EDUCATIONAL REFORM.

Waikato Times, Volume 104, Issue 17585, 14 December 1928, Page 6

EDUCATIONAL REFORM.

BACK TO GREEK IDEAL. INTELLIGENCE AND ADAPTABILITY IMPORTANCE OF WISE TEACHING. Speaking on the matter of educational reform at the annual prize-giy-ing of the Hamilton High School, this afternoon, the principal, Mr E. Wilson, remarked that no one who knew our schools would deny that during the past two decades great progress had been made. We have better buildings, smaller classes, finer playing fields, a higher general standard of efficiency in our teachers and sounder methods of instruction. With our system of free places, scholarships and bursaries, a university education has been placed within the reach of every child of ability however humble his circumstances. All this is good but much remains to be done if we are to keep pace with educational reform. Far reaching proposals, we are given to understand, for reorganisation of our primarv and secondary schools are under consideration by the Education Department. "Transfer from primary to secondary school at the age of eleven has," continued Mr Wilson, "been approved of by the educational authorities of England and America and, as soon as financial conditions in New Zealand make such transfer possible, we may look to see junior high schools established in conjunction with our senior schools. In the junior high school it will be seen whether the pupil's subsequent education should be on technical or secondary lines, that is, whether on completing the junior secondary course at the age of fifteen, the pupils should proceed to a technical school or continue his education in the senior high school. The junior high school scheme is new in name only. English and Continental public schools for generations past have had preparatory departments where pupils have been introduced to secondary subjects at the age of ten or eleven. The headmasters of Waitaki, Marlborough and Wliangarei High Schools, where junior high schools have already been attached to the senior school, report favourably on the new system. Pupils, it is said, can be better classified according to their aptitudes and capacities, they stay on longer in the senior schools than under the old system, and the change from the primary school at the earlier age stimulates the pupils to more vigorous and sustained effort. Fostering of Ideals.

"In whatever way our educational system is developed," added Mr Wilson, "it is to be hoped that we do not give too exclusively a utilitarian purpose to our education at any age when ideals can be best fostered and when it is essential that the thoughts of the pupil should be directed to the beauty and worth of an intelligent life for its own sake. Our schools have not perhaps responded as fully as they should to the demands of the outer world, but, in the interests of industry itself, education should not, during the secondary school age, bo along narrow technical lines, but along the broader lines of training for general intelligence and adaptability. A complete and generous education, it has been wisely said, does more than fit a man to earn a livelihood or even to" amass a fortune. It serves in some measure to give him the clue to right living, so that whilst he shall be equipped to earn a good livelihood, he must be no less enabled to live a good life. Back to Greek Ideal. "It is interesting to note how the world is moving back, quite unconsciously perhaps, to the Greek ideal of education as physical, moral and intellectual development Plato regarded education as the foundation of political and social progress, maintaining that>, only from thoughtful, educated, responsible people could the State look for security and good Government. In the 'Republic' he insists on a liberal education, advocates an even balance between extremes of those who condemn and those who exaggerate athletics and calls attention to two principles, the importance of which we are only now beginning to realise —the desirability of continuing education in later life and the significance of sub-conscious influences. The modern movement for adult education is a return to Plato. So too, Is the modern emphasis on environment—our desire to bring up our scholars in healthy and beautiful surroundings, our recognition of the value of music and art as school subjects, all, imdeed, which to-day we call training in aesthetic appreciation."