The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING GISBORNE, MAY 26, 1906, EDUCATION AND HEALTH.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXII, Issue 1759, 26 May 1906, Page 2

The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING GISBORNE, MAY 26, 1906, EDUCATION AND HEALTH.

I Tbo condemnation of the educational I system by Dr Truby King as being do ri I menial bolb to lie moral and physical I health of the children, has naturally given | rise to a good deal of disoussioD, the opinion g of 6Uoh an expert being entitlod to muoh 1 weight. Soveral jonroals de»pa!obed in- | tervifcwcrs to collect opinions on the jj subject, the most interesting perbops being those obtained by the N/,. Herald. 11 The syllabus has tow been in operation for two yearp, a period sufficiently long for it to bavo had a fuir trial, and long enough for headmasters to express definite opinions upon it. Several gontkmeu in charge of local schools were seen, and they were seleotod at random. Their views are given independently, but it will be seen that they are conspicuously unanimous ia their condemnation of what one of their number deferibod as a ‘ euippet ’ syllabus." Such is the summing up. Oae city headmaster in Auokland, on beiog asked wbotbor, if the teaching as laid down in the syllabus were carried out in its entirety, the health of tbo children would bo prejudiced in any way, said : “ I will not have the children pushed. It is not so much tbo amount of work that I would complain of, but the great range of subjects required to be taught. For example: Is it fair to i xamine a olaes in science for over an hour when, for tho whole year, providing the children have Dot missed a lesson, only 43 hours’ instruction in that one subject has been given ? If the inspectors require facts from the childroa they will got them, but at the expense of the cultivation of their observativo faculties,. A child may bo stuffed with facts which it can rattle off parrctfashioD, but that is not teaching. ’’ The same gentleman had something to say on the work of reformers. " The syllabus,” he said, “ is too ambitiouc It is a collection of reforms ; every reformer has got something put into the syllabus, but we are waiting for the reformer who shall say what must come out. American educationists are now realising that the widening cf the school syllabus is due to reformer?, but that no one has yet arisen to say what shall be dispensed with to make room for the new subjects. I have ohildisn in my sobool whom i will not force, I know they could not etaud it. If

tlioy woro pushed at all they would Buffer f.out headache, and tho work would bo a bugboar to tbom iustoud of u ploasure, as io really is. I think you may take it that tho pressure of tbo now Byllubua on tbo children will depond upon tbo way tho iu’■P ctors viow it. Young toiohcrs will fool tout (hoy muet do all they call to otan i well with tbo inspectors, and if ihninspoo krs (li inand in for■mutton thou tliey will go it. It is (juitu difficult for evon »n inspector to assess tho valuo of tho dovol >pment of tho obser vativo faculties. If tbo now syll thus is cirriod out in its entirety, and literally interpreted by tho inspectors, will, 1 think tho boys could begot through, but tho girls, no.” Another headmaster, being askid if bo causidorod that tho w«s boing intorprotod too rigidly, replied, ‘ Yes, 1 wou'd say unhesitaiingly that wo are being asked to do too muob. The syllabus is roully inlendod largoly ns a guide, but thero seem t to bo a disposition io malto i: a law and to enforce it ia the Utior, rather than in tho spiiit. Too cduontiou of the children would bo far moro thorough, aod the results would bo inrch better in ovory way wero tbo syllabus moro restricted.” Tho general tpnor of tbo opinion* is in tho direction < i placing the responsibility on tho inspret r-', who can interprot tho syllnbus in a way to wffto it workable cr to make tho t sk pi aot'ca'ly an impossible one. Tho hoadm aster cfj a largo suburban school, when spproaoh d on tho subjeot of tho a llabus, by a Now Zaoland Herald repres ntrtive, said ho had no hesitation in saying that tho syllabus was overcrowded, iltbough he thought it was constructed upon rgh’, prinoip'ts. The Btatemont that .ho syllnbus was ovoi crowded was, he rdded, tu*'jcct to modification, for it depend. d upon the in'orp-etation placed upon it by the inspectors. '■ If ihe syllabus is to bo f, llowe-j literally,” tho master continued, 11 then I say that it is over crowd.d. Tho toaober may put tho lob ons cn tho blackboard, but he oannot ‘ t ach ’ them io the yoar allotted for children in ono standard for promotion to a liigbc, Tho syllabus has Deen in foroe for two years, quite long onough to form an opinion of its practicability. On the Other harid, if toacbors are allowed to m ko a selection of the wcik taught, then we can make it as easy or os diflioult as wo 1 ke. That, I believe, is tbo olj ot of the Inspeotor-Genera 1 , Air Hoghsn. If tbo inspectors will accept any reasonable selootion in subj cts such, say, as go g aphy, made by tho toacbors, then the syllabus may bo said not to ho overcrowded,” Another gentleman explained that tho work mustsull-r by tbo grort mixture of subjects, bccau6o there was not time allowed for the teaobiug of them. “Wo cannot linger .over Ihe leeeons ; tbore is too much hurry, ecu ry, or rather t'oiro woull be if the Byllabus were rigidly idhertd tc,” N:.ns of the teachers interviewed oou!d bear out Dr. Truby King as to physical injury caused to the obi'dreo, as in each case where that was evident tho wo k was 1 gt,t=ned. Tbo morning journal thus sums up the subject :- I’When 1 ’When we remember that children of six years of ago have actually workod in the ootton mills of Eog’and, that little toddlers who appear to us as help'oss babies have tmd d machinery fur twelvo long hours da ly. ws a'O able to form some idea of tbo am zi< g powers of onduraoce that lie It-1 n*. io the bodies of those who have net even reached their teons. That a oli'd dotß Dot col'apso is no proof wbatover Ih-.t its health is not smlleiing, any moro than not going blind is any piorf that tho eyes are not afffc'ed. If a child is happy go-lucky, carelces, indifferent—as most arc—comparatively little harm may to doue. but what is primarily required is that the susceptiblo children should bo pro'ecied from the system and from any experiments with the syllabus from tho ambitions of boidmasters and from the VDgarios of inspectors. Tbo Department oould do this, s mp'y, cisily, i fXectivaly, by absolutely limiting the hcuisof attendance at school, aDd forbidding the imposition of extra hours either upon the quick children who are made the victims of the competition orßze, or upon the slow children who are thus goaded to keep paco with the others. Inaldiion, tbo whole question of home work should be considered, not by inspectors and educational!.ts, but by medioal men end physical culturists. For the purpose of S:ato education is not to satisfy examiners or to meet the syllabus, but to make possible to every obild of the oolony 1 the healthy mind in tho healthy body.’ ”