THOUGHTS ON EDUCATION.

Waipa Post, Volume XXIV, Issue 1416, 16 October 1923, Page 8

THOUGHTS ON EDUCATION.

(By Spenceley Walker, 8.A.) Education at the present, time is iu a transition stage. We are on the verge of very momentous changes in oiir system of education, all due, not to a sudden change of view but to a step forward in the process of evolution which operates in education as in other spheres of our social system. Just as history in its broadest sense mav be taken as a struggle of the lower clases for individual freedom against the tyrannical privilesges of the king and the ruling classes of earlier times, so the history of education shows a struggle for intellectual freedom by the pupils and teachers against the benumbing tradition of mediaeval times. This change was first emphasised by the famous French revolutionary writer Rousseau, whose siogan of "The Return to Nature" is indeed the ideal of education to-day. This movement was carried on by Pestalozzi and Froebel and from their- time it progressed but slowly owing principally to German influence, until Madame Montesorri in our own day showed the good results of teaching the little ones in a more natural way. The Dalton system is the present day attempt to apply natural and spontaneous methods to all pupils, and though it is still in the experimental stage it is, at all events, a movement in the direction of the freedom of the pupil and the teacher. It is thus in accord with the evolutionary changes which affect education. What are the ideals involved in this evolutionary movement? As suggested above, the first essential is that the education should be natural. Education in this sense may be defined as an attempt by natural means to fit the human being to his environment. We can see the working of this idea in the case of wild animals. Their education is spontaneous and is guided by their instincts and the laws of their particular natures. Nature never forces a dog to live the life or follow the activities of a cat. She always chooses the line of least resistance and the result is a happy and useful and a contented life. So the education of the young human should as far as possible be spontaneous and in accord with its instincts and natural tendencies. As a result before a child reaches school age this is carried out under the wise and natural guidance of its mother. This is why many educationalists are opposed to kindergarten schools for very young children except where the home conditions are unsatisfactory. In an ideal school the natural laws should still hold. A child should learn to read not because it feels it has to but because it wants to. Nature is, as it were, urging it to obtain the means of unlocking the thoughts of others. The teacher is the guide to help the little wayfarer and not the tyrant who forces the child to do unnatural and therefore unpleasant things. As most of the education is in the realm of the mind (which is as subject to natural laws as the body) the teacher must naturally understand and be able to apply the laws of psychology. The large size of our classes at present make these ideals impossible, so that one of the most crying needs of our schools is a considerable reduction in the size of classes. The study of the individual instincts and tendencies becomes impossible to a teacher, however learned and enthusiastic, if he has the care of 80 or 90 children. Again, in the ideal school the opportunity to develop along natural lines should be provided for each scholar. It is in this respect that the ideas underlying the junior high schools are sound. In these schools the children may specialise in the work for which they are naturally fitted. They may study to become artisans, professional men and farmers, and in the case ,of girls they may take special classes in domestic science to fit them to become properly trained wives and mothers. It is hoped by many educationalists that the junior high schools will thus result in the more natural education of the pupils as it will be following nature in avoiding the friction which comes from unsuitable employment. It will therefore mean happier and more contented citizens. In studying the history .of education in modern times one cannot help but be struck by the change of view brought about by the war. Before this great cataclysm German methods and ideals permeated our whole system. Their thoroughness and attention to detail were lauded as the ideal in education, and their drill sergeant manner of discipline was applauded and copied. Their ideas of kultur overshadowed and blighted the education systems of most civilised countries, so that real progress towards natural methods was retarded especially during the nineteenth century. But the war showed the result of the German education. Tlie beast was shown under the veneer of kultur and the warped and repressed natures found vent in the horrible atrocities in Belgium and elsewhere. Analogous to this is the fact that where we get tyrannical and unbending discipline in schools so we almost invariably find larrikinism rampant. The lesson of the Avar has been well learned, and educationalists have had to seek ideals other than German. Hence the tendency towards free discipline as exemplified in the Dalton system, which is almost the direct anthesis of the German ideal. To some the pendulum seems to have swung rather far- so that education is being made too soft, but there is no doubt that a change was necessary if education has as its aim the production of efficient an! law abiding citizens.