THE SCHOOL OF THE FUTURE.

White Ribbon, Volume 25, Issue 297, 18 March 1920, Page 1

THE SCHOOL OF THE FUTURE.

Vju road the utnet evening that tne Royal visitor whom w», are expecting to v\e)come to our shores in a few weeks said in «* speech at the Mar >ion House, London, recently: “Oui dut) is . . • to ensure that every man and woman in the country may enjo) the just privileges of then labours, and that every child born into the land may have a fair sporting chance." Such words ought to insure for him a hearty welcome by the children of tins Dominion, for it may be doubted if any Royal utterance has ever been more apt to the moment or more in keeping with the spirit of the times. It is with this “sporting chance" for the children that what 1 have to say is concerned. THE FUTURE IS WITH THE CHILD. Every day we hear it repeatfd that the future of the nation is with the children, and it follows that if the future of the nation is to be as fruitful and as glorious and as happy as it should be, tne children must have the care and attention that theii share in the makirg of that future demands. The child cannot be held responsible for the future unless «*te is taken to prepare him for the responsibility. If the political and social well oemg of the nation is to be entrusted to him,, it is imperative that he be trained to appreciate his political and social duties and privileges; if the industrial prosperity of the country is to depend on him, his industrial skill must be developed and hi*- controlling will directed in light channels; if he is to live a full human li/e in amity and concord with his

leiiows, ue must oc* i ui in tne *.»> uLUcisiauuin* itic coiiUHious u.iUCi uuicu the inaj Oc lu'i rtlul i cc an<l Harmonious, noth lui hiiust'i; auu otueis i ms, it suujj to me, is wtui js louuucu in the phiase * a tali sporting chance ; ami as, when turn Ling ot child i eu, tne miud pic tuics first the home, aiul, next to that, tne school, i have chosen as the sun ject ol wnat 1 have to say, the pait that it seems piouabie the school will piay in the Hie ol the >ouug people ot tilt* tulurc. DANGEROUS TO I’KOriiESt. if. is latnei a dangerous subject abcut which to prophesy, and 1 am uuile rer Jy to admit that some of m> loiecastr.igs may be ruthlessly talsi tied by the march oi events. 1 he process that l am trying to pictuic has, however, dehnitely begun, aud in different countries has made con sidcrable progress in one direction oi another. The world ot the school has been enlarged by recent additions to its scope at least as much as the geographical world was eniaigod b\ the discoveries of Columbus. The idea that a school was a poor, mean place where children went unwilling!) to undeigo a process of instiuction tor the purpose of making a living for themselves, and perhaps a fortune f«»i their employers, has passed away, vr very nearly so. i he idea that is taking its place is that school is . u institution where young people may live as citizens of childhood s wsild, and while there learn to live as citi zrns of the ‘grown up’’ work to which they are looking forward. It is the corporate or joint home ot the collective childhood of the jom munit\ ; and it is the growing appre nation of this home aspect jf the

S< hooi that will to a iaige exteat deli, imine both the external leatures of the school ahd its sunoundmgs and the internal natuie of its work and tut sp*iit of its doings. A LARGER HOME. Following up this idea, then, that the school will be but a larger home toi a more extensive family, it is sate to predict that in iU schools, as it is already in very many, the first consideration will be for the physical well being of the pupils. Enlightened regard for the health and growth of the nation’s future unito will not permit them to spend their hours and d.i\s and years of study in anything but the most favourable surroundings. It is generally understood now, but it is not universally acknowledged in practice, that it is not good policy to have regard only to the mental side of education and to t'hc no account ot the physical basis on which the mental superstructure i s reared. It is bad economy to make people mentally clever and at the same time render them physically feeble. Hence we shall soon see the da\ when the cramped and ding), unattiactive schoolroom will be condemned as a sin against the welfare <>f youth. It may seem to such an audien< e as this that this is a very old taie 1 .im telling. So it is; but though we may be said to have seen the true light, we have not yet done tnueh more than begin to follow i f . There are very many school rooms iu this country that are simply not fit for < hildren to spend their young vears in ; and that fact is so weighty in its aspect on the lives of the young .ole that it affords sufficient excuse for any amount of repetition. Ttv future, and I believe the r.e*r ruture,

will see the school as a young copie s home, to which it will be a delight to go. It will not only be attractive in itself, it will be placed in spacious and pleasant surroundings, so that its family of (hildren may imbibe from their youth up the idea of cleanliness, of beauty, of order, and mav thus, witnout any foice but the force of daily contact, grow up to embody those qualities in their own lives. There arc already towns, even in New Zealand, where the best building in the place is the school. In the fu tuie there will be more and mo c* of such. Around these schools there will be ample space for play. It must not be said in the future that the only schools that supply sufficient playingspace-. are private schools, to which the « hildren of well-to-do people mav go on payment of high fees. A united people cannot be built up in that way. The schools of the people must lit' lit tor all the people'children, and the playing spare ione of the most essential features of the school. INFLt'ENTF of GAMES. In the games is to be found the most powerful influence in the train ing of the character. It is in the play ihat the social habits, the com munity of feeling, th'* give-and-take that make up such a large part of life are most powerfully fostered, ns well ns the physical growth and vitality that are essential t<> the due perform ante of the tasks of life and the en joyment of life itself WHAT WORK? Taking for granted that we are to have schools roomy, (heerful, attractive, plated in suitable surroundings, what are we to suppose will be the nature of the work done in them? For what we gene l ally understand athe primary school I cannot see that our programme of work can vary to anv great extent in essentials from what it is now. There is nothing taught in our schools that ought not to be taught; there is nothing that ran be omitted without very gieai |o«»s. There will doubtless be vari • tion in details, and in methods of dealing w ith the various subjects; bin as to what we call the primary stage is meielv a preparation in essentials for what is to come after, it does not seem likely that there will he any

very great change. 1 here w however, be a very great advance i the results produced, and this will aiist* from the fact th.*t m the school of the future the classes will be verymuch smaller than we have been ac customed to. 1 here I s - hardly any point on which greatei stress slv cil I be laid than this. The smal ei class is the key to the solution of so nc verc pressing problems. I shall name only three. In the first place, it i s only in a smaller c lass that it i- pos sible to give any opportunity fur the development of oiiginality, and the play of the qualities of the indi vidual. Large* classes must of ne cessity be well drilled and strictly disciplined, the small e lass allow for self-determination, undei limits, whic h l- self disc ipline, and the* foun elation of all real “character.” in the smaller class there* is npjiortiinitv for each different pupil to grow in hidifferent way, t<> develop and enlaige his powers and faculties in the* way most suited for them, instead of be ing compelled to repress and restrain them to make them fit the genet; mould. ST I MI'ITS TO EFFORT. Following from this mlaiged scope for individuality comes the consequent stimulus to individual effort. Given the* freedom that allows the student t* discover that he possesses some pai tit ular power, and has the right to de velop it, then will be seen the keen delight with which he will f llow up the vein of gold he has discovered in himself. Ilis teacher, tun weighed down by numbers, will be -ble t ; give him just that amount <»f stimu lating attention that is needed to maintain his ardour and assist him over difficult places. The history of scores of the “men who have done thing*” shows just this happy condi tion of self developing work guided and assisted by a teacher who really has an opportunity to teach instead o being compelled to apply more or less the* methods of the drill sergeant. The third point I shall mention, a* showing the advantage of the smalle* «lass js that it will go far to reduce the numbers of “backward children.’' The smaller class will enable a real contact between teacher and pupil, and the result will be such „ stinni lating of the energies and mental ar tivities of the* pupils. |. will not leave mam of them in the cliss «* f backward children. It is ini|)os

ot recent experiment). It is impos sible to estimate the injury that has been done in the past, impossible to calculate the number of young people who have been discouraged and spoiled, owing to this evil of the large class. If this nation, or any nation, is determined not only to do its best for its young people*, but in return to get lhe best out of them, it will attend to this matter of the large class. >ung people ar** too valuable to be spoilt for want of proper teaching. They are being spoilt now by the hundred to the gieat injury of the State . t nd to their own great and lasting loss The school of the future will have to <l<> differently; and there I-, as said before, every indication th.it a beginning has been made with the* introduction of the new idea. SCHOOL MEALS. Before wt* leave this primary-school section »»f the subject, there is one other teaij/c >t this “home” aspect of the school that is worth passing mention. It is not a matter that means so much to us here in New Zealand as it does in other countries, but even here it will be worthy of consideration when more urgent needs have been attended to. 1 refer to the question of school meals. It has been found that to “educate young children to any good purpose while they arc ill-fed and feeble is lirgely a waste* of effort Hence the older countries have organised the school meal on a large scale; and the result iias been such as to justify the expenuiturc many times over. The subject is not mentioned here to advocate its intioduction in this country, but it is worth while considering whether or not, in the development of the school of the future, the provision of school meals may not become a tea tuie >t the* partnership between school and honu. It is not impossible to imagine even, that the school cookcoy noni may in time become the communal kitchen that is apparently among tlu* thing- th.it soon may be. THE NEXT STAGE. Having said so much about the primary section of the schools of the future, what shall we anticipate concerning the schools for the next stage of youthful development ? Let us stait from the assumption that there will be, as there must be, extetided education for all the nation's young people. The school of the

future will not close its doors against somewhat more than lull of its pupil* because they have not been fortunate enough or clevei enough to earn a free place 01 a pioficiency certificate. I'he clevetr ones can look after them selves or could if they weic left to it hut in liu course of "Ui education a| development u h s t one about tint those who could take tare of then selves are the only ones that have been taken < are of, while the others, who needed more care, have been handed over to the tender mercies <>l the woild to l.<kt 'lien chance. We shall be veiy sate L. foiecasting that this attitude will he changed: it has been c. 1< nged already in many counti it*. a nd we I*l N’t a Zealand a\ • 11 have to look to our position if w. not want to see ourselves failing into the link oi nations which have little regard for the care of young pc »|)'< PERIOD OF CHANCE. At about the time when the primary < out c ends, the young people have leached a stage of physical and mental growth when a wider range oi s lection of pursuit is necessary foi them, and lor many of them social condili -ns require that they should be gin to earn something for their own support. Hence there has to be found scene means oi accommodation between the demands of education and employment. That is too complex a matter to be entered upon here, but it may not be out of place to think for a few moments of the kind of teaching that the later school, the senior school, wil 1 give. As has been hinted, there will be provision for variety. It is at this stage* that the two-fold nature of education begins to assert itself, the education for the individual life, and the education for social and civic lie. It is the formei aspect of education that demands varietv in the curriculum of studies. If each is to be allowed to develop the best that is in him the school must afford opportunityfor follow ing those lines of study which promise to be fruitful in results. Hence the school wilt provide not merely the literary education that is the distin gibshing feature of what is generally called a secondary school, but will provide the means for development in other directions. There will oe equipment for the study of science, there v. ill be a workshop for those whose bent is in the use of their hands and the* manipulation of material, there

will be an art and ciatt department; in suitable localities there will be op 1 ortunities tor gardening and the study ot agriculture that giows out ot it. Fhesc will be among the means provided for giving individuality the >(ope it needs lot its development; artd t heir importance Iks in the fact that they will be the chief assurance gain si the spoiling of young manhood and young womanhood by forcing u into uncongenial channels and producing the all-too-plentiful crop ot misfits. kiC.iNt.KAL LOt RSI. FOR ALL. Accompanying these varied, and largely optional, courses of study, wiii< n w»ll be designed chiefly for the benefit of the individual, there will be in ad schools a certain definite course of study designed to equip the glowing citizen for the* bearing of his share in the social and civic duties that life in a free community demands of him. Among these it is safe to as sume that literature will take the leading place. If language is the medium of the exchange of thought, literature is .»t once the supply of the material of thought .rnd the stimulus to its use. In a wisely-graded and sympathetically applied course of literature, suited to the capacities of the classes, is to be found the finest possible kind ot stimulus towards th«* appreciation of what is right and good in life; and in it, too, is the source of those standards of taste and judg ment that will be of the greatest value as safeguards against the allurements of the pleasant vices that make suc h strong appeal to inexpeiienc ed youth With literature, and forming a part of n, will go history and geography the history of oui own and other peo pies, ilu* geography o! the world we live in and of the peoples beside* whom we live. There can be no security for our own liberties if we do not know by what steps we have attained to them; nor can there be an intelligent appreciation °f out own position in the world unless we have some know ledge of the othei peoples composing it. RECREATION. One other feature is of importance, in the senior schools no less than in the junior, and that "has to do with recreation. Recreation is a* necessary to the growth of a healthv, balanced personality as food and raiment. Apart from its physical value, it has immense importance in the growth of the social feelings, the interplay of

character on character. The recreations of the school will not be all of the atheletic order. The social club will have a prominent pace, the musical society, the debating society, and so on. All these will have their place and do their pa it in developing the qualities of young men and young women, rind fitting them for th«* task ahead. CO EDUCATION. If the school is to do this duty to the best advantage it will naturally be what is called “coeducational,’' that is, the sexes will not be separated. On the contrary, as they start life together and, at least normally, end life together, so they will go through their training for life together, and in the* training learn to associate as fellow-citizens of equal standing in the commonwealth, each giving and t.iking freely those services to the community and to one another that make social life possible. If this forecast of what the school of the future will be and will do is not altogether wide of the mark, it means that this country has to follow the example of other countries, . nd begin !<> take* thought about the waste »f Hu* potentialities of its young life that is going on. “The only true wealth is life,” said Kuskin; and if that is true, as indeed it must be, the best way to develop wealth is to dr velop life. Other countries see it, and are taking action accordingly. Switzerland spends one-third of its income on education; the State of California, I have been told, spends one half. In England there are five time*...i s many students receiving secondary education as there were before the war. Ml the universities in England are full to overflowing. Cambridge alone has over five thousand students. The United States have a nation wide scheme of education « xtending, per means of continuation ( lasses and other agenc ies, to the eighteenth year. It is clear that New /('aland has a good deal of lost ground to make up. I < annot do better than close my remarks bv asking what we are doing, or intend to do, about this most vital mattei, and answering the question with a word from a recent speech by the English Minister for Education. NTi Fisher: “Depend upon it. that a good secondary school is one of the best institutions in which a town can invest its money.”