The Taihape Daily Times. AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE MONDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 1918. FACTORS IN EDUCATION.

Taihape Daily Times, 11 February 1918, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times. AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 1918. FACTORS IN EDUCATION.

(With which is incorporated The Tai tiape Toot mui v\ aic-iariim Nbw»|

• A rather sweeping criticism, if not condemnation, of our fiee, compulsory and secular education system by the Minister of Education (Hon. J. ’A. Hauan), together with the mushroomlike growth of secular schools causes one to review what our system is doing towards successfully and satisfac. torily bringing about that for which it was instituted. Every adult citizen is aware that although efforts have recently been made to render schoolwork of a more comprehensive character'by: foremost educationists, nothing more than the merest fugitive rudiments of anything beyond read, ing, writing and arithmetic have been adCOmplished. Now, the Minister of the Department tells us that even these three elementary subjects have been, and are being, indifferently taught. Of course, those who employ the boys and girls as they leave school have been fully aware for many years of what the Minister now complains, and they have from platform and through the press criticised and complained but the authorities who should have taken notice turned a deaf ear. The Minister told a press representative that his own experience of the public schools, both as a citizen and as Minister in charge of the Department, had convinced him that children were not always getting the training they should receive, even in reading and writing. He had paid special attention to these subjects in his visits, and was more than ever convinced that reading, writing and composition should be better taught. In some schools reading was the est taught branch of school work; distinct utterance is rare, and intelligent grasp of the lessons is still rarer; correct enunciation and pro. nunciation do not appear to be well taught; he heard many scholars reading in mechanical, monotonous tones as though they were not mentally awake. This seems to us to be a grave, sweeping indictment of our whole free, compulsory and secular system of education. The administration of education laws has been so ineffective that even the three elementary subjects, reading, writing and arithmetic are not being taught as they should be. We know that these constitute the base upon which the teaching of all higher and desirable subjects must rest, therefore, we know that if our children are not be. ing given a proper training in them they cannot have anything more than a useless smattering in any higher subject Then, the Minister goes on to say what he thinks is necessary to fill the vacuum; he feels sure that the power to reduce thoughts to definite terms, and to express them clearly and fluently would be promoted by vive voce interrogation in the schools. He goes on to state that nine-tenths

of writing by adults is letter-writing, yet many children leave school out having learned to write a good letter; no child is a creditable production of our State schools if, when he leaves, he is not able to read well, calculate well, and write a well.spelt letter. The reading and writing of school children ought to have the serious attention of educational authorities. This epitomises Mr. Hanan’s incisive criticism of "the Department of which he is Minister in charge. With such an indictment can one wonder at the springing up of sectarian and private schools, and the exodus ) from our State schools to these new ! educational mediums? We cannot » deny what the Minister has stated be-' cause, in a general way, he fs obvious, ly correct, but we feel that in common fairness he ought to have gone a little further and have indicated where the responsibility for failure of our thoughtlessly boasted system . rests. The general public are •regard- * ing the Minister’s criticisms as level- 1 led at the Department’s teachers, but r it is too obvious this is laying the sins of those higher up in the service upon those who have to work within casebound regulations. In days past we have heard teachers striving hard to ; impress upon pupils the importance of good articulation and clear enuncia. tiou, but it was almost our uniform experience that pupils resented tne pressure, and persisted in mumbling on. The teacher was helpless; the Act allowed him no adequate means of compelling the child and, after suasion was exhausted he had to leave the child the victor. This mostly results from the mistaken scruples of parents about allowing teachers to do what is necessary to work upon the intelligence at the most impressionable period of its existence, Our education system is ignoring the fact that at that period children have moral natures and social affections in their most impressionable stage; that teachers are only allowed by Act or Parliament to do what is reasonably possible in the cultivation of the intellect, the education of the moral natures and the direction of social affections is no part of their business. Another critic has declared this to be a casting down of the supreme which is incompatible with all that is worthy to be called the prosperity of man., hood. It is no part of our duty to dis-r cuss the religious question, -but distinctly apart from that is the moral, ’ which is supremely essential in the making of good i citizenship. Are we not having overwhelming evidence that the foundation of the sorrows or the world are in a diseased moral condition. Reading, writing, and arith- | metic are not a .specific for this condi. | tion, for, unfortunately, n statistics almost invariably show that education and crime are running a; race, crime in most cases going at a-.greater race. We urge that if State school teachers were charged with the inculcation of honour, the enlarging of moral boundaries, there would be a distinct rise in the child’s moral nature that would operate in its better attention to purely intellectual teaching, such as correct reading and speaking, which the Minister complains about. Statistics have proved that one.sided attention to the intellect does not necessarily make good citizens. We are conscious, the Minister is conscious, the whole of the people of New Zealand know that in this respect our State system of education falls short, and is a failure. In colleges there is a teaching which dignifies, which helps to set the pupil beyond the contagion of corrupting influences; better company to be chosen; a moral defiance of wrong, of license, and we claim that all intellectual education would be more successful in our State schools, were moral natures and social affections trained concurrently. The object of teducation is to produce, not readers and writers only, but the very highest in good citizenship. The Minister’s strictures have rather placed faults upon teachers which are the shortcomings of the system.