EDUCATING TWINS

Taranaki Daily News, 18 July 1930, Page 15

EDUCATING TWINS

REMARKABLE EXPERIMENT. CARNEGIE STATION’S PROPOSAL. A novel educational experiment with a view to determining the relative val- | ties of rival systems is to be conducted in America. It is proposed to establish in New York a school for “identical twine,” who are of the same box, and arc almost exact mental and physical images of each other. One of each pair will be taught by advanced, the other by standard methods; and from time to time their progress will be compared. Dr. Albert F. Blakeslee and Dr. Howard J. Banker, of the Carnegie Experimental Station, are the proposers of I the scheme. They state that there are over 100 pairs of identical twins, or 200 pupils, of this type in New York, and that these would provide an ample number of pupils for a start/ The advantages of the experiment are obvious. So far it has been impossible to tell how far in a particular case exceptional progress is due to any one teaching system, and how far to the individual brilliance of the pupil. Jt may always be argued that the clever child w ho does well- when taught by one method might do even better under another that is fundamentally different. But in this “identical twin” school that difficulty will have been overcome. Each of a pair would start with equal potentialities and opportunities — from scratch, as it were. And a frequent comparison of their relative progress may yield valuable results. In the teaching of languages, for instance, it could soon be seen whether a child taught by modern conversational method does actually learn more quickly' than one who is started on the established principle of “grammar first.” The views of English educationists on the proposed experiment are interesting. Mr. Claude Claremont, resident director of the Montessori School, at Hampstead, was not at all enthusiastic. “In my opinion,” he said, “any advanced educational method that is. worth its flftlt should be able to justify itself on results, without resorting to possibly dangerous and misleading experiments of this kind. I must make it clear that I speak for yself, and not as the reresentative of Dr. Montessori, who is a J the moment in Italy. Human creatures are not things to play tricks with, even when there seems to be justification. At least some of the children in this ‘identical twin’ school would be bound to suffer; for many of the ‘standard’ methods of education have already proved definitely bad beyond any question of doubt, it is a wicked thing to give t .y child an education less goood than the best possible.” The Rev. Dr. H. Costley-White, D.D., headmaster of Westminster School, pointed out that, although experiments in teaching met- jds may be valuable up to a point, their importance is liable to be over-estimated. “The problems which have to lie solved by the educationist,” he said, “go far beyond the question of how best to inculcate knowledge. Education, in the broadest sense, means so much more than that. In the case of children, for instance, surroundings and environment arc, perhaps, even more important than what they learn.” " More enthusiastic was Dr. Cyril Burt, who has been psychologist to the Education Department of the London County Council since 1913. “If this school,” he said, “is to be conducted by the Carnegie Experimental Station, it is certain to be run on sound lines. These ‘identical twins’ have already been the subject of a number of experiments, carried out on both sides of the Atlantic —but this scheme is an entirely new one, and it sounds as though it might have valuable results. I take it that none of the children would be taught by methods that are considered definitely bad, and eo are not likely to suffer any harm. Would I welcome the establishment of a similar school in this country? I would rather wait to eee whether or not the results obtained in America are positive.”