THE PROPER SCHOOL AGE

Te Aroha News, Volume XXVI, Issue 4308, 20 April 1907, Page 4

THE PROPER SCHOOL AGE

Dr. Luther Burbank, thte famous specialist, bias been turning his attention lately to the training of the human, plant, which he declares begins too early. Something of a sensation has (been caused among American educationists by his assertion that the public school is no place for a child until it has reached the age of ten or twelve. It should not be sent there before its mind is dleifinitely formed. -The aasertion waa made in the course of an address given by Dr. Burbank, in which he discussed the similarity between. l the raising of plants and chil•Hren, and it has provoked a perfect,/ atiormi of protest and approval from thle leading ,Californian teachers and physicians. The supporters of Dr. Burbank say that the orimiary school of to-day educates the children along a set groove, and that the individual . temperament receives too little attention. They believe that until the age of ten years is reached the child should-be taught a little by its parents or a special teaJcher, and given as much exercise and' sleep as possible. Dr. William Fitch Cheney, an eminent -children’s specialist, agrees strongly with this view. Under the nresent system, he declares, “the little brains are often fed too fact for mental digestion, and tlhle . result is a weakening of the organ. The primary teacher naturally . makes fib© work of the best Child the standard dor the rest of the children to follow. The children are taught much more 'than is necessary during the ;,time spey spend in the primary grades. They will develop faster after they are ten years old if they have not had too much brain cultivation bef oreband.” Those who oppose Dr. Burbanks* theory admit that the school system is not perfect, butt on the whole they think it bias ai good developing influence, atid that individuality is not destroyed. City children are much better off in school than on the streets. The teachers# of primary schools and, it is interesting : to note, most of the principals of' high think! that Dr. Burbank is alarmed for nothing. Several high School principle find, in direct Contradiction of the plant specialist’s theory ."that the children who go earliest to the primary schools show a larger mental capacity at the secondary schools than ' those who start later, while their bodily development is equal. Eminent names' are tanged on both sides of the controversy, so that parents who are troubled with the same question will do well to follow tbeSr own opinions.