FAREWELL THE MASTER.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIC, Issue 13937, 24 June 1909, Page 2

FAREWELL THE MASTER.

WELCOME THE FRIEND. A? in other phaaes of life. :»j in the scholastic world, " the old order chnngeth, giving place to the new." The latest development noticeable at bchools is the cliauge which has taken place in the 'elations between the schoolmaster and his pupils. In the past- school children were accustomed to look upon their schoolmaster as a stern dignitary, whose special aim in life was to act as a kind of detective over them, one who would pounce upon and punish them for any departure from the strict- paths of rectitude inside or outside the school grounds, while deficiencies in scholastic attainments were to be aton-jd for only after the application of the strap or the cane. A wide gulf stretched between pupil and teacher., so wide that no though; of bridging it could by the remotest possibility enter the mind of the young. Happily, however, a new era lias set in, and now (in the words of Mr J. A. Valentine, master of the Timaru South School, who was interviewed on the subject yesterday), the old schoolmaster is dead, and in his stead the children rccgnise in the teachers Mho control their schoools, friendly directors, whose chief anxiety is to get into sympathy with and help their scholars in a spirit of comradeship/

| Some little time ago tin' liisocrtorGeneral of Schools, Mr G. Hogben. published some very in (cresting special reports 011 fducat-ional institutions in Europe and America, stress being placed 111 these, on the American method of pupil-government in .schools, and it was with a view to as"ert''ining whether this system had b-en tri-d in New Zealand that the reporter waited upon Mr Valentine last evening. It is stated that pupil-government- (by the older scholars)," independent of th'r direct authority of the teacher, iscarried out in t-lie schools of the United States with marked success. Mr Valentin o said that this matter was one to which he had given a lo* of thought,, as he had long r°**ognised the need for drawing the children together in a bond of common interest and to inculcate in them nrinciples of good citizenship and patriotism The American method icferred to was no' a new one; it had been in operation ft the Timaru South School for years, though not perhaps 011 such an extended scale as >"n America, the lack °/ . facilities in New Zealand schools limiting its application to a narrower sphere than in America. He Ind mad' a start wth it first through the boys belonging to the Cadet Corps, and he bad found it to work admirably. Members of the Corps were made responsible tor the maintenance of good order, and generally, for the looking after the playground and its attachments, their duty being to sec that no misconduct occurred, and in the event-, say, of a quarrel takimc place on the school ground, they would step in and stop it. The Cadet Companies which we had in New Zealand were different from anything they had in America, and in i-iieso we iiad an advantage over the American schools. But tlie latter had the advantage ovei us in the matter of buildings anu equipment, and they were able to teach 11. America, wttli a .thoroughness wnicli was not possible here. JAe had founc that by using the boys in the maniiei indicated 'above, a much higher toiu was imparted to the school, and a keener sense of -Juiy was developed, the boys, when tlicy felt themselves trusted, trying to live up to tly; trust that was reposed in them. When the oftier lads, not non-coms., saw tnc kin;, ot work done by the cadet officers, they endeavoured to tullow iu ineir loolsteps, and the tone of the whole school was unproved. Air Valentine said he had also tried in Ins school tin* system of government by school orderlies, ana he had very well pleased with this also. What- he did was to get the scholars to appoint (he would not on any consideration make the appointments himself) by bailot, those Lliey would prefer to have over them. Those appointed were thou "eves" foi hun, and the scholars felt that having themselves made the appointments they were in honour ■ bound to support those in authority over them, in the discharge of their duties. Supposing anything' went amiss on the play ground, as, . for instance, when the younger children were not getting fair I'lay, the orderlies would interfere and do what he would himself do iu the circumstances, had the matter come under his notice. They were alsc responsible for the good* conduct of children 011 the street going to or from school, and if anything wrong was reported to him, he had simply to refer to the orderly on whose " beat" it I had happened, for sll explanation. He was very pleased with the results, both Irom the orderlies and the cadet of 1 ficers. In school, when teaching was proceeding, and he was suddenly called out of the room, :.dvantage would not he taken of his absence. One of the pupils would be iliosen to take charge in his absence, ind implicit obedience would be yielded to him. On other oceasjons a boy would Lake charge of the lines during his (the speaker's) absence. Working with his pupils in this way brought him into close relationship with them, and promoted a feeling of comradeship between them. The boys looked upon him as one a little older than themselves, but not one whom they had any reason to fear or bear a grudge iigainst; he, in turn, had confidence in iiis scholars, trusted them, and never was his trust betrayed. The old system of a schoolmaster spying and detecting was fast dying out, if it was not already gone, and he was quite sure that the new order of things was very much better than the old one. The old feeling' of mastership was dying out, and a better feeling was arising in its stead. To a large extent the pupils now governed themselves. Not only was this the case in school, but outside 011 the play ground, the football, tenuis, and cricket clubs all tended in the same direction—to the development of a spirit of self-government and submission to one chosen by the pupils themselves. Of late years Mr Valentine said he had noticed a better spirit running through these clubs, and lie accounted for this ny the different conditions under which the schools were governed. He was very well pleased with the discipline at the South School, where there had never ,so far as he could remember, been a. case of rebellion.

Summcd up, Mr Valentine said the position here was the same as Mr Hoghen said it was in American schools, in that the pupils were taught (I) to exercise ]K'rsonal .self-control without being watched. Their conduct out of the presence of Ihe teacher must be as exemplary as iu it. (2) The pupils were taught that they had a public duty to the school as a whole, and that {x rsonal right conduct was not all, but that they must actively exercise an influence for risjht over their fellow pupils. They were taught that no good citizen of a school, any more than of the adult community, was doing his full duty if he became an idle lookeron at misconduct- in others, that affects the welfare of all. (3) They were taught how to organise, and by the authority of their elected officers, control the wayward and thoughtless who are always only a small' minority. There had always been some boys with

marked mischievous tendencies, but here, as in America, they were learning to look upon such boys from the pathological point of view, seeking to find a physical cause for their eccentricities. and he had hones that in time even the incorrigible boy would bo won over too. VIEWS OF THE -MINISTER.

The Hon. G. Kowlds, Minister for Education, was interviewed in Christchurch on this subject, when he expressed himself in hearty sympathy with the suggestion made in the report of tli'; Inspector-General of Schools (Mr G. Hogben), that an application ot the principle of pupil-government, independently of the direct authority of the teacher, might be made .rith advantage in New Zealand schools. Mr Kowlds said that some seven or eight years ago he wrote an article for the " New Zealand Magazine;" commending the introduction of some jorguuised form of "municipal government within the schools," so that he had all slong been convinced of the benefit of some such method of tecuring "law and order," and giving opportunity for the best public conscience of the schools to find expression. The prefect system was somewhat on the same lines, and the only thing necessary for its adoption was a sufficient amount of interest and enthusiasm 011 the part of the teachers. It rested entirely with them. "Two or three schools in New Zealnad have adopted the system which I advocated years ago., with pretty considerable success," said the Minister." Amongst them was the District High School at Wanganui. The course I suggested was a form of election among the children of the various officers, who would carry on the government of the school, within certain defined limits, in the same way in which a municipal body carries 011 the work of a town or city. The system is applicable to both primary and secoudarv schoosl, 'though there is the advantage in the latter that there is :nore equality of age among the pupils."