South Canterbury Times, THURSDAY, DECEMBER 29, 1881.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2737, 29 December 1881, Page 2

South Canterbury Times, THURSDAY, DECEMBER 29, 1881.

A i'jsw days ago wc condemned us absurd the cry, heard in several quarters, for a- modification of our educational system, in respect of the manner in which the funds are provided to pay for it. The cry is that the cost of the system is too great for the public revenues to bear, and that parents should be made to contribute some portion of the cost directly. It was thi proposal that we condemned, on the ground that everyone, whether !i parent or not, is equally interested in the education of the young. But wc admitted that the system is too costly, and pointed out that compared with the results attained it is so chiefly because too much is attempted,

because too many “ subjects ” are crowded into the curriculum ; and we expressed the further opinion that what is essential in a public system of education could bo imparted at a cost not at all beyond the ability of the public purse to bear. The mischief is that a great part of the education fund is expended to obtain results that can never be worth the money they cost. The “ Three R’s ” most find a place in any school education ; they are the instruments by which education is obtained ; they are unquestionably essentials, and instruction in these three subjects must be given. Can the same be said of a single one of the multitude of other subjects named in the Standard syllabus ? Education consists of two branches, instruction, and mental training or education proper, which must be conducted more or less at the same time, though not necessarily in equal proportions. The two branches have very different values. Instruction, the imparting of facts and of facility in the arts of reading and writing, is of prime necessity at the commencement of the school course, though from the very first mental training may be made and should be made to accompany instruction ; and as the pupil advances in years and physical and mental power the training of the mind to perform its appropriate work in a proper manner should receive an increasing share of attention, until the acquisition of facts becomes quite a secondary consideration, —the acquisition of the arts taught at school being early completed, and the earlier as the mental training is more carefully attended to. Now a glaring defect in our present system appears to us to be the reversal of the positions of these two branches in order of importance. All through tbe school life of a boy or girl tbe aim seems to be to cram them with facts, useful facts or useless, to a very large extent the latter. The Standard syllabus of instruction requires them from year to year to be supplied with information upon an increasing number of subjects, and with fuller information upon subjects already dealt with. But we opine that it is no business of the State to impart information at all, for its own sake. Some information must be imparted as material for the mind to work upon in undergoing its training, but there can be no necessity, for tbe purpose of ensuring tbe public welfare, that any more infoimation should be given than is sufficient for this purpose. To assert that the contrary is true is to court being called upon to show either that the whole ocean of truth can be presented to a child in its school life, or that a knowledge of certain portions of that ocean are absolutely necessary to the citizen, and that such knowledge can be given in the schools. No one, we feel sure, will maintain for a moment that it is essentia], in order that be may become a good citizen, that any particular fact that be would not otherwise learn should be made known to a boy by bis teachers. But what do we find in the syllabus prescribed for our schools ? A perfectly Gradgrindian array of “ facts and figures,” set down to be memorised—memorised merely —by our future citizens in order to enable them to pass the prescribed examinations. Facts and figures in British history, facts and figures in geography, facts and figures in grammar, have wery little practical bearing upon the future lives of tbe pupils. These are the three subjects on which, next to tbe “ three R’s,” tbe most time and labor, and therefore money, is expended, and though we attach a high absolute value to them, we believe tbe teaching of them as part of a public education system is a mistake, —the useful results can never be commensurate with the cost. If tbe subjects mentioned were taught as a mere means to mental training it would be a different thing, but they are required to be taught for their own sakes, and tbe result is that the time of the teacher is wasted in compelling tbe children to memorise a mass of facts, and in testing tbe efficiency of the process, and the time and energy of the children is wasted in these unprofitable exercises, while the real work of education is not only held in abeyance, but is more or less completely lost sight of. One school inspector says of these subjects ; —“ In “ history, in geography, in grammar, “ and even in reading,it is the memory, “ and it alone, that is brought into “ active operation. Teachers are “ forced to use what to them is tbe “ only mode of escape from danger in “ tbe annual examinations, and tbe “ children, unable to complain of the 11 stones given to them instead of bread “ become the victims of, what is to “ me, a cruel and unnatural system of

“ teaching The children “ cannot conceive the facts of English “ history,they cannot conceive the facts “ of outside geography, nor can they “ conceive the definitions of English “ grammar, unless each subject is “ pursued in a different manner from “ the present requirements of the “ broad sheet.” Another inspector passes, by implication, a severe condemnation on the whole system. In speaking of the training of young teachers, he says :—“ A teacher “ whose knowledge is narrowed to “ school-books and school-methods is “ by no means a desirable citizen “ of a state ; it may not be “ going too far to call him a “ mischievous one.” If this is the result of a more extensive application of school-books and school-methods to the individual, what inference can be drawn but that a less extensive application of them must be proportionately injurious ? A machinery for educating the colonists of the future is no/v well established, and may be considered fairly satisfactory : but the education that that machinery is used to impart is miserably incommensurate with the energy, time, and money spen in imparting it, because an amount Of

attention altogether out of proportion to its real importance is devoted to minute instruction in subjects a knowledge of which, however and on what grounds desirable , is not necessary to the welfare of individuals, nor of the State they compose. It is not the finance of our educalion system that needs modification; it is the work demanded of the children in school. Were this reduced within proper limits we should hear no more about the extravagance of the expenditure upon our schools.