EDUCATION.

Wairarapa Age, 15 December 1920, Page 3

EDUCATION.

(By "Pedagogue.")

SHORTAGE OF TEACHERS. '."'.Mi" lashcy rtftli'N tliat there is undoubtedly ;i deiieieucy in teachers. No practical person ran lie very lililcli surprised at thai. The la el must frankly be faced that teachine; in England has ' new l !' vet been given tile status of s. profession. The higher grade schools ' are largely staffed liy young gradu--11 ales Idling in ;1 period of wailing I'oi ''something lielter. In the elenienlar,> schools I lie prospect is relatively uu i a tractive, though some improvements. | have been made. We shall never have i a really effective educational system until we have imbibed the reverence. for education which places the schoolmaster on the same level as what an.' conventionally known as the 'learned professions.' Money enters into tin.' question, of course, as it does info all the alfairs of life, but when we give the lonelier his proper position we shall get info the habit of assessing his value accordingly, and he will have a career." -From an editorial in the Shediold J ndopetulent. MEMORISING. Probably no principle established by experimental pedagogy has been more thoroughly lest than thTit which declares that, in memorising; it is more economical to attempt to learn a pleeo -as a whole than to* break if into sections and learn each separttely. First pill forward by Egginghain as a result of his researches on memorising, and carefully investigated by Miss StefI'eus, it has won its way to general acceptance by psychologists, and is iitcroasigly being put into practice by teachers. No one has gone further in support of this view than Dr. Pylo, who, in the Journal of Educational Psychology in Hill declared, as the result of experiments, that whether five lines or two hundred and forty, lines were memorised, learning by wholes was, without any exception, more economical than learning by parts, and the relative saving was •greater in the case of long selections. If has been constantly found that in learning even modoraloly lengthy pieces, as also in learning tables by I rote. Ibe beginning and (be end are always recalled more accurately tliau I he middle. This is an added reason why, for children at least, mailer to be learnt by heart should be. brief Hence on this ground, as on many others, a number of short extracts of poetry or of fine prose is much to be preferred to the sitvy or. more continuous lines that was of. old demanded and is still .sometimes proscribed j Where, however, it is in learn relatively lengthy pieces, it is advisable to divide them into sections of suitable length, making each to some extent complete in. itself, and still read the whole straight through, but giving a lew moments' pause between each section. THE READING LESSON". The Chief Inspector of the Victorian Department of Education (Mr A. Fusseli) recently issued to district, inspectors a memorandum on the ''Teaching and Testing of Reading." Tf con-, tained, among oilier matter, the following : -"The worse than waste, of time J worse because it breeds disgust in the child) involved in pupils being condemned merely to listen to the ' reading of others, and the emphasis on oral reading which persists among f teachers, is in great part an aftermath of our former riVid system of cxamiI nation. What can we do to induce ■ reform ? How can teachers be porsaud- ! Ed to discard the fetish of oral reading for a method that will give the pupil a lasfe for reading and make him feel (hat the aim of reading anything is to understand the thoughts i.i it? The pendulum of educational reform, however, usually swings over ! . too far. Witness, for example, our j excessive class leaching, meant, as a j reform of the system of individual teaching. In placing a restraint on excessive oral reading, therefore, we do nol wish to issue a license for lie-' glectiug ariiciiallion, euuiiicatioii, pronunciation, and fluency, but. we do wish teachers to realise that sucl) things are bui the mechanics of read-

ing; and if choice is to }i«- made between (1) outspoken, fluent, but artificial reading that loads the pupil nowhere but to !.ho 'Comic Cuts' type, and (2) halting yet thoughtful reading t.haf, generates a taste, Mo. 2 wins easily, ft is probable Iha I a colourless medium between (1) and (2'| obtains in a number of schools." Clllld) LA.IJOUK. Dr. Ada. Patterson recently ad dressed the Wellington branch of the Women Teachers' Associaiiou on the subject of "Child Labour." As to the extent of child labour in ■Wellington, Dr. Patterson stated thai in eight: schools IS/} boys wageearners. At the Mount Cook School there were eighteen boys working two hours daily, two working two and ahalf hours, nine live hours, and one four hours daily. The earnings wove from CI Is per week to -Is. It would be seen, therefore, that in some cases flit l boys were of distinct economic value in the homes. The boys had their energies more or less sidetracked on unproductive works, which did not stimulate tlieir minds, 'it should be borne in mind that it was excessive work only that did harm. For instance, in the country district a boy was up at 'A a.m. each day. He milked five cows, and delivered milk before going to school. After school lie milked cows again. The headmaster said he was mentally dull, and often went to sleep at school. Was it any wonder? Uefore, they definitely forbade wage-earning by children they had to be sure that the child was not thereby in a worse position than before, in being deprived of the extra food and comfort, which this wage was bringing. Well-meaning parents must -toot be forced by poverty into allowing tlieir children to do injurious work. The sense of responsibility in being selfsupporting was to bo encouraged, hut they must discriminate between such cases and those in which the child was suffering injuries. "We must' make the home surroundings of the child better if his hours of leisure must have possibilities of enjoyment i and profit. The energy released by the cessation .of work outside must be directed into proper channels. Tho street, is nt present the only playground of those children. Slum houses are not fit places far a child's leisure evenings." Tn the latter connection, \)v. Patterson commended the Boys' 'lnstitute for the work which it was doing.