OVER PRESSURE IN SCHOOLS.

Manawatu Standard, Volume X, Issue 22, 24 June 1885, Page 2

OVER PRESSURE IN SCHOOLS.

The subject of over pressure m schools, more particularly m its relation to home lessons, is attracting considerable attention m England at the present moment. Mr Mundella, m the House of Commons said : — " I regard home lessons m the most extreme case — that is to say m the case of the most robust child and the most willing parent— as a downright and useless barbarity .V..-. Referring to the hours of study, Mr Mundella said that the leg£l number, five, -was enough for any child* however strong, and that when he had done that he ought to be free for the rest of the day. He did not so much argue upon the question of whether extra hours of study endangered the child's health or life " The code, 11 he said, " actually kills or maims for life comparatively few children," He argued that it v? Rtr oyed the happiness and freedom of child Lie. V* Q W t hor *

oughly at one with Mr Mundella, ! we believe that home lessons, cramming, and all that, are not only destructive of iho happiness of the child, but are positively mischevious from an educational point of view. What cannot be learned -during the ordinary school hours had better not be learned at all, at least unttil such time as the child is old enough to appreciate the mental exercise aud physically capable of bearing the strain.