RESUME OF LECTURES ON EDUCATION, BY C. C. HOWARD, ESQ, F.R.G.S.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume 2, Issue 144, 4 December 1877, Page 2

RESUME OF LECTURES ON EDUCATION, BY C. C. HOWARD, ESQ, F.R.G.S.

Lecture XVIII. — Subject — The Plat ground, as an instrument of Moral Training. The use the teacher should-

make of it. The Question of Dignity.

The playground, the lecturer,- stated, is comparatively a modern institution,, and its' demand is the outcome of modern thought. In the old system of education the playground had no place, and play ■ was not recognised as a part of educationPlay is essential to good health, and a. healthy body is all-important to ensure a sound mind. The playground for chil- • dren in England was owing to the labours-' of Stowe and Wilderspin, especially the former, who regarded the playground as more important than the schoolroom and called it " the uncovered schoolroom." . He met with much opposition from his Scotch neighbours who felt it to be a loss of time, but he claimed it as an antidote to street _lTJie, real character s . )6f',the child is seeninithe playground, ;_ trainings 'needful for the active-J| !business of life, can lie obtained elsewhere gr than there. The experiment of Stowe eminently successful, and its advantages' were remarked by visitors. Teachers.' should take children into the playground||| and play with them,, as. if one of them'- fV selves, leaving the schoolmaster and dictatorbehind them in the school. Play will improve the temper and health of the teacher and ease his brain, while it will afford opportunity to exercise a wholesome restraint and influence.

Dignity is merely a qnestion -of temperatrue dignity and importance must radiate from inherent virtue in the teacher himself and never from any external in- , fluence. False Dignity is pride, self importance, desire to be thought much of, and dislike to recognise others in station and circumstances. V