The Dominion. TUESDAY, JULY 1, 1913. EDUCATION & COUNTRY LIFE.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1790, 1 July 1913, Page 4

The Dominion. TUESDAY, JULY 1, 1913. EDUCATION & COUNTRY LIFE.

The questions recently published in The Dominion regarding the needs of the country settlers are eliciting a great deal of .useful information on a wide variety of important matters. The value of the views put forward is enhanced by the fact that they come direct from the people immediately concerned, and are expressed in their own way. Instead of seeing things through the spectacles of the politician, the Government official, the school inspector, or the city man, we now have' an opportunity of knowing what the settler himself needs, and not what other people think he ought to need. There is, of course, a' good deal of difference in the views advocated on many matters, but something like a consensus of opinion on some points seems to be emerging. Take the education question, for instance. The general opinion seems to be that, though the schools are doing .good work in certain directions, much more might be done from the rural point of view. This does not mean that there should be an abrupt cleavage between town and country in our school methods. Our system is rightly based on the principle that all the young people of New Zealand, wherever they may live, arc entitled to a. sound primary educa-. tion on broad general lines. 'As regards those fundamental subjects, a knowledge of which is essential for everyone who desires to play an .intelligent part in the affairs of everyday life, the system of education ought in its main features to be tho same both in town and country. It is when wo pass from this general foundation to some of the superstructures that the defects of our present methods become apparent. They are too rigid and mechanical. They require much more elasticity, and to be made more easily adaptable to the special environment of the pupils. The schools cannot be expected to teach practical farming any more than they can bj expected to give instruction in carpentry, bricklaying, or any other particular trade or 'pi afession; but the school course ought to have a much closer relation to the after life of the child than is the case at present— and this defect is nowhere more keenly felt than in tho country districts,^

One of the replies to our questions declares that the whole of our education system wants reforming, and another writer states that ''the school life of to-day, and for many years past, has been teaching the children to look on the farming life as degrading, and were it not that in many cases lads and lassies are needed at home urgently, the How to the city would be much greater." The writer goes on to say that out of some sixty upper room boys who were at school with him, he is unable to think of one who is now on the land, and yet all these boys were sons of country or semi-country parents. The experience of this correspondent may, of course, be exceptional; but it is of great interest, and shows the necessity of reconsidering our education methods with special reference to their bearing on the settlement'of the land. If the ilow of population from tho rural districts to the towns is to be stopped, and if the settlement and development of the country is to progress as rapidly as it should, the farmer must have equal facilities with the town resident for the education of his children, and they must be educated in a manner more in keeping with, their surroundings than is at present the case. Country life must be made more • interesting to them. At present almost every child who shows a little more promise than his fellows is, directly or indirectly, led to look for a career in the centres of population, whereas, as a matter of fact, there is ample scope for brains and enterprise in the country as well as in the city. The application of tho latest scientific ideas to agricultural and pastoral pursuits should be intensely interesting to a keen and active mind, and affords much more room for the development of intellect, individuality, resourcefulness, and the sense of responsibility than the majority of city •occupations. If the children could be made to appreciate these facts, and this point of view, during their school course, it would be a factor in assisting them to resist the glamour of the towns. ' Our educational methods should also have an important influence on the social life of the settlers, and it is from this point of view that the school course for girls needs careful revision. Indeed, it is generally recognised that there is something radically wrong with the kind of instruction girls are receiving both in town and country. When the Chief Inspector of Schools of the Wellington Province admits that the system is seriously defective in this respect, one may reasonably hope that the necessary reforms will not be long delayed. Mr. Fleming recently stated that as far as the girl pupils are' concerned, ho would like to see tho mornings devoted to such, subjects as English, history, and geography, and the afternoons set apart for different branches of domestic science. After all, domestic science in its elementary form simply means instruction in the most efficient and economical way o'f performing the ordinary household duties, and if such teaching were imparted on useful and common-sense lines, its beneficial effect in the homes of the people would soon bo felt. It would certainly, add to the attractions of life' in the country, where the people are compelled to rely more completely on their own resources than in the towns. Thero can be no doubt that the various educational authorities in NeW Zealand will ere long be called on to tindertake a number of far-rea-ching reforms in the present education system in order to bring it into closer relation to the actual life of the people, both in town and country.