THE FIVE-YEAR-OLDS

Evening Star, Issue 21743, 11 June 1934, Page 5

THE FIVE-YEAR-OLDS

EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTE’S CASE STATEMENT BY PRESIDENT 'NEW EVIDENCE In a statement issued to-day Mi' 0. A. Banner, president of the New Zealand Educational Institute, set out the main reasons why, in the opinion of the institute, the raising of the school entrance age was not in the interests of the great majority of the children affected. Mr Banner stated that an inquiry into the actual effects of the legislation on the children had recently been conducted by the institute, and that a large amount of first-hand evidence had been secured from infant mistresses, parents, and social workers. “ It should be emphasised,” said Mr Banner, “ that we are not asking that parents should be compelled to send their children to school when they reach the age of five, but merely that they should again be permitted to enrol them at that age if they so desire. We fully recognise that circumstances sometimes render it inadvisable to send a child to school until it reaches the age of six or even seven.” THE NORMAL EIV£-YEAR : 9LP. “The question of. the age .at which any given child should go to- school is a complicated one, involving as it does a consideration of the nature of hia home, the type of school available, and the particular characteristics of the child himself. It follows' that the issue cannot be argued in the abstract, and that it is necessary to think in terms of groups ,of children more or less similarly circumstanced. “’First of all, there is the normal five-year-old from an average, home. For the majority of such children we believe that the home, vitally important as it is, cannot supply everything that is necessary for full development, Vnd that the school has its special contribution to make. We have ample evidence that, for a variety of reasons, many mothers find it difficult (if not impossible) to keep their children fruitfully and Happily occupied, and that- as a result the children tend to become bored and irritable. In the infant school, on the other hand, the-child is under the skilled guidance of _ people whose sole duty it is to provide him with constructive ■ outlets for his superabundant energy. In the second place the school provides the child with the opportunity for daily associations with children of his own age—an exceedingly valuable experience. The acquisition 1 of the skills and habits of civilised life is a much easier and pleasanter process when the experience is shared with contemporaries. ’

PLACE OF FORMAL EDUCATION. “It cannot be too strongly emphasised that the prime function of. the infant school is the all-round development of the whole child. Instruction in the three R’s is a matter of secondary importance. We agree with the Hadow Report on ‘ Infant and Nursery Schools ’ when it declares that attention' has been focused too exclusively On reading, writing, and arithmetic to the neglect of other pursuits—singing, handwork, and the drama, co-operative and creative activities of all kinds. What is essential, in the words of the report, is that ‘ the acquisition of the three R’s should come about incidentally as a part of widening interests, and be no longer a catastrophic change in the relations between teachers and children.’ When a child is admitted at five this condition is much easier of achievement. He has time to become adjusted to the conditions of the schoolroom, and the transition to more formal work at. the age of six or thereabouts can take place easily and naturally. We have secured the opinions of about 150 infant mistresses, and there is very general agreement that the raising of the school age is tending to force a reversion to the more formal methods of the past. Certain inspectors are reported to have stated that the six-year-olds should be ready to pass into Standard I. after eighteen ' months in the primer classes, and the majority of infant mistresses are of the opinion that this cannot be accomplished without ‘ speeding up ’ and undue emphasis on formal work.

OTHER GROUPS OF CHILDREN. “ If the argument for the readmission of the normal five-year-old is strong, there are other groups of children, forming in the aggregate a large proportion of a child population, for whom an even more convincing case can be made out. “ There are children, for example, whose homes are poor, cramped, and sometimes squalid. An inspector for tho New Zealand Society for the Protection of Women and Children writes: ‘ Many children of the poor are forced to spend most of their day either inside cold, cheerless homes or to play in their sate gtreets* Sfees®

children play for hours around drains and gutters. . . . Children of poorer homes invariably have few or no toys, . , . One has only to visit the homos of the masses to be convinced of the hardship, both to child and parent, entailed by raising the age of admission to public schools.’ Wo submit that the case for some form of educational provision for this group of children is unanswerable.

“ Next comes a group of maladjusted or ‘ difficult 'children/ Every school has its quota of ‘ difficult ’ children—children whose behaviour is in some degree socially undesirable, or children who are suffering more or less severely from some form of nervous trouble—and every school, and this is particularly true of infant departments, is called upon to do a considerable amount of corrective and remedial work. Now the causative factors in both delinquency and neurosis' are many and varied, but it can be said quite definitely that home conditions play a part in the great majority of cases. Dr Cyril Burt, for example, the greatest English authority on juvenile delinquency, found that in nearly 90 per cent, of the cases he studied_ there was some disorder or abnormality in the child’s family life. It follows that the raising of the school age permits such conditions to exert a more powerful influence, and many infant mistresses confirm the truth of this deduction. It cannot be argued that another nine months or so does not matter. It may spell all the difference between success and failure in the application of remedial measures. • -

“ ‘ Only ’ children present another problem. • It- is well established that ‘ only ’ children or young children in grown-up families are particularly liable to personality disorders if they are denied the opportunity for frequent and intimate contact with other children. ‘ Only children,’ as a social worker observes, ‘ should always be off to school at an early age, otherwise they tend to become spoilt or insular.’ It should be added that in these days, when the birth rate is so low, only children form a not inconsiderable percentage of the child population. Finally, there are the children of more than average intelligence. These children are eager and more than ready for school, and what has been said with reference to the need of the normal five-year-old for regular occupation and for association with contemporaries applies to them with especial force.’ THE PHYSICAL ASPECT. “ We believe that the physical aspect of the question has been over-empha-sised. The typical New Zealand five-year-old is a healthy youngster, and we agree with those medical authorities who. state that the raising of the school age has had no marked effects on the health of the majority of children. It is the general development of personality rather than mere physical health which has suffered as the result of the legislation. “ Here again, however, there are special cases. One result of the raising of the school age is that the child’s first school medical examination is postponed for varying periods up to one year. We have therefore asked infant mistresses and social workers whether they knew of any cases where the excluded five-year-olds were suffering from physical defects which would Lave been detected and remedied had they been admitted to school. About half of the infant mistresses and a large majority of the social workers stated that such cases come under their notices—cases of defective eyesight, bad posture, dental caries, neglected tonsils and adenoids, nervous instability, etc. It may bo mentioned here that a large number of infant mistresses find that faulty speech habits are more deeply ingrained. BETTER INFANT SCHOOLS NEEDED. “ The readmission of the five-year-olds is, in our view, but one step in the direction of making adequate provision for the physical and educational needs of young children. , Despite the progress that has been made during the last twenty years or so, some infant schools are still far from ideal. While we believe that no infant school is so bad that some at least of the five-year-olds in the area it serves could not benefit by attending it, we are strongly of the opinion that infant schools should be improved. We need more buildings of open-air design,, space for free movement, more material for constructive use, smaller classes to allow of a larger measure of individual attention, better provision for the physical care of children, an education based more firmly on the needs and interests of the child himself. Furthermore, we are convinced tjiat there is urgent need for the provision of kindergartens and nursery schools for many children below the age of five. “ Nothing is said here of the effect of the legislation on the grading of schools, not with any desire to cloak the fact that this aspect of the question is of vital importance to the profession, but because the effect of the legislation on the child himself is the major point at issued j