EDUCATION IN AMERICA.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIC, Issue 13890, 29 April 1909, Page 5

EDUCATION IN AMERICA.

Tlie':London ■ "Spectator•" to hand; by Home'mail last-week, contains a very interesting article on American education, based on the impressions of Miss Borstal],' headmistress of the- Manchester High School for Girls, who- la'st winter studied the subject of her calling in the "United States. . She has published her impressions in book form, and her own experience as a teacher differed so much from what she observed in America that she has' entitled the book '• Contrasts in Education." One of the most outstanding of her impressions was . that in- the United States there is a universal desire to give "the . widest possible chances..to mental ability. This leads Americans to ' seek to educate the- mass, not. to give special attention to the more promising pupils, as; is the :case, '.-Miss -Burstall says, in English schools. As .a, result of this desire, . the scholarship system has. not been-'developed; it is held that the exceptional boy or girl will rise in any case;- the important thing is to advance the average, age intellects. -For the same reason the system of prize-giving is. discouraged. Discipline, is maintained with a minimum of penalties and punishments, and itiss Burstall ,was advised to sweep these away altogether from her school.Religious teaching is not included in the programme of Ariieriean schools, and with, her English training and habits of course the visitor thought this a. great defect. ,"Hpw great is oiir advantage,", she remarks, "in retaining in our schools the religious education which has always formed-a chief part of our ideal." Miss Burstall has-much to say in praise of an American system of "accrediting" pupils to the Universities without special examinations. Her conclusions, ; based on; avide' enquiry, are that it works welf. Records show, after a ten ye.aTs''trial of' -the system, that the standards of scholarship are riot lowered;-' and. that 'mitfed ; 'on certificates-had- a slight, balance -in ; flieir' favour" : compared' with tfadse"admitted"on exaihination. It-is safe/to. say that Miss' Burstall has pir the whole-gone back'to.England witli highly impressions 'of '.her visit-'-to. American school's;. and educationists inVNew Zealand: will' doubtless fiml'-jsome'.. instruction and ? inspiration in';her-pages;. ". •'•.;.',"": ..--;• "■'- '•■;