EDUCATION.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1673, 13 February 1913, Page 6

EDUCATION.

INSPECTORS IN CONFERENCE.

REFORM SUGGESTED.

ADDRESS BY MR HOGBEN.

The triennial conference .of. inspectors of schools was opened in the House of Representatives yesterday. Mr..G. Hogben, M.A., F.G.S.tlnspeclor-General), presided. The- names of those invited to. tho .conference were. published in yesterday's Dominion. Mr.. Hogben delivered an address on the subject .of'education. Mr. Hogben euid that it.was impossibletn separate education from life. Unthinking people' might, and actually did, look upon any attempt to change or reform any more or less successful scheme of education as dangerous, and as likely to lead to confusion, but when our ideals of lifo grew and changed there would bo contradiction, .and therefore confusion, if wo did not reshape' otir systems of education from time to time' in accordance with our iiew ideals of lite. Tho true reformer, in helping to thrust aside that which had grown did and. out of accord with tho working ideals.of tho present,would seek for methods that w'ero inspired by those ideals'and were therefore in accord with them: ho was riot merely destructive; his most important work was constructive.'

Naturalism and Idealism. He asked:.'.'What,'for.our purpose, is common to Naturalism . and Idealism ? And what for us is the difference between them f" Ho' would assume' that the, case for' Idealism had been proved, but would point out'that, as'far as the methods.of education were concerned, tho features common to modern?-Naturalism .and modern Idealism would'determine -those methods., They were: (a) The tendencies of- modem soience, (b) modern' industrial activity, and (c) modern ideals of social relations. Tho.life;of a child was a part of the whole life of a man or a woman. The powers of tho child Were his own, and they grew,irit6 the powers of the adult nian just in so far as they were developed in a natural way—in a way that accorded both with .external nature and with his own inner, nature. ": They criuld riot by any merely, external 'system of discipline or instruction ■ carry out a child's selfdevelopment for; him ;■ they" might, help him to do so for himself, or, on the other hand,'by mistaken methods check anil thwart,, or seriously warp,' his.self-de'velbp-ment. They must endeavour,to so guide a child that, his early development l would be on sound lines. '~.'•• - ■

'"But," continued Mr. Hogben,- "one of our .worst-faults. hithorto.'nvs educators is that in our false' -zeal,- to make what we regard. ~as .:■ Substantial progress, wo have tried to anticipate, so to speak, in the child the more matured product of-: adult manhood. No, one. in his.senses would expect a'Jjby. of ten or twelve to jump 20 feet or to run ft hundred. yards in an, even .ten seconds; yet how often.even in progressive (or rnav I say enlightened f).New. Zealand liave"wa expected from the'-.same boy an accuracy and.skill in; Writing, hot far removed from the ready-penmanship'of tlio practised clerk; we, have even-put into the hands of still .younger, children that barbarous instrument the steel 'pen, and have even punished them because their, little fingers, being of a different shape and size, were not apt .to hold-the- said' instrument iu the same, position as the aforesaid adult practised clerk. Nay, have we not'"sometimes whipped Hiom, forsooth, because they have .inked; their: .p oor vjear ijttlo fingers? Even adults cannot always sit patiently-arid work for long-periods'in confined positions! wo ore' all naturally nomads, and.dislike imprisonment in-nny ■form'.'but wo crib and- confine little children ■of fivo or six indoors, in galleries or-desks, and'expect them to bo good, and hope, mayhap (if we ever think of it), that in consequence, or in spite, of- our • eol n' < f of , tr «atment they may-grow-up well-dovcloped in body and I™'!!*!;''"'"'^

' '■ Warped Bodies and Minds.

The. formal teaching of reading;-and writing, ho said, threatened to invado the infant room; to such an extent as to .crush out-of ..our. memories all recollccturn that such .a., man as, Froebel ever lived. Unreal arithmetic" -in all classes died rer.y hard-first standard children who scarcely understood the meaning of one hundred" were set'to add up six lines or more, of figures with six columns in each, and fifth* standard bovs wero expected to show the same skill "in working commercial sums as.the practised clerk, the worst of it was that a skilled teacher could succeed in making the children, or .a' good proportion of them,'do three tilings; but.at what cost of.warped bodies and-mindsf Would it not pay to let the child grow in; a. more natural wav, guiding him. at each age according to its powers and its needs.- The curiosity of the infant to examine into things might be directed to 'grow,into the trained observation of the man of science. Whence looked, back and asked himself-.what good there was in the.'teaching of Latin and urcek, he was,constrairicd to answer that it was not grammar or philology or syntax, but interest in the life of the past, in its history and literature. Tho child loved stones, and for the ordinary boy or girl who was not destined to bo a grammarian or a philologist, whatever served tho love of tho history, and literature of, the, past would secure to him or to her FW was most valuable in tho older studies. .They must bring their .teaching into tho closest possible contact with life,'with the ideals of life-as-we:how viewed them. If the..sohoolr. did hot in the best sense ht their pupils for tho needs of their future- lives, theorists might talk-about the culture of this, study or that .as niuch as they liked, but the schools' would have failed, because to the great majority, of their pupil S| the lessons of the classroom had-no relation to the facts of tho universe, niorar or otherwise. .

. . .Vocational Courses. .It was on this ground principally' that lie would urge the introduction of what were known as vocational courses, into our secondary schools. A vocational course; as thus understood,. was nut a technical or professional .course, nor merely externally and immediately, utilitarian, as thoso who were sometimes brusquely termed tho bread and butter school would have it to be. It was essentially:a courso of general .idea, with the English, and history, the mathematics, and at least part of tho science, and the physical, training common to it with, the other course's; but a courso in which a certain part of the work was brought into close contact, with tho -facts of life in which the child found itself, and with the aims of the most probable calling the child would follow. The purely utilitarian was not the true view, whatever' immediate advantages it presented. A brooder raw than that of tho bread and butter school would provido a better general education, and'at the siime tinie probably give a'man all the bread; he'needed or deserved.

New Ideals of Life, ' .New Zealand needed to consider all its courses and syllabuses- in view, of tho now ideals of 'life which' it had adopted. I" 6 .old Pass systfcm formed, a' method of judging the quantity rather ..'• tliali •'• the quality of tho work.done.- We now- wanted statistics which .would show what kind of work most children of a certain ago or class, could do. Tho collection, of theso would be a useful, task to give the nioro advanced. students, say the gradutitfc students in our training colleges. • There would then be nioro solid-ground pan there.now.was 6ri which to rest reforms. Ihey could .with, greater' certainty hope tp: bring their; teaching- into close accord with tho,natural powers of tho.children. Tho school should bo viewed as' a part of the society' in, which wo lived. For that reason ho, considered n local,education authority, with' substantial powers and responsibilities, to bo an essential factor, in a successful- sohool system, of which primary,. secondary, aiid,technical schools, libraries, museums, 'social 'and athletic, clubs, parents'meetings, farmers' societies, and'so forth, should all bo, recognised; as constituent.parts Supplementing . one ' another. The school system should be part of tho municipal system, tho school an essential element of-the lifo of tho township. He believed such ri system would \be'more stable for tho'material bond of local- financial- responsibility.-

The. conference passed a■' • resolution thanking Mr. llogbcn for his address. The conference shortly, afterwards went into committee, and-remained so-through-out-the day. '..••■. Members uieot .agaiu-at 10 o'clock this Biomiug. •■'.-■ :