The Daily News. SATURDAY, JUNE 11. EDUCATION IN TARANAKI.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 53, 11 June 1910, Page 4

The Daily News. SATURDAY, JUNE 11. EDUCATION IN TARANAKI.

The most interesting feature of the annual report of the Education Board of the District of Taranaki is the Inspector's report. In it the writer puts his finger on many obvious weaknesses, and the whole is inspiring in its helpfulness for future improvement. If the system now in vogue would ensure that the weaknesses that are emphasised would be eliminated the community would greatly (benefit. One of the outstanding truisms contained in the report is that the child is imitative, and I so it follows logically that, if the chil- | dren of Taranaki schools fail in reaching the high standard suggested, it is largely the fault of those they imitate. Aa every educationist is aware, it is a particularly hard task to arrange that every person who undertakes the arduous duties of school-teaching shall be a born teacher. Under most systems a standard is set for teachers, and if they can scrape ■through they 'become examples for the children to imitate. It is impossible under this system that every teacher, or even the majority of teachers, shall enthusiastically love their calling The mind of a child is so plastic and its instinct so keen that it knows to whom it must defer, to whom it shall he obedient, and from whom it shall accept learning. Apart from mere skill and scholastic attainment, the successful teacher must have enthusiasm, love for his work, love of the child, and love of the idea of imparting what he knows. No person requires so great a combination of qualities as a teacher. The most eminent scholar may he the poorest teacher, and the least scholastic may lead with ability. It is'impossible under a system which is as expensive as the country can afford that there should be very great specialisation of work. The teacher's time is taken up in imparting smatterings of knowledge in diverse subjects. This work must necessarily be regarded as a mere end to a sailary, if the teacher is not an extraordinary person-, gifted with a. consuming love for the subjects of the whole curriculum and for the diverse persons to whom he is expected to impart them. In our view, under the existing conditions, where a teacher is * Johnay-all-sorts, he (but particularly she) gives better service than might he expected. The emoluments are not large, the future is not golden, and all children's brains are not equally receptive. It cannot foe held that in the matter of education, discipline, courtesv, kindness, and mental alertness the school-teacher should he the only teacher. The teacher, howeyer good, cannot he expected to correct faults that hive been learned in the .home. The child who is taught obedience, smartness, and courtesv at. home is pliable and presents no problem to the teacher. Too many parents are f careless and indifferent. Manv of the improvements desired by the Inspector in his excellent report are absolutely impossible without the aid of the parents. In the matter of reading, not one adult in twenty reads even acceptably. It is impossible to give a dull child soul, feelins, or the precious possession of elocutionary intelligence. No teacher can be blamed for not being an Irvine. The odd elocutionist among the teachers will only be able to enthuse the budding Irvings, but she (or he) will never bud an Irving on a Member of Parliament stock. No rigidity of method l will alter this or remove the difficulty. There is an excellent paragraph about phonic drill and refined speech. Here, again, it is impossible that every girl teacher, 'for a .sailary of seventv or ei*hty pounds a year, shall be a Calve or a Melba. a voice specialist or a throat doctor. Defective speech is so often the result of environment and throat affections that the trouble lies deeper than can he plumbed by a mere half-hour's unskilled tuition a day. The cure? First carefully select rour teacher; then teach your teacher. If subjects can be taught, the young New Zealander can be taught as well as the young German or the young -Englishman. In the matter of writing, no adult who undertakes any but a mechanical occupation ever writes the style taught him at school. The school plan is bv w«v of smiting individualism bin and thigh and destroying lit. The copybook is not all that fancy mints it. No child should be punished for not being able to write like the teacher and every other child. It is not so necessary for the child to study the teacher as the teacher the individual child, but the teacher has to be a specialist and an enthusiast to make this study useful and profitable. The specially gifted teacher has no better chance of promotion than the merely "scraped through" teacher, and this is whv ambition is not necessary. It may be possible to teach every child correct spelling. Every child will not necessarily be judged in after l' f e on his welling. We use the famous Thackeray illustration. The great author was freouently twitted about bis execrable spelling. "Any fool can spell!" he said. Some of the defective spellers in Taranaki schools may some day write a "Vanity Fair." Who knows? A child mav take ail absorbing interest in geography and none in history. On the | whole, we do not blame a child for not being fond of history. The common history books consist largejv of a recital of battle, murder, sudden death, and the crimes of monarch*. Every teacher has noticed that there are children under bis care who have outclassed all the rest in composition. But it is very encouraging fo think that every child is not a, 0. K fthfMv or a Marie Corelli. There would be no room for specialists if every cHld was adent. Tt is encouraging, though, to leiarn that essays in the schools are more logical and ftillpr in dA+dil tlwn formerly, but the iUogical children who forget details may become excellent citizens and experts in some

branch of business where composition can <be handed over to a two-pounds-a- I -week clerk. The value of literature is in its variety. The adult person who copies the style of writing, argument, or method initiated by someone else is a plagiarist. The system of education popular to-day is by way of insisting that the pupil shall plagiarise the teacher. Discipline can be taught to all normal children whose brains are sufficiently intelligent to understand an order. If discipline is lax in the Taranaki schools among the ipupils, this is .because it is also lax among the teacher*. The "atmosphere of brightness and mental alertness" spoken of in the report depends on the exhibition of these qualities in the teacher. One must not blame any teacher for being not alert or mentally dull. If he or she has been admitted into the service, the fault lies with the authorities. One cannot train everybody to he a Carlyle, or a Darwin, or a Walter Scott, and it must be proved that the fountain heads of the educational system in Xew Zealand are mentally alert and 'bright before it is possible to lay blame on the teacher or the pupil. The report shows that what the Inspector desires is an "appearance" of alertness. This can only (be obtained by the co-operation of parents and the most careful selection of disciplinarians. Lack of discipline is the most noticeable feature in the schools and among the public throughout New Zealand. It is possible that the defects the Inspector has seen in the Taranaki schools are the defects that may he observed in any school in New Zealand or in other countries. Every child has varying capacities, every teacher has varying ideas, and the treatment of each individual should vary accordingly. Whatever improvements are made in educational methods, whatever additions are made to the curricuMim, whoever teaches the children, the fact remains that education ought to he concentrated on the child's specialty, and that nature and not schools produces the individual's talent. The aim of education should he to discover talent and to give it a chance to mature.