MORE CHALK AND LESS TALK

Southland Times, Issue 23599, 29 August 1938, Page 6

MORE CHALK AND LESS TALK

TREND IN MODERN EDUCATION

CHILDREN’S VOICES HEARD IN SCHOOL ROOM

“More chalk and less talk” was how Mr J. A. Cushen (head master of North Invercargill school (described the modern trend in school education in replying to a toast to the school at the jubilee banquet of the school on Saturday night. Mr Cushen said that in the old days the system of regimentation, with the children sitting up straight in well disciplined rows, and in a silence in which it was possible to hear a pin drop, was regarded as the ideal way of training children. “Now,” he added, “you would hardly hear an earthquake. Children learn today by doing, and they have freedom to develop along the lines which suit their individuality. Many of those who in the old days made 100 per cent, in arithmetic did not, it was found, make the best out of their lives. The idea today is to fit the child to take the part that is best suited to him in life.

“The teacher today is not what he was a few years ago. He realizes that he does not possess all the knowledge, and he does not command all the time. It is a case of more chalk and less talk. Children do most of the talking nowadays, and our children write to all the countries of the world, to tourist and information departments, and secure a good deal of useful information. Certainly some of it is in foreign languages, but it is well illustrated. I

“We stand in a changing age, and education today is not very much like the education the older pupils saw 60 years ago,” Mr Cushen said. “In older countries 60 years might be considered a very short period, but in New Zealand it is a very long period, and in that time many changes have taken place. We of the present generation accept the task you have put before us. High ideals have been entrusted to us by the older generations, and we are prepared to accept that responsibility. As education in the last 60 years has changed, so the process of education has changed. The ideals are the same but the principles have changed. Education is not static, and the ideals of the future will be very different from the ideals of today.”