THE GLOBE. SATURDAY, MAY 7, 1881. THE EDUCATION QUESTION.

Globe, Volume XXIII, Issue 2244, 7 May 1881, Page 1

THE GLOBE. SATURDAY, MAY 7, 1881. THE EDUCATION QUESTION.

Viewing the education question as one of the burning questions of the day, any intelligent contributions towards the general information on the subject should meet with sympathetic attention. Dr. Newman, of Wellington, is a gentleman rather given to jumping to conclusions, but otherwise his opinions are worth thinking over, if he happens to be acquainted with his subject. Now he is a member of the Wellington Education Board, and is, moreover, a well-educated man, and consequently he happens to know a good deal of the education question. Not long ago, he wrote a book, in which ho treated of the Maori race. This book was great rubbish, because ho was utterly unacquainted with what he was writing about. Ho went on the principle that the Maori has always been such as he is now, and he treated the recognised authorities on the history of the race as quite unreliable. With a certain want of modesty, which is somewhat characteristic of him, Dr. Newman concluded that the insight he had gained by strolling through a few half-civilized pahs would enable him to upset the dicta of writers who had lived for a long series of years among the Natives. So much for Dr. Newman’s views on the Maori race. But, with regard to education, his ideas are entitled to a good deal of consideration, and, at all events, they are fresh and untrammelled by precedent. Ho challenges the statement that our educational system costs £500,000, and eays that the cost is £270,000, and might be further reduced to £200,000, including a large sum for the teaching of Maori children. Ho condemns the theory that the national education should stop short at the fourth standard, and proposes the following plans for economy : —Firstly, the discontinuance of teaching very young children ; secondly, the adoption of phonetic spelling ; thirdly, the improving the inspection of schools, and so increasing the efficiency of masters ; fourthly, the insistance on a greater average attendance ; fifthly, the altering of the present curriculum in the way of omitting some of the history and geography

and altogether omitting grammar; sixthly, hy limiting the architectural pretensions of school buildings; seventhly, by inviting tenders for the supply of school books, stationery and school furniture; eighthly, by strictly limiting to the school population the amount of money given to the School Boards. It will be at once evident that one at least of these ideas is quite impracticable. That the New Zealand Government should make arrangements for teaching the young idea to spell phonetically would be something too ridiculous, whatever the saving in cost might be. The idea of phonetic spelling has had its day, the drawbacks to the system have been found to be overwhelming, and the affair has been relegated to the waste paper basket. With regard to the amount wasted on the teaching of infants, the ‘‘ Wellington Post” draws attention to the fact that the 83rd section of the Education Act prohibits the admission of any child at a public school until it has reached the age of six years. If, therefore, children are admitted at an earlier age than this, it is in defiance of the law. As to improved inspection, we quite endorse Dr. Newman’s remarks, and would further draw attention to the desirability of great care being used as to the individuals chosen for Inspectors. The English Government, for instance, choose their School Inspectors from a very different class of individuals from that out of which the New Zealand Inspectors appear to be drawn. It is a recognised principle, in the Old Country, that elementary teaching has a tendency to cramp the general outlook, and the teacher himself is pleased and cheered by occasionally coming into sympathetic contact with men whoso training has given ' them more general views than would bo likely to be picked up at an educational trail'‘.ug college. Almost without an exception the Inspectors in England are University men, and some of them possess very wide and general cultivation, and a considerable knowledge of the world. They are none the less interested in their work on this account, and as an example , one might quote the case of Mr. Matthew Arnold, a most devoted educational enthusiast. The ordinary run of schoolmaster would, we feel , confident, be more encouraged in his work, | if his labours were now and then lightened by a conference with an individual who is accustomed to look at affairs in general from a somewhat different standpoint to his own. At present, the Inspector is merely a more skilful teacher than the man whose work he inspects, but the atmosphere in which he lives is the same as that of the schoolmaster, and the latter misses the fresh- , ness that might otherwise give him great 1 help in his laborious duties. This is one of the directions, at all events, where, we fancy, an improvement in the modern system of inspection is very desirable. , We cordially agree, too,with Dr. Newman as to the insistence of a greater average , attendance. Not only so, but we have always held that the question of compul- • sory education should not be left to local committees, but should be treated by the Legislature itself. The question as to whether a certain per-centage of children in any district are to grow up in utter ignorance is so serious that it should be decided on by the united wisdom of the nation and not by a local clique. The proposed omission of grammar will strike various people in different ways. Most persons will, we think, acknowledge that grammar is learnt by intuition, i and not by rule, and many may hold that too much time is spent on this branch, and that the best guarantee for pupils speaking grammatically is for them to have a master who speaks correctly. With the three last of Dr. Newman’s propositions nobody will, we fancy, quarrel. We are what is vulgarly termed “ hard up,” and architectural adornments are not for the residences of people in that condition. School books, &c., should evidently be procured as cheaply as possible, and the amount of money to be granted to districts should be based on some intelligible principle, subject, of course, to modification to suit peculiar circumstances. We have dwelt on Dr. Newman’s views at some length, because he appears to have studied the question, and there is a certain freshness about his ideas. As we remarked at starting, education is one of our burning questions, and all intelligent criticism on our system should be welcomed.