British Empire Lectures.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 7714, 17 January 1905, Page 4

British Empire Lectures.

THE EDUCATION COURSE. (New Zealand Times Correspondent.) LONDON, Nov. 25. As a step towards spreading a fuller mutual knowledge of Motherland and colonies, the English Education Department has decided to prepare a course of first-class lectures on Great Britain, illustrated by correspondingly good lantern slides, to be delivered to children in'the colonies. Ceylon, the Straits Settlement, -and Hongkong have already become the prospective owners by purchase of such a course of lectures, each paying £3OO towards the scheme. The lectures will also be available for sale to other colonial Governments. The committee appointed to carry out the suggestion drew up a syllabus of seven lectures on the United Kingdom, each to bo illustrated by some forty lantern slides, the subjects of the lectures being : 1. The journey from the East to London. 2. Loudon, the Imperial City. 3. Scenery of the United Kingdom. 4. Historic centres and their influence on national life. 5. Country life and the smaller towns. G. Grea't towns, the industries and commerce. 7. Defences of the Empire. The- money being available, Mr Lyttclton, the Colonial Secretary, consented to the committee's rejqjuesl that Mr H. J. Mackinder, Director of the London School of Economics and Political Science, should 'be asked to undertake the preparation of the lectures and the general superintendence of the scheme. Mr Mackinder accepted the invitation, and the lectures will be in the first instance delivered in a London training college for elementary teachers. They will be reported verbatim, put into print, and be corrected and edited by the lecturer, the whole, with a-ny special slides which may be designed for the purpose, becoming the property of three colonies concerned, but being available for sale to other colonial Governments. It wilt be borne in mind that—1. The lectures are intended for the higher classes in elementary schools, or with modifications for adults. 2. Each lecture may well supply several hours' lessons, being intended to Ire the text for teaching, and a guide as to the method of teaching, and not simply to be repeated word for word in a single hour. 3. The object is to give to children through their eyes, as well as their ears, a true and simple impression of what the United Kingdom and its people are like ; to explain to children living in tho tropics what the seasons mean in thiscountry, and so forth.