THE LIMITS OF THEORY.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXVI, Issue 18444, 30 March 1922, Page 4

THE LIMITS OF THEORY.

Among the teachers who heard of the activities of these special schools the general idea prevailed that there was good in all these methods, but that none is going to solve all educational enigmas. To the end there will be teachers of varying capacity, and children with widely differing gifts. An amusing story was told of a pupil whom the narrator was convinced would prove a highly successful man. This youth came to school one morning with a shilling penknife; he “swapped” it for a half-crown torch, rad finished the day by exchanging Mie torch for a half-guinea fountain pen! As his form master said, "you could not teach that boy very much.” Throughout the conferences the problems of mind-testing attracted much attention. Professor Pear, of Manchester University, said that, judged by many mental tests, a genius might appear stupid. The rapid solution of complex problems is not a game at which genius shines, just because tbe first thing a genius sees in a complex problem is its complexity. Another speaker recalled that many so-called tests were really tricks. Thus, in the United States a group of students was asked to find a word of four letters in the English language ending in "eny.” Only one person gave the right answer — “deny.” All the rest went through the alphabet—“beny, ceny,” and so on. While they concentrated their mind on the “eny” they failed to hit upon the only correct word—deny. On the contrary, Professor Pear said that some clever children did badly In these mental tests because they suspected a “catch” where no catch was intended.