BOOKS An Educational Book With a Difference

Te Ao Hou, December 1965, Page 54

BOOKS An Educational Book With a Difference In The Early World by Elwyn S. Richardson N.Z. Council of Educational Research, 35s reviewed by J. C. Sturm Books to do with educational theory and practice are very often written in a style all of their own, where ordinary words are put together in quite extraordinary combinations with meanings subtly different from those usually given them. This kind of book can be a source of frustration and irritation rather than information for the interested reader, that is if he doesn't drop it like a hot potato after the first couple of pages. This ‘interested reader’ opened ‘In The Early World’ with some reluctance and gloomy expectations, in spite of the bright dust-jacket, knowing that there could be no ‘dropping’ till the end of the book and the beginning of a review. The foreword did nothing to cheer me up (I suggest this be read at the end or not read at all), but the first page proper did. Here was a maze all right, but of real live children doing, not mere words theorising—an educational book with a difference, surely. I read on. The back of the dust-jacket reveals that Elwyn S. Richardson became a primary school teacher more by accident than by careful planning. His main interest in the 1940s was molluscology, and while he was waiting for a museum position where he could further his studies in this subject, he went teaching in a small school at Oruaiti, Northland, because he was attracted by the molluscs of that area. However children, not molluscs, kept him there twelve years, absorbed in working out new teaching methods aimed at developing the creative activities of his Maori and Pakeha pupils. ‘In the Early World’ is a written and pictorial account of the enormous amount of work done by both teacher and children during these twelve years, and it is not, as one may suppose after glancing quickly through the excellent photos and prints, an account of the art and craft and literary work only. Language Techniques, Social Studies, Nature Study, Mathematics are all dealt with, but not in the usual keep-them-separate-in-watertight-compartments manner. In 1950 Mr Richardson introduced the children to clay, and his description of how they learned through trial and error to make pots and fire them in their home-made kiln is a joy to read. ‘Flames were roaring up through the pottery by then and the wedges of clay used to block the chimney cracks were shrinking away from the bricks. ‘What that bang, Neville?’ asked Rex anxiously, ‘or was it a stick blowing up?’ ‘Rake the fires quick, rake 'em quickly, it's pots blowing up’ yelled Neville—None of us knew what we had done.’ Pottery was followed by lino cutting, modelling in clay, screen printing using nature designs, oil painting, tile moulding, mask making, wood carving and picture poems. Mr Richardson found that ‘because of the new developments in the arts, especially with Maori children, a strong development was seen in language’. In the far away distance I can hear the telephone wires Singing in churches Like Pakehas. Mary Drama came later, as did story telling, movement, chants, scale modelling, map reading and a school magazine. During the first attempts at thought writing, Mr Richardson concluded that ‘all children had in them a gift of seeing directly and a talent for expressing their vision with truth and power. This talent or gift is a large part of what I mean by creativity. It is there in all children, I feel, but it will not come to the surface unless it is recognised and encouraged’. He went on to discover that the values, attitudes, techniques and disciplines developed by a child working in one medium (clay), were carried over to work in another medium (words), simply because these were developments of the child's own potentials and remained with him whatever new forms of expression he adopted. Furthermore he realised that a child may have to work in several different media in order to express himself fully about the same topic. This process he calls ‘integration of expression’, and the ‘deep and intense study of

a topic' proved to be his most effective teaching method and the most important characteristic of their school work. His co-workers (pupils) soon found that a depth study of any topic necessarily involved work in several subjects. Take clay for instance. In order to make pots one had to find the most suitable clay in the district (Nature Study), learn how to work it up (Craft), decorate it (Art), find out what happens to it when fired (Science and Mathematics), compare the finished product with other pots (Art Appreciation and Social Studies), and describe one's reactions to the whole process (written and oral expression). The amount of ‘formal’ work required in this ‘depth’ study should have satisfied any school inspector, though I suspect Mr Richardson was far too busy making his discoveries to worry about the grading mark system. The book itself could have been improved, I feel, with some pruning, especially in the examples of written work, but the prints and photographs are so good that a certain uniformity hardly palls. However, the very attractiveness of the book may distract the specialist who is primarily concerned with a new and revolutionary theory of education, while the author's contributions towards such a theory, mixed up as they are with examples and descriptions of the children's work, may put off the ordinary reader whose attention was caught in the first place by the pretty pictures. It is extremely difficult to satisfy two quite different readers with the one book, and I'm not sure that Mr Richardson has really succeeded here. Some of Mr Richardson's ‘discoveries’ seem rather obvious and almost commonsensical (we already know anyone works better if his interest is captured, success is a fine incentive to further effort, real problems are more stimulating than artificial ones), and his ‘method’ applied by the wrong person could create chaos in the classroom and a nervous breakdown in the teacher. However Mr Richardson has proved beyond doubt that his discoveries, integrated into a design for education, and his methods, applied with wisdom and humility, can have an almost magical effect on children. (Perhaps the best way to teach children is to learn with them.) The high quality of the work shown in this book is outstanding. It makes one wonder what undeveloped potentials one's own children may be harbouring, and even what we might have done ourselves under the same treatment. As an afterthought, where would Mr Richardson lead our children if he had the chance, to a good pass in School Certificate, a safe job, a big pay packet? He says, ‘this is the direction of educational growth, towards better and more abundant life’. I think he is referring to the individual only here, but a generation or two of individuals developed by a creative education might have the strength to shake the foundations of our cut-throat cliche-ridden society. And this would be no tragedy.