PUBLISHED DAILY. 1 buivaut I vente TUESDAY, JANUARY 9, 1883. PRACTICAL EDUCATION.

Manawatu Standard, Volume 3, Issue 37, 9 January 1883, Page 2

The Manawatu Standard (PUBLISHED DAILY.) Suivant l verite TUESDAY, JANUARY 9, 1883. PRACTICAL EDUCATION.

We find space for a few more excellent hints embodied m the report of Mr Hodgson, the Inspector of Schools for the Marlborough District, which we cordially commend co the earnest attention of teachers, committees, and all interested m the education of youth. Referring to writing, this enthusiastic atd intelligent Inspector states that ha cannot call to mind more- than four schools m which the handwriting throughout is as good as it ought to be. A few picked specimens of neat penman* ship hy the older scholars will not com- j pensate for the slovenly work of the rest ot the school. He observes that several teachers do not put copybooks into the hands of their scholars until they have passed the First Standard. But the school life of most children is too short to permit the postponement of this stage of the work until a scholar is between eiflht and nine years old. But it is m arithmetic that he finds the work least satisfactory, the number of failures m this subject outnumbering those m all the other subjects pub together. And two- thirds of these are . what the Inspector classes as M total failures," that is, the candidate could not work correctly more than one of the six or seven sums set ; or, m a large majority of instances, not so much as one. The arithmetic is, as a rule, far too loose and inaccurate. Most of the scholars, and, as it would appear, some of the teachers, seem quite content with mere approximations, and even the older scholars generally break down m the easier questions from this cause. A striking example of this was given ia the work of the Fourth Standard, where one of the questions set was a simple account, consisting of only four items, any one of which might easily be reckoned without the help of a slate. More than a third of those who attempted this sum brought up wrong answers. "And yet," remarks the Inspeotor, " I have certainly not aU t ached too little weight to this subject m my examinations, as I have iuvari* ably rejected a scholar who fails m arithmetic, however good the rest of his work may be. Incorrect arithmetic is absolutely worthless.' 7 Mr Hodgson notes that whereas grammar is fairly well taught, composition is more un« equal. This is often the case. And of the two subjects, to oar mind composN tion is the more important m the everyday experiences of actual life, such as ! letter or descriptive writing, so frequently m requisition. The Inspector deduces the same inference that has often made itself felt m our experience, botti journalistic and educational, viz , — that mure time than can be well spared from subjects of greater importance is now being deyoted to preparing scholars for the examinations m History and Political Geography, Consequently he purposes largely curtailing his next year's papers on these subjects. By making the Geography and History papers shorter and easier, an examiner may set free the teachers for ifirinur additional instruction m such all-im-portant matters as Arithmetic, Penmanship, and Com position. The sweeping away of a mass of mere memory work, much of which will be too surely aqd Hjreedily forgo 1 ten by most of the children, will also be no small boon to those who are harassed by long nightlessons. The above are practical sug~ g.eationß ; begotten .of the inferences of common sense,