'HATS OFF TO TEACHERS'

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 156, 20 July 1937, Page 4

'HATS OFF TO TEACHERS'

i— PreBa Association.)

Visiting Authority's Terselyworded Comment NEED FOR SMALLER CLASSES

. (By Telegrapli

■ SUNEDIN, Last Night. Th^ opinion that small classes were essential to successful teaching was expressed briefly but very definitely by Dr.» L. Zilliaeus, headmaster of the experimental school at Helsingfors, Finland, in a commentary which followed his address on "Pupil Activity in Modern Education" at the New Fellowship Conference to-day. "I could not teach classes of 45 and 50 pupils," he said, "and I feel 1 cannot speak to teachers who have that responsibility. All I can do is to take off my hat to them in silent reverence." He quoted extreme examples of dogtoatie instruction to illustrate that in earlier days the charaeteristies of eaeh •child were not studied. Teachers had their own s.trietly-defined ideas, and children had to absorb what learning .they could within the tabulated and narrow confines. The change to brighter classrooms and more activity m'eant a - lot of bustle and noise, a good deal of which was no doubt sheer reaction, but it led to the institution of systems which encouraged children to study for themselves and to take an entirely different interest in their work. Dr. Zilliaeus explained some of the working of his own school in Helsingfors and the need for an ample supply of working materials. Teaching, he thought, was to be found in classes of younger children, because there the teachers' interests were primarily in the children. In classes of older children specialisation in subjects was Tequired of the teachers, with the result that the tendency was for interest to be centralised in the subject wi.th a consequent lessening of attention to the individua) students.