RECONSTRUCTION

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 170, 12 April 1919, Page 7

RECONSTRUCTION

WHY MORE TEACHERS?

DEVELOPMENT JOT INFORMATION THE MEANS • ~ ' ORIGINALITY NOT UNIFORMITY I THE AIMS. ■ i ~ i ' No. VI. ] For The Dominion, ' By F. L. Combs, M.A. . , The potter turns the common cup, : It's off his :Whoel as soon as u{); ' And hundreds like it soon succeed < Devoid of grace, a' sordid breed; ■ i Biit f&sk the potter clay lo mould .< .With plan original and bold. i The thoughtful thumb's caressing touch Will find no time or pains too much. A 'finer clay tho' plastic, too, ! Than potters with their art imbue, Has equal need of detailed ekill 1 Its highest promise to fulfil. ' 1 Give to the human potter then No more than he can mould to men. 1 Teacher's Physical Limitations—Limit Class Numbers. The broodiest of liens, one possessed ' . with such a devouring passion for motherhood that she obstinately creates a corner in china eggs, and fights for her clutch 1 like any American monopolist, is limited to a maximum of; nest-eggs, not, I believe, exceeding thirteen. Precisely the same limitations should apply to the size of a school class. The hen illustration is homely, but the biologist could writo for hours 011 the analogies between tho two functions—those-of nesting mother and class-mistress or, master—without either overstraining tho parallel or "becoming- derisory to the caTl- ' ing of cither. In tho first- place, tho hen imparts a congenial warmth among her chickens in posse; so, too, the teacher of the right type, working with a practicable number (13 would do here ialso) will reach with her irradiating emotions every one of her young chargos, producing thereby that ■ heightened mental temperature-indispen-sable to the processes of intellectual de•velopnient. For the mind, like the iron, must be struck when it is hot—hot as any medical man will tell us, from'that inflow of blood to the brain, which accompanies eager thought and warm (tho very word) feeling. T'his it is that makes Tital teaching so extremely exhausting from a nervous standpoint, rendering the limitation of numbers to some such maximum as 25 as imperative for physical as for pedagogical reasons. Possibly with the exception of platform speaking there is 110 sort of mind concentration so : arduous and pxacting. To keen en rapport • with the pupils—to retain undivided those : childish as errant and vagrant as childish footsteps—at tho same time to have the mind assiduously busy with the production and arrangement 'of the subject matter of. the lesson—what greater double strain nnd drain upon • the psychic forces could there be? It would almost seem to be a minor deductioiNfrom tho law of tho conservation of energy, that to impart life one must yield it up—that to (piicken mentally, to arouse cerebral • activity in others one must yield up an equivalent, mental •energy ineself. Certainly any nerve specialist would testify the process of teaching Ls exceptionally arduous from a physical standpoint, and his testimony would be borne out by the November-De-cember sick relief expenditure of our ' educational authorities. . Overdriven Workers Mean Poor Work Two losses that arise this excessive strain. One, that of the teachers, can rightly bo left to their own organisation to guard against. The other loss, that to tho pupils, is, however, one of much ■.wider, concern! For'their loss is. the parent?' loss and the Slates' loss. For the teacher to have energy aiid enthusiasm, overflowing and relatively inexhaustible emotions—for him to abound' , in an active, .'evident, vivifying desire for the well-being and happiness of his , charges is two-thirds of tho educational ..battle. The insinuation of the attractive idea.or the interesting train rf thought follows upon, and can never precede, these'indispensable preliminary qualifica.For 11 teacher to possess., such . '.qualities a buoyantly healthy physique . and ideal conditions of work aro abso- .. lutely necessary. One daily devitalised--I'endered mentally and emotionally flaccid by the excessive stra.'n of excessive numbers—is dynamically below par, and is bound to fail in efforts to excite tho interests and arouse the sympathies of his charges. - To superadd to brutally large classea overcrowded, badly-cleanert, and ill-ven-tilated class rooms is in ?n avowedly progressive era nothing short cf "riminai So as not to u'oi'k the willing liorse to death, so as to mako teaching an exuberant. and -appetising process (0 all concerned, the writer ha 6 advocated a drop In.the size of classes of 50—80 down to . 25;. a reform, 'be it granted, not to be 6peedily attained, but for that reason' all the moro lo be vigorously pursued', a reform not to be delayed for waut of ~ money, for not to. introduce it means n ' loss, not a saving. Once tho need is realised .'money will .be readily found. It has been and will bo delayed fir lack of teachers, a deai-th of which is as much du« to the undesirable physical conditions attached to, the work as to its journeyman rates of remuneration. The Human Potter to Teach Variously. But :n addition to tho teacher's influence on the class en masse—his power to Suffuse it with eager, interests and aspirations—is the teacher's influence on. the individual pupil, a, much subtler and perhaps even more . important affair. Subtle it is, for it is nothing less than the moulding of personality. He who has tried .'1 'prentice hand- <m personality moulding, with a wife as corpus vile, must, understand that in its finer branches child moulding 19 quite as obscure and difficult. For e(ven our best teachers to get more than rule-of-thumb results with classes of 7(1 in schools of 700 seems to tho writer absolutely impossible.. Personality Ignored in the Child. What occurs as a rule, indoors or out, is that a dozen or so pupils make a peculiar appeal to him personally. Obs scure.. but' strong sympathies spring up between them and him, and he enjoys in their ease a sure consciousness of iniluencing conduct and guiding careers. Tho remainder of the class siuk into a dimly-etched background, such as jnagazino artists use to throw into relief the central figures of their pictures. They yield up, perforce, at the behest of our results system their daily quota of (ompound interest, Latin prefixes, and syntactical exercises. They occasionally- como full-into the limelight with a class-lesson answer that seems to have dropped .from the clouds. I'or the rest, a, iliort year or .so and then not even their names, let alone their bodies, parts, and passions can be recalled without an effort of recollection on the part of the mentor, who, to work his finest and most enduring effects upon them, should havo -formed an unforgettable and soul-searching intimacy with them. No wonder, if this complete insight is needed for effective professional work on the part of an educationist, that rn American University Chancellor ventures to advocate classes of ten as a maximum. There is even hope that our belated system may emerge from an era of paper -reforms and make tho admitted high school • maximum (25) that also of tho primer classes where it is infinitely better warranted and more needed.

Teach Each Child, Not a Class of Children. 1 This point, of small classes and individual education is so essential that the writer lias ntf hesitation in stooping to almost any analogy to drive it home. Talcs that, for instance, of sheep-dogs. The man horn to handle canines j«—a well-known type to all who have passed a few years in the back-blocks. Hear Piich a' onß descant on "loading dogs," "htldinj; do?s," anil "huntaways," and tho first principle of all .teaching art becomes patent. U is to engraft upon inhorn peculiarities of disposition t ho whole of the subsequent instruction. Hear the same dug-trainer enlarge upon I ho personalities of all the dogs ho has po?■wssed for a twenty-year past—how a different way had to he adopted with each;

how one would sulk at a word and only blows would penetrate the thick head of another, Hear him multiply details of tlio personal idiosyncrasies of one particular doff, and we begin to feel what a pity it is that our children are worse educated than such sheep-dogs.. In conclusion two highly essential points remain to be dealt with. Develop Originality. Don't Stereotype. (1) All children are original, some only a little, sorao irrepressible so. ' In the first case as in the Inst it is most essential that such originality, whether a spark or a mounting flame, should bo made the most of. For., firstly, a community of people who have had their originality fully expanded arc diversely and intensely interesting ajl to each end each to nil, and life, which is two parts intercourse with one's fellows, becomes fourfold better worth living. On the other hand, where by uniform standards and an exam-cram system .is (to avoid offence) in China, intellect i? patterned and stiffened in a set mould, personality is etifled, and monotony becauso incurable becomes unendurable.

Secondly, modern life makes enormous J demands on our originality. We moderns < have to accept, comprehend, and adapt ■' ourselves, to more changes in a year than < our forefathers encompassed in a century. < Wo have also to project ami inaugurate e such changes. The typo of mind most demanded to-day, therefore, is highly t:-o--photic (that of a Carlyle or 11. &. Wells), 1 not at all traditional (like Newman aor ■ Dr. Browne's). To be prophetic each in « our small sphere, also to appreciate awl < not to stono our greater prophets, is one t of our most indispensable functions. 1 What, then, if working undermanned and i in the gross, and ignoring detailed and ; individual peculiarities of its human n. a- i tevial the modern, board school has stifled J imagination and stunted originality ? 1 lie 1 writer is prepared to maintain that it ( lias. ' '* Quality, Not Quantity, What Counts in ] Teaching. The final reason for having more teach. , or.s was briefly touched upon in the last ] article. There is a general as well as an , individual peculiarities of its'human ina- , individual qualitative effect to ( be derived from the person- , nel of a teacliing( staff. Tins rises ( in geometrical ratio to the numbers em. ( ployed. Ten teachers in chaTge of 250 , •children will, in the form of improved ( tone, order, and individual conduct of , pupils, do far more than twice as much ( as ten'teachers with 500. Moreover, where ; there aro sufficient teachers, qualitative , effects can be gotten in. The teacher cau ; make play with the more delicate f.nd ( accurate resources of his art. On tho other hand, asked to deal with excessive , numbers, he must abandon his means of sympathetic and intimate appeal and as- , Bume a more doginatic and authoritative ( attitude, approximating thereby to the drill sergeant. i And the drill sergeants methods ap- ( plied to the minds of .its nascent citizens most emphatically suAt not '.jus or any ( 'other commonwealth. , GENERAL CABLEGRAMS THE VINDICTIVE'!? BACK BROKEN. (Rec. April 11, 7.55 p.m.) London, April 8. The warship Vindictive's buck is broken, and i;he vessel is considered to be immovable.—Aus.-N.7i. Cable Assn. LUXURY TAX IN FRANCE. Paris, April 10. A luxury lax has been re-established ' in France—Aus.-N.Z.• Cable Assn. DOMINION GENERALS TO MEET THE KINO. London, April 8. It is announced that the King will receive all the Dominion Divisional generals prior to their departure for home. —Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assn. VICTORIA CROSSES AWARDED. '' London, April 1 (delayed).. Altogether 317 Victoria Crosses were awarded during the war period—Aus.N.Z. Cable Assn. ACCIDENT TO THE CROWN PRINCE. (Ree. April 11, 7.55 p.m.) Amsterdam, April B'. The Crown Prince, while motor-cycling at Wicringen, dashed into a gate, and fractured liis hand and wrist.—Reuter. . ANTI-JAPANESE LEGISLATION. San Francisco, April 10. Mr. Robert Lansing, Secretary of State.' has cabled to the Californian Legislature that its recent introduction of anti-Japanese legislation (forbidding, among other things, the acquisition of land)' is particularly unfortunate at this juncture.—Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assn. (Ree. April 12, 1.35 a.m.) Now York, April 10. The Californian Legislature lias postponed indefinitely the proposed antiJapauese ; measures, following on Sir. Lansing's cable advising that ihey were extremely unfortunate at this time — , Reuter. | AMERICAN TROOPS REFUSE DUTY. Archangel, April 10. Trouble, lias broken out among the : American troops in Russia. Some are , refusing duty in tho firing line.—Aus.i N.Z. Cable Assn. ; PREMIER OF WEST AUSTRALIA RESIGNS. Perth, April 11. Tiie Premier of West Australia, Mr. . Lci'roy, has. resigned.—Press Assn. .(Eec. April 11, 11 p.m.) Perth, April 11. The Premier resigned owing to want of 1 unity of ideas among tho Nationalist Party. A meeting of the parly will j' elect a new ■'lea'der — Press Assn. ■ GOVERNMENT PRICE-FIXING TO 1 ■ END. Sydney, April 11. , It is officially stated that all Govern-, j ment- price-Using will end on July 31.— I Press Assn. t . NEW ZEALAND FOOTBALLERS, j London, April 8. [ South Africa has invited the New Zenr land footballers to break their .homeward iourney for a six weeks' lour.—Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assn. . FREE PASSAGES FOR EX-SOLDIERS. | (Ree. April 11, 7.55 p.m.) ) . London, April 8. l Mr. L. C. Amery (Under-Secretary fur • the Colonies) has announced that the . Government will grant after December, v <919, freo passages to ex-soliders appro'v- ■ ed under! any dominion settlement ) scheme, alio to women who served iu Ihe P land army.'—Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assn. - LABOUR SEATS ON BOARDS OF GUARDIANS. J (Rec. April 11, 7.55 p.m.)/ j London, April 9. r Labour secured 130 scats on the varit ou? London boards of guardians, out of 5 a. total membership of 457, compared . with twenty-one Labour members on the old boards.—Reuter. • SOLDIERS' MATRIMONIAL j. ' . TROUBLES. (Rcc. April 11, 7.55 p.m.) ® London, April 8. t The House of Lords has passed the 5 first reading of a'Bill enabling'tlie English Courts to deal with matrimonial 1 proceedings in cases of soliders domiciled r abroad. —Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assn. I POPULATION OF NEW SOUTH ° WALES. (Ren. April 11, 11. p.m.) Sydney, April 11. The population of New Soulli Wales on December .'lt last was 1,1128,175, com- " prising !)5(;,2:i8 males and 071,937 females, e and including 2021 full-blooded alxirig--0 ilies. —Press Assn. '■ bishop of kalgoorlie resigns. 5 (Tiec. April 11,11 p.m.) r Perth, April 11. Dr. Golding Bird has resigned the <1 Bishopric of Kalgoovlie, owing io throat tumble.—Press Assn. :