EDUCATION OF THE CHILD.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXVI, Issue 10410, 25 July 1912, Page 3

EDUCATION OF THE CHILD.

Adelaide, July 3. Mr G H. Archibald, when speaKing at the conference of the Fnbllo School ■Teachers’ Union, said the saddest thing he had seen In Australia was the xuonnmeat erected in Melbourne to the passage of the eight-hours law. If he were king of the world he would never rest till he bad that down. (Dissent.) Fancy men ceasing work when they had to take away their children from school at the age of IB years. In England they did it, too. Bnt there they had to work 16 hours a day to earn a living. Ha hoped the time would come when yonder monument would come down, (Voices: “No, no.’’) Ha would rather work 16 hours a day than see bia boy taken away from school at the age of thirteen years. They would never make a nation of great and good oltizsn if She education of the child ceased then. The problem before Australia was a great one. Education in its fullest sense meant the development of all the powers and capabilities of the child. The object of education was not merely to turn out fine writers—they might easily become hue forgers—bnt to tarn ont good citizens fully developed. Generally speaking, the education systems ‘blundered because they did not follow tho child. ' True education must b.gin with the child, not with the book. The child repeated the history of the race, and once they had a true conception of the science of psychology, 'education would be based on the need of the Child who could best be reached through his erections.