CHILDREN AND SCHOOL

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 148, 12 March 1918, Page 7

CHILDREN AND SCHOOL

THINGS THAT ARE WRONG

SOME VIEWS OF TEACHERS

BIG CLASSES IN BAD ROOMS

Tho/Women Teachers' Association last night held a meeting to open 11 campaign to be carried on by the New Zealand Education Institute to impress on tho public iho need for some improvement 111 school buildings and in school staffing. Miss i\ r . E. Coad presided. *

I;. Miss Edith Howes spoko on the stati- | ing or schools. She stated her opinion that no attempt at any kind of reform whatever could bo possible until reform was worked in the staffing of primary schools. So long as children were herd", ed together in largo masses no realty useful work could bo done. Subjects could be squeezed into the syllabus or squeezed out of it, but unless tho teachers were relieved of their overburden tho children must suffer. There was a certain growing opinion among parents that iheir children were ' not being well done by in tho schools. Sometimes it was said, Why was ii that children m primary schools lost their individuality? The reason was that every child was one of a massone perhaps of soveuty-and it was impossible lor an overworked, nervewracked teacher to givo attention to the individual development of every child. Effort should he made to interest, parents in this matter. It was impossible for i.ny one. human beim' i to educate seventy children. It was I quite possible for a. toaclier to declaim ! to a class of seventy, or to get the I children to achieve short ways of doing things, but this was not really educa* I tioii. A child in such a class could learn nothing of the joy of work. Children could hayo nothing of tho joy of _ experiencing tho power or their own faculties. . After a lew years in school a normal child was prepared to sit still and be taiHit but it would not work of its own volition, one said that tho mental as well as tho physical health of children suffermf by , thls assembling of large classes. ■Uiey became physically and'mentally passive rather than active. She thought , that the ami should be to double the '• staffing of our schools, and she thought mere was insincerity in the cry that there wero not enough teachers. Tho I answer t& this demand should not bo the appointment of pupil teachers It was not fair to tho children to put in charge of them young people who had no practical knowledge of teaching and no real or theoretical knowledge of child psychology. Tho experimenting should bo done in the training colleges before the apprenticeship began Mr. W. H. L. Foster spoke on school buildings. He said that tho number or educational experte in New Zealand iad been growing by leaps and bounds, but theso people did not como from tho profession which should have 'some right to profess expert knowledge He happened to control a school—Clydo Quay—which was the last word in school construction, but that word was not fit for publication! Essentials of schools should be ventilation and sunshine. These requisites tho doctor insisted upon. From the point of view or tho teacher ho thought that classrooms to accommodate moro than 40 i children should probably not be built, He thought that the education authorities should all employ architectural ex•ports of highly specialised training to ! supervise tho construction of school > buildings. Schools should be above all i : things attractive and pleasant for chil- ' dnm. But what could bo done with : Oyde Quay, To Aro, and Mount Cook? | i ihere really was no remedy for any of ! hem but a fire match! The custom of I hanging coats as they wero now hun» i ' in passages was all wrong. Thero ■ ' should bo proper cloak rooms. There ! should be better drinking and washing : arrangements. With these us they wero it was impossible to teach" that, cleanliness was next to godliness. New Zealand had not led tho world in tho matter of school buildings. H was now behind the London standards of SO years ago. Ho did not approve of tho sinking of very large sums of money in very permanent school buildings whilo tho whole education systom was so much in » state of flux. One of the reasons for tho lethargy of children m largo classes was tho dreadful lack of air to which children were condemned, leachors wore the .worst sinners m this respect. They wero so used to it! Unless they lived in a "nice smelling atmosphere ,, they wore not happy. Mr. Foster attached much importance to ventilation. Thero should be no cross-ventilation , into corridors. Ihoro should bo cross-ventiiadon from windows open to tho fresh air on either side The teachers should press first at all for twelve square feet of floor space per child. Tho Minister had said that the' requirements had not been reduced, but he could show to the Minister rooms built to scat GO in which were classes of 70 children.' It should bo a penal offence for any lnaetcr toput more than 50 children into a room Playgrounds of Wellington schools wero inadequate. Without wishing to enter upon a discission of the merits of tho question of putting schools on the Town Belt, ho did think that on the Town Belt thero would at least be air space. •Dr. Ada Patorson, a medical inspector of schools, spoke, of problems of heating school-rooms, with somo referenco to open-air class-rooms. She agreed that the floor space allowanco in New Zealand schools was too low. In England the allowanco was loft, iii some schools, and even as much a s 20ft Open-air rooms should be convertible in bad weather into ordinary classrooms. In effect it came to this— that class-rooms should all he practically convertible into open-air rooms Miss Williams moved tho following resolution:—

"In view of the value to tlio nation of the physical and mental health of the young people, the Wellington Women Teachers' Association asks that steps bo immediately taken by the Government—

(1) To secure an improvement in tho unsatisfactory conditions existing in many of our. public, schools. (2) To securo a more adequate supply of teachers, thereby reducing tho numbers in largo and overcrowded class.es." Miss P. Myers seconded tho motion, which was carried unanimously. Miss Myers proposed a voto of thanks to Miss Howes and Sir. Foster, and the vote was carried ivilli acclamation.