The Daily News. SATURDAY, MAY 21. THE TALENTS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 395, 21 May 1910, Page 4

The Daily News. SATURDAY, MAY 21. THE TALENTS.

I The memorising of facts is not; educaI tion amy more tlian the drawing of a | plan is the 'building of a house. JUany systems of modern euucatiiion are by way of cramming as many subjects- as (possible into a small Ireadi, which is thus Tendered incaipable of learning any one thing 'well. It is better for a human being to ihave a thorough grasp of the Sipecialiity. than a memorised book knowledge °f a hundred subjects. The earth's most brilliant people are not those who Ihave taken the most degrees, tat those ■wlhoise brains have been capable of perfectly . assimilating a small degree of knowledge. It is possible for a Master of Arts) to (have less really useful knowledge than a ®a>vvy, and. for a Doctor of Divinity to be more ignorant than the everyday person who peels off his coat at eight o'clock and puts it on at five. The only knowledge that is worth (having is the fact that can be demonstrated by the person having the knowledge. A canAlate for examination (one of the stupidest forms of modern (progress) may be "ploughed l " for not ■knowing; that Moguer is a. port of Spain on the Rio Tinto, .but the fact that the knowledge is never likely to help him in milking com®, or selling, ribbons, er iranning a: grocery is apparently never 'Considered .by examiners. The educational examiner's, duty is apparently not to discover what a, -pupil knows, but to discover what tie doe® not know; mid as to examiner has a complete knowledge of any one subject in any curriculum, it follows that most degrees are won by false pretences and are very little use when tlhey are won. It ia not at ail certain that New Zealand pupils who earn free places at the University "wilil become our leading citizens, for it is probable at the moment (in the accented! sense) New Zealand's leading citizens do not concern themselves in the memorising: of useless knowledge. A percentage of school passes is. neither an indication of the excellence of a teadher nor the brain power of his pupils. The best teacher cannot sow his knowledge in poor soil, and the worst teacher may control brilliant brains'. In most school subjects it is insisted that a smattering of the most difficult parts of a suibje<it shall be taught. In 'arithmetic, for instance, tlhe problems that ' "pass" scholars are those that can never by any circumstance be of uise in after The poor child l who is expected to "learn" French never does learn it. You don't teach your British baby English grammar for a start, but you worry the youjigj mind with abstruse problems in French grammar as a preliminary to learning, the language. The New Zealand c'hild' is "taught" English grammar, but he is not taught to speak it, and the unsatisfactory nature of educational methods generality is not properly understood We published:, tlhe other day, a paragraph showing, that a, Taranaki teacher, lacking a scthool, taught on the road'side. Although the roadside is a healthier place to teach than in a school, and ailtltoougjh real knowledge is more likely to come from Nature than from lining;-boairds. and; doors and windows, ' modern, methods demand "equality of opportunity" lor all. In reality the child living in the hinterland' of Taranaki is entitled' to every scholastic advantage ' given to tlhe.pupils of the Central School. His. father and mother giive a greater quota to the funds sipent on education than the parent in the city or the town. Being "out of saglht," the baekblocks child is also "out of mind," and, of course, tlhe eternal question of backW'ocks schools, back'Moc'ks roiads, and baekblocks bridges crops wp. Because a large number of children is caiigreoated in a centre, every facility and every modern convenience for what we call education is afforded them; but the fact always remains that, whether educational facilities, are present, or lacking, the genius of the world comes from the country. No system of education ever made genius, although it may have helped it. The schoolmaster who taught Shakesipeare did not help him with his plays or ihis poems; a State scholarship did not give Caruso his voice; and neither Oxford nor Cambridge produced the statesmanship of Gladstone. In our examination of education iwe have to admit 'that the average person is a mediocrity, andi that mediocrity is the only element that will expand and grow shoots' under the warm sunshine of a mathematical educational system. The memorising of facts is as mechanical as the sawing of wood, but the genius generally hais. a bad memory and the savage a good one. Recognising genius, most universities confer unearned degrees on great writers, great doctors, great states/men, and great poets. But the average educational sv-stem would throw the late Mark Twain out of the running because lie did not know what year tihe battle of Grecy was fought or how many bushels of wheat at 19s fld a bushel would 1 feed a given number of French revolutionists of varying capacity. If the eminent men of the , British Empire were called upon to- i morrow to pass l a sixth standard exam- ' ina>tion they would be the scorn of the . pupil teachers. Until the educational l authorities classify brains and find out ]

■what is l the best food for each, education will remain merely a weary business, the dhief result of which is to stitle real talent. And—this is not always understood —there is a. real talent in every little ihead if the teacher is clever enough to discover it.