are chiefly used as a help towaiiis oral expression, the most valued part of German primary education. The plants serve, indeed, as live objects for the " object lesson," "which in Germany is really a lesson in oral composition. The winter schools, of which there are about 200 in Germany, are. I believe, in tended for the sons of peasants who intend to be small farmers. I did not, of course, see any ef these schools at work. The farm schools are peculiar. "The director rent- a large farm, and the students help him to work it. He must make his farm pay, so the instruction is likely to be practical at least. The really valuable agTicu tural education of Germany is given at special agricultural high schools and at the universities. Here the experiments are carried out that have made Germany famous for its solving of the higher problems of agrioulture. To take one example of these. The agricultural school of Hohenheim, near Stui tgart, with its staff of 30 professors and assistants to about 120 students, gives one. a faint idea of the value that Germans attach to higher agricultural education. I visited the school during the summer vacation, but was astonished at the magnificent equ : pment provided by the State for a comparatively sm.a.ll body of students. As is the case in the German technical high schools, the students, before entering at Hobenheim, must have passed through a long course of high school work, and the same rule holds for entrance to the agricultural departments of the Universities of Berlin, Leipsic, Konig3berg, etc. On the whole, my experience in Germany goes to prove that in agriculture, as in manufacture, Germany is chiefly concerned

about giving £o the product of her magnihoent secondary schools the best possible opportunity for doing the highest scientifio .vork. She is less concerned than we about the rank and file of her industrial army. $ had heard a Rood deal about the school garden in France, and spent a fortnight visiting country schools in the North and East of France. Every school I visited had » .garden, generally beautifully kept, but so far Afl I was able to judge it was not irfuch used for instruction in agriculture. French country schools work under a most comprehensive syllabus of agricultural knowledge, but, as is often the case, an ambitious syllabus means poor work. In educational matters, at all events, it is not always true that "H« who aims at the sky shoots higher than he who aims at a tree.'' I have left myself no time to tell what I saw of commercial education. I saw some of the work at the two Handels Hochschalen at Cologne and Leipsic, the fame of which schools is so great that quite 25 per cent. of the students are foreigners. The same high standard at entry already noticed is exacted here. Students must have taken the full nine years' high school course, and be at least 18 years of age before entering. Since I returned, I spent a fortnight in. Auckland, Wellington, and Chrietchurch, in order to see how the folk up north* have taken advantage of the really splendid provision made by the New Zealand Government for technical education. Of the manual training carried on in the public school I know nothing, but I was amazed to »cc the scale on which the technical classes of the North Island are carried on. In, -Auckland especially one is struck by the progress made it^-the teaching of agriculture. Of course, all three districts, and even Wangajauir' have appointed "an expert in agriculture to organise the teaching of the subject to country schools. I wao specially interested in the elforts made in the Auckland district by Mr Jackson to train the rural teachers in elementary agriculture. At Hamilton and Cambridge, for example, classes for teacher* were held, and the country schools were annually closed for 13 weeks to give the country teachers an opportunity of Attending and working at these classes. Theie is no doubt that Auckland is making a good start in the direction of making the school garden and Nature-etudy classes of real interest and value to the country children. An important step is to be taken this year. A technical etey school is to he established at Hamilton, where agriculture and dairy work will take the place of the technical work now undertaken by the day technical schools in the larger centre^. I notice* that our Otago board has decided to appoint an instructor in agriculture. I hope that if they appoint a New Zealand man they will not be deterred by any opposition from eivmj? him an opportunity to see what is being done elsewhere in agricultural education. Even a year spent I should say, in the Tnited States and Canada, and in Holland and Denmark, where science- has done so much for the dairy industry, would. I am sure, provo of inestimable benefit both t" him ani! to the schools he may rlhvjc f Rpt'Tii tie fevr a momont to the rlav +»c*ini' >' c cbool«. ther*> is no doubt thnt th(^» with the liberal Ooiornmont jubsldv pf £15 a year for every scholar in

regular attendance, are already doing excellent work, and will greatly strengthen the technical associations where they are established. In Auckland and Christchurch the attendance is in each case nearly 100, and in Wellington, where till this year no facilities were granted in the high schools for continuation scholars, the attendance is nearly 500. Only the Wellington school has been long enough in operation to enable one to measure results, but there the director finds that while a considerable percentage of the junior free pupils remain as senior free pupils, even those who leave at the end of the two years' junior course make the best students of . the evening classes. In conclusion, I should like to say that, after seeing something of technical and agricultural work in Europe, one is struck by the fact that New Zealand i« making what for a new country must be regarded as excellent provision for technical and agricultural training. If full advantage be taken by the youth of our country of the facilities now offered, we need not fear that we shall be behind in the race.