Education Notes.

Southland Times, Issue 10201, 5 July 1889, Page 3

Education Notes.

• ♦ The Teachers' Conference has come and gone, with some is already well on the way to oblivion, to others is still affording pleasant recollections, ancl'by many may be found to have been the source of much good that will in due time .make itself manifest. A notable feature of " the gathering was the excellent representation of rural teachers, some of whom had come from the remotest parts of the district atno little inconvenience. Their enthusiasm was in marked contrast with the conduct of several teachers' of the larger schools who held altogether aloof — perhaps anticipating that the affair would proof a failure. All the more satisfactory, however, it must be to the active workers that a decided success was achieved. The members of the profession in New Zealand are not nearly so energetic or so systematic in promoting such conferences as are their conj'rtre>s in some other lands. In the Northern States in America, for example, a similar meeting of teacher? would bulk much more largely in the eye of the public and of the Press— though, it must be admitted, the local papers acted very liberally towards the Southland meeting. An old Yankee schoolmaster whom I used frequently to meet^in a neighbouring colony was never tired of speaking of the great " congresses " they had in the various centres. He was from Maine, the great nursery for teachers in his day. ''It supplied half the teachers out West," he would remark, with modest exaggeration. " And they were teachers," he would continue with equal modesty ; " they knew what government was. Your teachers out here don't understand government. They wouldn't stand a week in one of the Ohio or Kentucky schools. It needs government there, I tell you." By "government " he meant discipline, and he thought colonial teachers were sadly lacking in that requisite. At these education " congresses " it was the custom to engage the services of some eminent lecturer, and my friend was fond of relating the history of one held at Cleveland at which Garfield— not then risen to political or presidential fame — was the central figure. "How he could talk ! You didn't notice much how the time was slipping by when he started on a favourite subject. You just listened in spite of yourself." It must have been a case similar to that described by Coleridge, where the "Ancient Mariner" addresses the " Marriage guest"— " He beld him with his g]itt«ing eye." I do not think there was any instance of the •'glittering eye " at the Conference in Hanan's Hall, but some excellent papers were read there, nevertheless, and are deserving —what greater praise can one bestow ! — of come comment in these poor notes of mine. The President's address, fragmentary fhough it was, contained a few good things. Not bad was the remark that teachers sinned greviously in taking all praise to themselves when a pupil passed his standard creditably cr won a scholarship, instead of attributing the success to the excellence of endowed by Dame Nature. In this respect, I am afraid, dominies will remain as great brain powerwith which thesaid pupil had been sinners as e-er, despite Mr Von Tunzlemann's protest. Dr Busby in the days of Cromwell and of " the Merrie Monarch " used to point to sixteen bishops and remark tl but for my birch they would never have been there." But for the grim old pedagogue's birch — and he evidently knew how to "use it— their brains, presumably, would not have been duly exercised. With all due deference to the ex-President of the Southland Institute .the teacher is deserving of some credit when a pupil gains distinction. The lad or lass must have natural ability, but there must be judicious and assiduous ** coaching" as welL The athlete may have 0 fine muscular development and good respiratory organs, but he must submit to training er he won't be " placed " in the struggle. Another remark in the address struck me as deserving notice. It was to the effect #W,t uucertiificated teachers in Southland

the openly expressed opinion of a prominent Board member that these uncertificated tawse-wielders did as much execution as those who had been formally gazetted, that the certificated ones were in many instances mere numbskulls. The Board member had no doubt in mind the old story of how easy ifc was to obtain a degree at a certain Scotch — or must I say Scottish — University. Finding it only a matter of routine and money, a gentleman got a degree for his ignorant servant, and then by way of pleasant sarcasm forwarded his old horse to be similarly honoured. But the "gowned" -authorities Mere equal to the occasion, and returned the equine candidate with the intimation that although a degree had been frequently conferred on an ass there was no precedent for conferring such distinctions on a horse. Mr L — — should bear in mind that though a certificate— at least one got by fair examination — may not ensure on the part of the holder the possession of special ability or even <" gumption," it does ensure that he or she. has a prescribed amount of information on certain subjects, chiefly those that are required to be taught in our schools. There is no guarantee that the uncertificated teacher possesses even rudimentary knowledge, for a Southland

Board or committee does not undertake, as similar bodies in some of the States do, to examine into the.fitness of a candidate for a teachership. It is just as well, probably, that they do not ; but what an amount of fun is missed, especially if the examination were conducted orally and by some of tbe chairmen of the rural districts. Scenes would occur worthy of the pen of Bret Harte •r Mark Twain. The briefest reference must be made to the other papers; a mere passing word where under other circumstances it would be a delight to linger and expatiate ; but unlike the old astronomer I have not; infinite space at my command. The Archdeacon's paper set me observing the youthful part of our community and the scrutiny does nofc yield satisfactory results. There are too many round-shouldered and narrow-chested specimens growing up. Evidently there is no setting-up drill. Watch our Volunteer corps as they march past and for one youth — they are nearly all boys — of the true military build there are several of the King Richard the Third type. If our boys and , girls are to grow up with erect, square, muscular forms, they must have~ regular physical exercise at school. Why don't our schoolmasters see to it? Perhaps the time that might be devoted to such drill has to be spent in working up dullards for the annual examination in standards. There should be a physical standard as v/ell as a mental one, and then corporal training would not be so sadly neglected. Mr Denniston's paper ou " Grammar and Style " covertly insinuated that the schoolmaster is as a rule too stiff and formal in his writing and speech, and sometimes even ungrammatical. That some of our dominies make a sad hash of the Queen's English when they attempt to address a meeting must be admitted. Thus I heard one say at the Conference when an educational matter was under debate — "I would rather they rose the school age." He used the pronoun without its proper antecedent, and the intrausitive.verb instead of the transitive. This was the only glaring mistake I noticed ; and I must confess that some of the principal speakers had a good deal of the orator about them. Mr Clark's lucubrations on "Geography and how to teach it," albeit excellent, savoured just a little too much of the young man recently from his University studies. Mr Clark is calculated to rise high in the profession. A first paper may well smack somewhat of Alma Mater. Mr Highton's reminds me of an election incident in Victoria. Mr David Blair, a clever literary man, was a candidate for a country constituency, and his speeches bristled with anecdote, skilfully introduced. The editor of the local paper did not love Mr Blair, and, when reporting the speeches that the several candidates had made in the same hall one evening, according to the custom of the place to bring all the men together, while giving the addresses of Mr Blair's opponents in exten-so he dismissed his bete noir with the remark— "Mr David Blair then arose aud related an anecdote. " So if I were disposed to regard Mr Highton with feelings of aversion I might dismiss him with the sentence — " Mr Highton then got up and performed a little experiment." But of course Mr tl. 's paper was a very creditable one. It illustrated very forcibly, without any intention on the writer's part, the great change that has taken place in schools in respect of Science- teaching. Formerly the subject was neglected even in the higher schools, now it gets some attention in nearly all. Mr Highton's audience observed his little experiment with a good deal of astonishment. Had he been addressing boys and girls from some of our larger schools they would have betrayed no surprise at all for they have become used to such illustrations. Although the paper by Dr Closs excited much discussion, his main contentions are hardly debatable. They are, simply put : — The mental capacity of a boy or girl is limited ; if any of that capacity be used up in mastering a useless subject, there will be the less power for mastering what is useful ; if too many subjects be attempted, the pupil will uot fully grasp any of them, or, to use the doctor's phraseology, he will not gain " a, stable memory "of them ; the mind can not reach its maximum power, unless the body is well nurtured aud exercised ; school buildings should be constructed in strict accordance with the laws of health. These statements are now as familiar as household words. It was in his incidental remarks and illustrations that the doctor evoked feelings of dissent, and there chiefly because his utterances were somewhat obscure. His theory of the formation of a stable memory is the generally received one, but it is only a theory and not a demonstrated fact as one would suppose from the way ia which it was stated. Teachers are probably not fully acquainted with the structure of the brain and spinal cord and the effect education has upon them, but the doctor might have added that beyond more or less plausible theories members of the medical profession know very little themselves. In one place the doctor asks how a i committal to memory of Paradise Lost would help a boy to remember the towns along the Danube. Does not this remind one of a favourite kind of arithmetical problem— "lf three pounds of butter cost half-a-crown how long will a person take to walk from Invercargill to the Bluff." The doctor evidently meant that the energy used up in so great a task as committing to memory a long poem would make the pupil less able to gain "a stable memory" of necessary geographical facts. Learning poems by heart is for the purpose of filling one's mind with choice ideas and of enriching one's vocabulary ; and the [experience of ages has proved that it is a good exercise. However plausible or otherwise the theory may be that brain cells are used \:p in the process of memorising, folks will hold fast to the belief verified by their 'own experience and that of others fthafe the memory is strengthened by practice. The boy who at first finds it difficult to master one shorb stanza in an hour will after a while master with ease several longer ones in the same time. The used-up cells in reproducing their types, perhaps, gives place to superior articles, on the common evolution theory. The doctor did not express himself on that point. Viewing the address from a psychological point of view, one must confess that the tone is rather materialistic. Aliquis.