REFORMS IN EDUCATION

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 2968, 4 January 1917, Page 3

REFORMS IN EDUCATION

DEVELOPMENT OF TECHNICAL TRAINING

NEED FOR A BIAS TOWARDS

AGRICULTURE

SCIENTIFIC STUDY

Iα his presidential address to Technical School teachers assembled in conference at Wangamri yesterday, Mr. F. Neve, M.A., LL.B., B.Sc, head of the Department of Natural Science in the Seddon Memorial Technical College, Auckland, dealt with the question of reforms in education.

. The present war, ho said, had emphasised the need for greater efficiency in every department of national life, and such efficienoy could be secured only by a properly balanced system of education in which-all activities of the individual were developed to the fullest extent. The Physical Side. Attention should bo given, first of all, to physical development, for it was on the sound physique of its members that the permanence of a nation dependcu. Something had already been done by the appointment of physical oulture experts and arrangements for the medical inspection of schools, but much more was needed. To every large • school and to each group of smaller* schools one expert should bo permanently attached, and .at least one-fourth of,the students' time should be devoted to physical culture and organised games. Tin's branch of education should form an integral part ot the curriculum in all training colleges, when those teachers shoeing marked aptitude should be allowed a third year to specialise and qualify as expert instructors. The war had shown conclusively the 4 need for physical fitness. A consideration of the number of rejects should surely impel us to adopt drastic measures for the remedy of this fundamental weakness. Mental and Manual. The existing primary school %llabus afforded ample and well-selected material for the purpose of mental and manual training. ■ But, unfortunately, adherence to obsolete ideals exalted mental agility, above manual dexterity, and glorified the brain at the oxpenso of the hand. The number of proficiency certificates gained at the annual examination was the criterion by which a teacher was judged, and in securing such certificates hand work played- a very small part. Physical development, manual and mental training should bo symmetrical and , harmonious, and undue stress laid on any. ono detracted from efficiency. Pupil Teachers and Understating. Understating and the- pupil teacher system wero the two'chief obstacles to reform in primary schools.- >Pupil teachers should, not bo- regarded us members of the staff, but merely as learners acquiring familiarity with tho art and practice of teaching:; They should work only half the day,-and devote tho rest of their timo to study. Otherwise by the time they had qualified for certificates their energy would be so sapped that only tho dregs of their vitality would bo. available for teaching. Understating was bound up with tho pupil-teacher system. Ono heard of (teachers with tho so-called assistance of a pupil teacher , dealing with classes of eighty,"or ninety. Work under such conditions, must of necessity .bo stereotyped•';andi : mechanical. Thero was no chance for originality or initiative; tho pupil, instead of discovering ■ tho truth through a series of mistakes, was compelled to follow minutely tho teacher!? directions, and reproduce tho ideas )and'models provided. ■ No teacher should tako more than thirty pupils. Students might then be taught to think rather than to i reproduce ■. ■■ • . Secondary Technical and Vocational Education. Tho primary course was a broad one, and, if faithfully'covered, afforded a satisfactory foundation alike for tho secondary technical or vocational: training that was to follow, so that tho transition should in each case bo easy and natural. Some form of education .beyond that supplied by tho primary schools should he free, and compulsory for all; but there should bo a more satisfactory classification of those who had finished their primary course. The students, both male and female, who showed marked literary ability should pass to the secondary schools; all boys who exhibited special aptitude for mathematics or science should pass into technical classes to receive there the broad practical training provided; while those , Tvho wero proficient in mathematics and science as well as literature should be;allowed to choose for themselves. Tig* rest of tho boys, as well as girls, not entering the secondary schools, should receive vocational training, in which general education would be of a simple character, acd effort would at once be more directly concentrated on the specific occupation the pupil had taken or intended to take up. The technical and vocational classes should be under the same control. To allow those of limited means to avail themselves of the education provided, monetary help should be given where special aptitude was shown. A considerable extension of the scholarship system would meet the case. That there might be no encroachment or individual liberty, the parent who objected to the particular form of education selected for his child should be allowed' to choose some other on payment of a reasonable fee, with the proviso that vocational training should always be free. The classification of students should be so arranged that those taking the secondary course, would be reduced to about one-fourth of the present number. There' might then be some reasonable relation between the number receiving secondary education and that following professions in which such education would be an advantage. At present, custom and a perverted public sentiment favoured an academic training . which the average student was incapable of receiving. " Tho secondary system, in offering the training to all, was following old-line policies of restricted human interests.. It could not, by these policies, continue to appeal to tho masses of the people, , because they ignored the immediate and porsonal interests of tho common man. Technical training was its own best advocate. Unlike secondary education, which was a legacy from the times when education fell to the lot of a. favoured fow, it was of modern growth, and designed in a practical way to meet tho exigencies of modern life. It was tho outcome of present-day requirements. Tho technical schools aimed at individual efficiency, and provided courses adapted to the needs of industry and commerce. ■ AVhile general culture was not neglected, it was on the scientific and practical that attention was focussed. To tho number now receiving technical or vocational training would bo added three-fourths of those who at present attended the secondary schools, as well as all thoso who had hitherto been contented with the' primary course alone. Splendid ■ vocational work was already being done in agriI culture, business training, and domes-

tic science, but this division needed great extension.

Tlioso who had not tlin moans or inclination to devote all their time to tlieso and similar classes, should be compelled to spend therein half of each clay or two full days per week, learning how scientifically to apply Uic principles that underlay their special work. This applies particularly to girls entering domestic life, who should receive compulsory instruction in housecraft, cookery, dressmaking, mother craft, first aid hygiene, and home nursing. Apprentices to the various trades would also come under this head, and employers should be under a penalty to sen that all under tho ago of seventeen had facilities for making requisite attendances. Agriculture. To givo a. bias towards agriculture should be the aim of education from kindergarten to university—in the lower grades by specially devised courses in nature study and the cultivation of garden plots by individuals, and later by a wide range of experiments with plants and soils and extension of the system of school gardons and individual plots. Greater facilities in the way of land, implements, animals, and machinery should be available for technical high schools, and, in addition, throughout the country districts there should be established Government plots with laboratory attached controlled' by competent teachers, where farmers and farmers' sons might receive information' and training in tho principles of this the greatest of all our industries. The University. The university was at present little moro than a. coaching establishment, where students, were enabled to qualify for the various academic degrees. Of true research bearing on the needs and requirements of modern life there was practically none. This, however, was not altogether the university's fault, it was not possible to sufficiently encourage research. The means had not been provided. Tho essentially academic attitude adopted by tbo university was, however, exhibited in the exaggerated importance attached to tho study of Latin. This was a relic of tho middle ages. It had its origin in the days when tho literature of tho classics was practically tho only literature the world possessed, and through it alouo the student could come into contact with the master-minds of history. New all this was altered. Wo had a magnificent literature of our own, and, if it was desired to study the classics there were splendid translations" far surpassing anything tho student could make himself. Ho ventured to say that not ono in five hundred of those who began the study of Latin reached a point where he-could read the language with such facility as to appreciate literary form. The speaker admitted that tho study of Latin afforded a species of mental training, but maintained that a similar and better training could bo derived from a scienco '—with this difference—whereas Latin merely crammed the mind with a load of aeademio junk, tho study of a scienco afforded real knowledge and encouraged modes of thought applicable to tho needs of everyday life. Ways and Means. It was obvious that the carrying out of the outlined scheme would mean at least doublo tho present vote for education, but tho money so spent would bring in a rich return. Tho existenco of the Eihpiro depended as much en educational equipment as on tho military training and the making of munitions. 'If after tho war wo wero to hold our own in industrial and competition with other nations, wo must rigorously restrict or abolish altogether tho purely academic and rcplaqo it by tho practical 'and useful.

Last year there wero consumed in tho Dominion over threemillion pounds of tobacco, ten and a half million gallons of beer, and over a million gallons of wino and spirits, costing - several times tho amount spent on education. Comment was superfluous.