NEW ZEALAND TIMBERS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXII, Issue 19432, 17 October 1925, Page 14

NEW ZEALAND TIMBERS

INSTRUCTION IN THE SCHOOLS. EDUCATION BOARD AND FARMERS’ UNION. (Contributed by William Adams, Mangaweka.) Of lato years tho farmers have generated a great appetite for knowledge, and this must be fed; but it will never be satisfied, and no true educationalist would like to see the time when that appetite will be satisfied. But the allotted time for agricultural instruction in our schools is very brief, and incomparably out of proportion to it arc the grounds and subjects to be conveyed, and I see nothing but evil in crowding into the curriculum, to the exclusion of the requirements of the mind, what appears to be the material needs of a future career.

There is a tendency to prescribe too much in modern curricula and to frighten teachers, especially untrained teachers. This is a real danger. Now quantity is a long way the second consideration in the. subject matter of instruction; quality is supremely of first moment. It is not what the child learns, but how he learns it, that is of consequence, and the appreciation of that truth is specially important in prescribing the work. I cannot, therefore, seo eye to eye with those who would willingly convert every country school into a miniature agricultural college, in which the unfortunate teacher would find himself in the position of having to discourse upon matters with which he could boast of no intimate acquaintance, less, in fact, than many of his pupils. That the instruction in New Zealand timbers asked for by the Farmers’ Union would be both practical and useful I thoroughly agree, but if wo adopt tho mischievous doctrine that wc must add to our curriculum and attend to everything which is immediately practical and useful, we shall be pandering to every passing demand which has no reference to the great aims of education.

On a signboard down the street is a short motto, 11 Small profits and quick returns/' and it appears to me that our education system is being managed on the motto of that small shopkeeper, for it .is quick returns that the authorities requir6 and the more showy frills that embellish these quick returns put the teacher in perfect harmony with his environment. Then it must be remembered that a very large proportion of our country schools are one-teacher schools, and mostly in charge of ladies, who have all standards and all subjects to teach, and this important fact is well-known to the farmers’ Union, for at the meeting of the Okoia branch one is reported as saying that “very fetfr teachers of the present time knew the difference between the various timbeis, and before anything could he done they would all have to be taught. Difficulty would be experienced in cases w'here lady teachers were in sole charge of country schools.’’

Another speaker at the Wanganui executive’s meeting stated that i ‘The Education Board considered the scheme of instruction was of no educational value, but in the finish admitted that it might be beneficial if taken in conjunction with certain subjects.” That speaker has put. a wrong construction on the action of the Education Board. But lot that pass. He speaks of the subject as being practical and useful, and I do not wish to infer that the practical and useful have no place in education. Far from it. In America it is the practical subjects which are. principally taught, and with the ordinary every-day boy who has to fight his way in the world the bulk of the time is devoted to practical subjects likely to be of most use to him in after life.

I do think that instruction in New Zealand timbers is both practical and useful, but not to children of tender years, and I am glad to see that the Farmers’ Union now stato that “they intended the instruction for advanced pupils and not the infants.” All boys attending High Schools, Technical Schools, and especially those pupils that take up woodwork, should have a

clear knowledge of the structure anc growth of New Zealand timber trees They should learn the occurrence, de scription of Ihc tree, characteristics properties and uses of the timber. The;should know the object and principa methods of seasoning timber, the causi and effect of warping and shrinking felling, preservation of timber, and tin common defects and diseases of timber In the woodwork classes held at thes< schools they learn not merely the us< of tools, but how to distinguish wood by surface, colour and smell, and, bet ti'.r still, they are familiarised wiH growing timbers by periodic excursion to the bush. If an instructor docs no carry out this important part, but i satisfied with merely the finishec • article, his work is not genuine and • I inimical to ordinary school work which he is treating as a side issue. 3 it is the finished product that is vabi I able, why in the name of all that’ |sensible is a pupil expected to los forty half days in the year in makin; objects not worth a half crown. While the boys are doing woodwor the girls study not only the art <

cooking, but a little of the chemist) of foods, and wherever possible th necessary household accounts are don by the class and perhaps a little laur dry work and dressmaking. Half th girls’ work is practical r.nd the othe half theoretical. Why cannot this b so with the boys?

Then there is the question of funds. Both the Education Board and the • Farmers’ Union agree that the scheme will cost a great deal of money. I Idiffer from both. I think that material 'suited to the elementary teaching of Ithis subject can be manufactured or 'acquired at comparatively little cost. |But the State provides the means of {education for its own collective b?r»epit, and the wealth or poverty, or the social standing of the members of rhe Farmers’ Union or of the. Wanganui Education Board is nothing to do with the matter. 1 agree with Mr. Claud Smith, of the Farmers’ Union, who is reported as saying, “It was the proml boast of the Education Department that they possessed the best educational system in the world, and vet,

when a point like this comes up, End the inspector thought it a good one, ho thought it was almost an insult Io ask the Farmers’ Union to find the money. He could not see by any stretch of imagination why they should be asked to pay for the instruction.” So say I. There are three Departments {interested, viz., Education, Agriculture, Forestry. Between the three, surely | they can supply to every woodwork ‘ class one short plank each of the various New Zealand timbers. I These planks should bo thin and in the rough, and the instructors should I sec that the pupils of his class plane 'and polish one side and leave the other side in the rough. The pupils could then cut these planks into suitable i pieces and instead of playing • hop- ; scotch with them they could label, assort and do them up into parcels, I which could be easily forwarded tq the neighbouring schools, whore the | teachers would mount on stiff paper or {material and not only adorn the walls of the class-room, but in wet weather {when outside activities in agriculture 'are impossible, he could give useful los{sons, from a specially prepared manual, on the lines that I have previously mentioned. The cost of the manna,' jand the supply of various timbers will Iho the only cost to the Department! (not to the Wanganui Educatioi Board), and even if it should cost i thousand pounds, it is a departments question and r.ot a local one. 1. do not believe for a moment that the Government will turn the application down, for during the last few years they have displayed groat foresightedness and liberality towards a well co-ordinated scheme of national education. Besides, the woodwork classes have so been organised that they mutually strengthen and support the elementary schools.