UNDUE STRAIN

Southland Times, Issue 25307, 10 June 1935, Page 7

UNDUE STRAIN

EXAMINATION FETISH PROFESSOR ATTACKS SYSTEM CHILDREN AFFECTED (Per United Press Association.) Wellington, June 8. The cleaning of schools was referred to by Mr Gould, Professor of Education at Victoria College, following a report a few days ago in which a certain South Island school was referred to as a dirty dungeon. Mr Gould said that nothing was more important in the education of children than that the surroundings should be healthy and clean, but far too often classrooms were dirty and insufficieritly lighted, while children were crowded into rooms too small to accommodate them properly. Great advances had been made in the past 10 years, but our schools did not compare with those either in America or England. Mr Gould went on to speak of the examination system, which, he said, was totally out of alignment with the true aims of education. Not only did they put an undue and even a dangerous strain on the physical organism of boys and girls of all ages, and especially during puberty, but they warped and strained the mental outlook and stultified development resulted. Examinations allowed no scope for the development of individuality which was the fundamental aim of education. They so completely dominated the education system that the unfortunate child came out of school with a stock of knowledge bearing no relation to active experience of activity in life and consisted in the main of inert ideas. This was not the fault of the teachers, but of the system. The educational system was at fault, but if there was sufficient demand for the amelioration of the environment of children and improvement of the curriculum by broadening it and increasing its scope and contact with the experience and life of the child himself, this improvement would take place. It would seem education must begin with the old generation. New Zealand once prided herself on being the leader in educational matters, but she had now fallen behind England and America. There was nothing more important for the future of this country than that children should be better and more widely educated and people should realize their responsibility to the future of the race.