The Daily News. THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 20. MINDS MADE TO ORDER.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 81849, 20 September 1906, Page 2

The Daily News. THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 20. MINDS MADE TO ORDER.

Thk system of education that would please '-viry person in ihe cunmunhy ha* nut been device! yet—and il never will be. Tne southern pioss has laU'.v been making somL'Uung ( >i a noise by Mating Uiat many jads when they leave schooi cannot. add a few tiguies log'tiur correctly, that tiicir handunung is bad, and atogi'uier that their education is no cred.t to the prevailing system. That, oi couise, is an acknow .edgmeni by ti.e giizzhng section of the picss mentioned ihat it expects any given or girl to respond to any given system exact.y 111 the same manner as every other boy or girl, in tact, tnai anything one child is capable of being taught, should be learnt witii equal case by any otiiei' child.

As everyone ought to know, t.ieie au no two faces auke on God's earth. There are no two brains aiike, eitner. You may drop across a gifted doctor who writes a "hand" that looks like the inebriated wanderings of an inkylegged spider, you may find a capable author wiio hasn't the least hope —or desiie—ot being ab.e to answer any sing.e question at the back of Uamblin Smith's arithmetic, and a brainy Minister of the Crown who cou'dn't spell "parallelogram.'' And who is worrying? Why, some of the Press, a few ot the people and none of the responsible persons. This idea of burying the originality of an. school child under a cut and dried system, which seeks to produce one result in thousands of scholars, everyone of whom has a distinct entity and a distinct "bent'' is all wrong. If a parent having found that bis son is a poor arithmetician still persists m [jutting that son to work as a bookkeeper, that parent is a fool. The poi.r arithmetician may know : all ab<u cows. He won't, however, be ab eto wear a high collar and delicately creased pants if he has to milk cows. Thousands of youngsters in this colony, as in every other country, are forced into occupations they are in no wise suited for because their parents have made up their minds about the matter too soon. There are lipn drids of natural farmers totting up monthly balances to-day, ready-made navvies who are measuring yards ot ribbon behind countei s, born journalists who are addressing envelopes and licking stamps tor a living, men who might be cnginceis driv.ng drays, people moving in Vice regal society who could become expert excavators with practice.

In fact, because of the caprice of parents, the environment of childien, the general cussrdnessof people gcneiaHy few peop.e are understood and fewei sail get into a bil'et that gives them an opportunity of exhibiting their special qualifications. There is nothing more depiessing to man who might become an open-air woik er, an explorer, a sailor or a soldier, than to be cuiped up all his life over a ledger, beh.ii--! a counter or at a bench. You can't alter these tilings by laying down any schedule for the instruction of all the young, but you might alter it by understanding what part of any schedu.c any brain is capable of making the most use of. The idea of getting the born mathematician, Johnny Jones up as an ex ample to be folowed by the born essayist Willy Winks, or of caning the embryo explorer Jieitie Brown because he doesn't know so well as rib lion counter Charlie Clark that five white beans and a black one make six beans in all, is very wrong, not b"cause our educationists are fools, but because up to now they haven't been ab'e to probe the qualities of the respective brains of Jones, Brcwn, Winks and Clark.

Sometimes alter schcoidays the bo> who is furced to spoil wood fo- a living lev i.ts, much to the disgu.-t o] h:s parents, w.lO be leve he is a born cai'i-enter. The livelier becon.es ;i Minister ol Public Works cr something- of the kind. The buotblack becomes a nt velisi, the paper sel'er the Chief Justice of England, tiie farmer s boy ihe Pre sidept of France 01 die great t'nited States of Ani'rica. Think you the schoolteachers or the syllabus helped such ones ? Excuse us for a moment while we smi'c. What particular arithmetic produced Colonial Treasurer Sir Joseph Ward": Wnat primary school treatise gave to New Zealand Mr McNab's Land Bill What schoo.t|;aclief shares with MiGeorge Fowlds the honors of the portfolio of Education? Most"of the eartht's celebiities have " broken away" from,.cast-iron rule, precedent, syllabus and groove.

Most of ti)e swatters for examinations lire; somebody cl.se's thougnts Oil to a paper and become hall-mark ed with a titular handle.' Ask "the aveiajjc swatter anything rcalij- jiractical, ask liinj six mor)tlis alter lie has passed sucn an examination to do .t again and you have him eucnred. His brain has been stimulated moment ariiy. Afterwards it is allowed to either lie fal.o-.v or to be used ill somctmng that is than iheoreiicai. Ml' Ross, tilt; in 111 be) m the House for Pahtalua, wants t.ie schools of N'-w Zealand supplied wilo the same books. Here is'the point that this article is trying to make. Mr Ross and some thousands of other peop'e in this countiy, and 111 eyeiy ether country, believe that all the brains are as alike as billiard balls. 111 at leain.ng is a purely mechanical business, ami thai if the educational blacksmith sirikes hard enougn he may drive a sinti ar spike '1 wisdom in|o eu'iy .->n)al. head in the' country, it miglu be possib e to drive "sutnr facts even into Ihe lrcptiye brain the brilliant member for I'ahialua, It might also be possible to do Ihe same thing with the school children.

How - many merchants know that France acqujied the Dulclty c-f Li.it hlingeii in 1700 ? Ale they ally (lie worse merchants for their ctreadf.il lack of knowledge Here i t a question for farmers: "A giocer buys tea at four shillings per pound and some at 5 r, per pound. 111 what propoition must he mix them, that when lie sells the tea at 0/ per pouud lie w:, 1 ! make a profit of 20 per cent Such 'a question i« a plain statement that the grocer is a U 01, thaj's all. If you can le'l us win- ih" einlino fainter nidi aper or 1-aipeiio-i 1- ,H;<d lo saak 111 Mali we jhall |)" ghid lO ktv.u. Will any MinMer of ;!)e Crown kind y explain how lie dans to hold his position without kimwing, thai "Copulative and disjoin live partie'es uniie logcilvr notions or as-er-lions which lio.d the same felalion 01 any given sentence?"

Thk fact that New Zealand school teachers very often have t<> drive al- | 'eged knowledge into (he heads of ! double the children that are physical ! y ab'e to teach the fact, also that if it is the same knowledge inespidive f tie- pe\\er of assim'lation in the < hi dr r p, is n«u harassing education 10 auv Urge The chi dish mind and the acluU iMnd too, naturally w'nii'.ws the chaff froiu tlu gr: i iii. and n is the grain only thai ■.V basis ~f an education thai rea'ly beg lib afi'r nhoefdays and )s nt finished when th<- Vainer dies. \\V don't know whether the infant mind ot Nrw a'and wants more grain. but we are rpnii- tnn\i;ued ii wan's less chntT. The <ducan<ni;diMs of \>w Zealand probably do the best Ihey c;n< under the eircum -tances, but the best is not very god when t'ie authorities believe that the child mind of the colony is the wnv mind under every circumstanco- oj vex. place and environment,