EDUCATIONAL REFORM

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2680, 28 January 1916, Page 6

EDUCATIONAL REFORM

Sir, —I wish to express my heartiest thanks to your correspondent "Festina Leute," and I think that the thanks of the community as a whole are due to him for the lucid and clear-out manner in which he has exposed! the selfUniversity Heform" movement which is working in our midst. , That educational reform is desirable, and oven urgent, in this Dominion few will deny, but "reform" of the type that threatens to overtake us is nothing better than revolution and short-sighted (if well-intentioned) anarchy. I have fears, however, that the less sophisticated of your readers will be apt to pass by the indictment of this Germanism" movement with the remark that it is just evidence of a fanatical hatred of everything Gnman. Hatred it may be, but, iu the eyes of many deep-thinki!!" people, a hatred that is fully justified —we hate oiily that which is false, that which is retrogressive. In so far \s this Germanising influence would affoct the 'University, I am of opinion iliac the platform laid down by the "Keformers" is wholly undesirable, and entirely opposed to the test interests 'of educatmn in Now Zealand. 1 spti-iU as u student of three or four years' standing, with the prospect of degree examinations still beforo me. I am opposed to the principle of "internal" examinations, for the following I'etlSUllti; —- , 1. Where the individual professor ev,

amines his awn students, the professor sets liig own (comparatively narrow) standard, and tlie most successful student is (as at present with 'cevn;s" exams.) lie who, with «• minimum of independent study, estimates the most accurately what are the professor's likes and diiflikes—what he wants and w'liat he does not want.

2. Tho janiid observer of human nature, and probably all psychologists, are at one iu Ponying that even so great a personage as a professor is incapable of being biased in Jlis judgment.

I am in favour of "external" examinations boctiuso:

1. The fact that the examiner is (nt least comparatively) unknown to tho candidate requires that the candidate shall have a broad and comprehensive view of his subject, and shall le froo from prejudices, while, at the san.'o time, it keeps the teacher from "getting into a groove," if ho 10 to cater for the demand made upon him. 2. The personal "item is entirely eliminated, as it should be in such examinations'. The examiner is .quite able to test the candidate's knowledge and his ability to apply it, without having seen the candidate, and the candidate lias the advantage of knowing that there is the minimum of opportunity for bias. 3. There is a fixed standard of examination in each subject, and thereby the work of tho different professors in a given subject may be compared in fair competition.

4. The standard of examination is already far too low and far too narrow without making it. any worse.

"Festiua Lente" has confined his attention to the University; our secondary schools, we are glad to say, are typically of the English public school style; but alack the day, our primary system is, at the present time, on a fair way to being completely Germanised I Are not our studcnt-teachers throughout New Zealand being fed on the dry bones of Fried rich Herbart? Why is there no moral teaching in our schools, no setting up of ideals, no inculcation of principles? Is it not due to tho influonco of German deterministic philosophy and German "machine"making pedagogy? Yet I see ono ray of hope, and I am confident that our authorities and our real leaders are not walking in the dark. One cannot but rejoice to know that we have in our recently-appointed Assistant-Director of Education a champion, of Pan-German-ism and an ardent disciple of those great British leaders whose inspiration has been felt throughout Britain of recent years. Our pseudo-leaders, the "Eeformors," may well give up hope.. We look to our British cool-headedness, to the' older and wiser of our educationists, to keep us from falling into the same mistakes that have ruined our fellow-beings cf kindred nations.—l am, eto., - UNIVERSITY STUDENT. ■Wellington, January 26, 1916. '