The Child Mind

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 291, 29 February 1928, Page 8

The Child Mind

NEW METHODS IN EDUCATION Need For Revision of Syllabus (From Our Resident Reporter .) WELLINGTON, Tuesday. THE advance i ' educational methods, and the need for school systems in accord with the latest findings of science, and of stu lents of the child mind, formed the theme of addresses by the Hon. R. A. Wright, Minister of Education, and Mr. T. B. Strong, Director of Education, before the conference of primary school inspectors being held to consider the revision of the school syllabus. The Director of Education said that very careful attention would be given to the recommendations made by the Syllabus Committee, whose long deliberations had just ended.

After stating the principal business of the conference, the Minister said that the 1919 syllabus had outlived its usefulness. Since that year considerable alteration had occurred in the educational outlook. There was the junior high school movement, vocational guidance, the problem of the retardate child, and closer acquaintance with the processes of the child mind through scientific research, and new methods of instruction that there-

fore became necessary. The purpose of education was to equip the child mentaliy, morally and physically for the work of life. VALUE OF FREEDOM During his time at school much of the foundation of the child’s character is laid, and in the moulding of this the primary teacher plays a large and important part. "The syllabus of public instruction has therefore to take into account these factors and present them to the teacher. It is true there are teachers who really have no need for a prescribed syllabus. They are able to plan a satisfactory scheme of education from their own wide knowledge and professional skill. “In England I believe there is no syllabus. A handbook of suggestions is issued, and guided by its precepts

the teacher shapes his course. In America, on the other hand, the syllabus is frequently arranged by specialists, who perhaps have no direct connection with the work of teaching, and they prescribe for the teacher the amount of work he is to cover in every subject during every week.

“In other fields of human action we are constantly finding new- ways. We want to encourage new methods in teaching, and the amount of freedom in our syllabus leaves the way open for this. Education is a matter of national interest.

“In bringing the syllabus more into line with present ideas and recent developments, it appeared desirable to have the opinion of the ordinary business man, to ascertain, as far as possible, his views upon what should be included to form a balanced ration in education. For this reason a committee had submitted the result of its deliberations which should now be considered in the light of inspectors' professional experience. FiLLING THE GAP “It has been suggested by some,” said Mr. Strong, “that there exists a marked gap between the primary and secondary school courses of instruction, and that the primary school system should be remodelled on the lines of the American junior high school to bridge the gap. Others suggest that any gap that exists is due to the secondary schools, not to the primary schools. It is alleged that Standard VI. pupils, taught by the strongest and most experienced teachers in the primary schools, pass into the hands of junior, untried and often untrained teachers, of secondary schools. It must be our care to devise a system that will give the teachers the fullest freedom and incentive to realise the highest ideal in education, namely, the training of boys and girls to become worthy citizens. “There are likely to be divergent opinions on the matter, but whatever conclusion we come to, our chief care must be to see that the schools perform for the State the social service entrusted to them.

“Character-forming must be our first aim, but at the same time, we must not ignore the need there is for wellinformed citizens. We must guard against the tendency to allow a cloistered type of education to develop, out of touch with the world of action.” The conference then went into committee to consider the new syllabus and committees were set up to report on the different branches of the proposed curriculum.