WHEN SHOULD EDUCATION BEGIN?

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 304, 19 December 1908, Page 3

WHEN SHOULD EDUCATION BEGIN?

♦ By "Fran:: Danby " ('Mrs. Frankau). It is difficult to take a definite standpoint in the conllict of opinion between authorities as to the age when children should lirst uciniire the elements of a literary education, for the material with which we liave to deal is various, and this variety of material renders it essential that the treatment should be elastic.

Personally, 1 feel very strongly that it is impossible to overwork a well-fed child, and that the majority of arguments we are accustomed to meet in contravention of this thesis is senti- , mental argument with but a slender i basis of fact. Kven more strongly would 1 urge that it is impossible to start teaching a child too early if that child is well cared for materially. The board schools admit the children '. at live years old. arid advisedly. Not I perhaps' because these children are ea«1 iible of taking lull advantage of the ' lessons that are offered them, but localise they are thus early in life placed lo a certain extent under the protection ol a recognised authority. I'iom live to seven the under-fed, ill-earcd-for, badly-clad school board children may acquire but a rudimentary knowledge of writing, reading, and arithmetic. Hut even this rudimentary knowledge has its value; they are learnin'c how'to learn, they arc being taught how to sit still, to sing in unison, to use their eyes and ears, and the value ! of association. 1 lit the nurseries of the well-to-do, ' however, a different order of things ob-

tains. . The child of four years old, having no liodily ailment or discomfort to engage its attention, is absolutely capable of ° being taught simple arithmetical rules, the elements of reading and writing Not only is it capable of acquiring these subjects', but in able tutorial hands it enjoys its lessons as much as its play, and the occupation of certain halfi hours in bookwork increases the enjoyment, of the free playtime. I 11 is 'almost impossible to ovei'-csli-I male the amount of instruction that can lie given to a. child before it attains tlielige of seven years, and, personally again?l am very strongly of the opinion that any parent who leaves these valuable three years from four to seven without a preliminary grounding in the I three E's is very seriously neglecting an obvlgus duty. . :