INFANTS AT SCHOOL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 268, 3 April 1911, Page 5

INFANTS AT SCHOOL.

TEACHERS' DISCUSSION. By Telegraph.—Press Association. Timaru, Last I>ight. At a meeting of the Teachers' Institute yesterday, a paper was read by Mrs. Long, who has had much experience in infant teaching. The paper lea to a discussion of a remark of the In-spector-General that children were kept too long in the preparatory classes, and on the suitable nge for children entering school. Regarding the former point the contention was advanced that two to two and a half years for bright children and half a year more for the average child was not too long for infant room tuition. As to the entry age, some thought six, some seven and a few eight years of age early enough. Returns from the six largest schools in South Canterbury showed the average ages of admission from (fve years five months to five years eleven months, the mean average of all being five years seven months. Resolutions were adopted that pupils are not spending too much time in the infant room, and that thp Department be asked to replace pupil teachers in infant rooms by assistants.