UNDER SIX YEARS.

Waikato Times, Volume 111, Issue 18641, 20 May 1932, Page 5

UNDER SIX YEARS.

EDUCATING CHILDREN. SEND THEIVI TO PARK. EXPERIMENT IN CHRISTCHURCH. Though the raising of the school age to six, now in force, may be an excellent thing for the children affected, ed, it will not be so unless there is substitute for the first year's school. Dr. C. E. Beeby, Acting Professor oi Education at Canterbury College, told a Christchurch Sun reporter. r lhe substitute he wants to see is not one in which the children are taught things, but one in which they find out things for themselves, and, more important still, learn to adjust themselves to other youngsters. In the spring Dr. Beeby Intends to make an experiment In his idea of this substitute for the first school year, to find out if It is workable, and to try to develop some method of overcoming the difficulties which are bound to be met with, so that his experience may be of use to anyone else wanting to do the same sort of thing. In his first year at school the average child learns very little in the way of school work, Dr. Beeby says. In fact, the best infant teachers do not i try to teach the youngsters much, so that no actual learning is going to be lost. It will, in fact, be a good thing that no one can try to teach a child of five to do sums. But if the child is condemned to dingy or unhygienic surroundings at home, or to loneliness, which is just as bad for it, it is going to suffer through not being allowed to go to school. Will Do (Wore Good. It is to overcome this difficulty that Dr. Beeby aims; but his aim does not stop there, for If his plan is as successful as he hopes the substitute for

the first year at school will do the child moro good than a year at school ever could have done.

The plan Itself Is simple. Taking one school district, Dr. Beeby plans to get Interested as many parents of children who would normally have Just been starting school as he can, and to got them to send their children to some park in the neighbourhood. At the park there will be some responsible person—probably the parents of some of the children will take it turn and turn about to be the responsible person—to see that the youngsters come to no physical harm, that there Is no bullying, and that they do no damage. Already, in the Elmwood school district, there are a dozen or 15 people who will help by taking care of the children. Once the children are in the park or playground the organisation ends. The whole idea Is to let them do what they want to do, not what someone else wants them to do. There will he no instruction in anything, no teaching, not even any organising of games. If tho children are forced to anything, even urged to do anything, the plan fails. They must be left to do what they want to do, and no one knows what that will be, for this will be a uniquo educational experiment. Tho supervisor will not take part in any of the children’s activities unless he or she Is asked. Interest In Work. Probably, Dr. Beeby thinks, even the most high-spirited of the children will be rather bored with running and playing all the time after a few days, and then they may become interested in what the supervisor is doing. That may happen to be clay modelling or something like that. The children may want to try their hands at it. Then the plan will be showing results, for by doing things for themselves tiie children will be being educated in the best sense of the word. It will be real education, not education in terms of desks and books and walls. As for the supervisors, there arc many mothers Dr. Beeby knows who would be glad to go along to Ihe playground and see that Ihe children came to no harm for a morning of three hours, say, once a fortnight, in exchange for having [heir own children looked after for Ihe other mornings. “1 don't see iL as .just a temporary sort of thing, to 1)11 a gap till Ihe (iovrrn men! can take Hie live-year-olds again,” lie says; “but as a definite opportunity for parents to show their interest in ihe education of their children. it may, after a lime, be possible lo extend il to take in children of over six." 'Hie obvious advantages of Ihe scheme are many. First, ii gives the children something heller In do linn to play abuut, probably lonely, at

home. It means that they are looked after. It arouses local interest, on which alone It must depend, for there must be no centralisation, no complicated organisation. It costs nothing. And it will socialise the children—teach them to meet other children, to adjust themselves to others, an immensely important thing. Will Give a Basis. It will give them a basis on which the part of their education that consists of learning to read and write, to add and multiply, to know the date of Waterloo and the products of Canada can be built. And it will provide a fascinating opportunity for child study. Local Interest, Itself a very desirable tiling ,is essential, and Ur. Beeby says that 10 or 12 mothers Interested enough to help, will be enough to get a scheme going In any district, except In those where, because of the existence of a free kindergarten, it is not necessary. In his own district he hopes to get the use of a vacant section, and to layhands on a few materials with which the ohlldren can play, build huts, make things. It is by doing these things that the youngsters get far more good than from the formal learning of anything. Some of them will want to learn to read. Let them, by all means, but on no account force them to, if their inclinations lie in drawing or in building a new kind of castle. At present a sub-committee of the Standing Committee on Education is considering the plan, and a number ol other people, including the Open Air Schools League is interested in it. The year taken from school should mean no difference in the age at which the child will get his proficiency, and if he has spent, it in the way suggested he will probably he a great deal better off when he docs get his proficiency than if he had spent the year at school. “As far as I know, no similar experiment has been tried anywhere," said Dr. Beeby. “It may fail, of course, but It is worth trying.”