THE FUTURE OF EDUCATION.

Taranaki Daily News, 15 November 1915, Page 3

THE FUTURE OF EDUCATION.

IDEAS OF THE NEW MINISTER. TECHNICAL AND HIGH SCHOOLS. AN INTERESTING INTERVIEW. Education in North Taranaki received a distinct stimulus last week from the visit which was paid to the district by the new Minister for Education (the Hon. J. A. Hanan). It is not completely accurate to describe Mr. Hanan as "the new Minister," for in a previous Cabinet Mr. Hanan took over the portfolio of Education, but this Cabinet did not remain in office very long, and it was not until the formation of the National Cabinet that this enthusiastic educationalist was again given an opportunity to take up that work for which lie has prepared himself by keeping closely in touch with educational matters for many years. But in many respects it is true to describe Mr. Hanan as "the new Minister," for everyone wiio is connected with education in this district and who met Mr. Hanan last week was forcibly struck with the unusual attention which lie gave to every matter, with the wealth of new and advanced ideas which ho ■frequently advanced, and the enquiring mind which has not been so strikingly noticeable in previous Ministers for Education. "We have now got a man whose heart is in education and who has not got other duties to remove his attention," remarked a prominent educationalist the other day, and this remark expressed the impression which was formed by teachers, members of Boards, and others who met Mr. Hanan in this district. The splendid idea of arranging to meet teachers and discussing the work with them was a new one and tiie opportunity for these talks on education was greatly appreciated. The visit .of the Minister has been one which teachers and pupils will remember and his next visit to Taranaki will be keenly looked forward to.

Impressed by the number of new ideas of which the Minister gave frequent glimpses, a -Daily News representative interviewed Mr. Hanan and gathered from him many interesting opinions on certain phases of education. Technical education is a matter which has attracted special attention from the Minister, and speaking on this subject he said boys and girls used to leave school to learn trades, but now industrial life required that they should specialise and they had. to prepare themselves for a definite branch of work. Workshop and factory experience was, of course, necessary, but it had to be supplemented with a scientific grounding and technical instruction. Not only must the workmen receive technical instruction, but also the employers must make themselves acquainted with the latest and most scientific methods and industrial processes for producing their manufactures and their goods. The scientific and detailed knowledge now required in all branches of manufactures had transferred to the science teacher the key to the trade mysteries. Technical education had made greater opportunities for boys and girls and was an immense factor in equipping them for successful careers.

"The educational interests of any community are foremost among its concerns," continued Mr Hanan. "In these days the sphere of education has widened and its good promise of raising the level of our civilisation becomes brighter with the au,„nce of. time. The task of the modern educator is more varied in character than of yore. The old conception of what constituted an educated man centred largely on familiarity with the classics and with the wprld of books, and it is an anomalous fact that the tendency to hold on to this exclusive idea persists in the seats of learning. Now there is a tendency to alter this. The course of study pursued both at the universities and secondary schools is still to some extent too much under the sway of the past. In. our High Schools the literary-cnm-classics course still remains the main thoroughfare for pupils to pass through. Too many of our boys set out upon this road and then desert it before it has led them anywhere, though this was not the case at some schools. I will not go as far as to say, however, that a number of our fourteen-year-old boys who buy a swag of new books and make a brief start in half a dozen new subjects and then close these books and gladly cast them aside, have wholly wasted their time. I am well aware that the staffs of a number of our High Schools are both efficient and enthusiastic, but I contend that a good deal of the material that comes into their hands does not remain long enough to receive an adequate impression, and a good deal of it is fitte4,to be shaped in a different mould altogether. "The greater percentage of boys and girls at secondary schools would be much better attending a technical school after they have passed through the primary course, for a technical education will lead them towards some definite good. The High Schools have rightly been made schools of the people by the liberal measure which, some years ago, opened their doors practically to all scholars who successfully pass through the primary course. But a large number of the pupils who throng to these schools have no use for the subjects of study taught at High Schools, in the warehouse, or in some trade, and for them the course at the High Schools is a waste of time. We must provide for the proper training of such and technical schools offer this; we must break through the conservation which directs boys and girls through the high schools and universities. The new programme of study should, in the first place, consolidate the training of the primary schools by keeping up the work in English, arithmetic, drawing, etc., without trying to extend it. But the staple of the programme should consist of manual and technical training, the particular branch of which—for example, agriculture or mechanical crafts—would be determined by the "industries predominating in the particular districts. The two or three years following the close of the primary school period are 100 often wasted. They could he most fruitfully spent in developing those aptitudes, physical and mental, which are called into play in the various provinces of skilled labour on which our industrial and commercial expansion depends."

OPEN AIR SCHOOLS. At almost every school which the Minister visited in North Taranaki he questioned the teachers as to their opinions on open air schools. In many cases the doubt was expressed as to the advisability of introducing the idea in Taranaki, owing to the uncertain weatheiconditions which are met wth here. At the Norfolk Eoad school on Friday Mr. Sanaa cut the idea before Mr, Thomas,

the head teacher, who approved of it, and said he would like to see all the classes at work in the play-ground. The Minister told the interviewer that he was very pleased to hear this opinion, which showed that Mr. Thomas was a teacher who had right ideas. The Minister said an experiment with open-air classes had been made at the Ote Kiake Institution, near Oamaru, for mental defectives, where the atmosphere of freedom and freshness was having beneficial results. The idea of openair schools, he said, was spreading, not only in Southern Europe, where the climatic conditions .were favorable, but also in England. In England these schools were opened at first for the summer months only, but now they were held all the year through. At first, too, these schools wen' for the physically unlit, but the wonderful improvement in the health and fitness of the children had made the authorities desirous of bringing these healthy conditions within the reach of all children. The Minister said the benefits resulting to the children had been proved. And, further, "Apart from bodily health, one of the advantages of this type of school is the fact that out of door work makes it necessary for the children to have more freedom in moving about," added Mr. Hanan, "and so the work done is becoming more rational and meeting (he requirements of the growing child better than the orthodox sitting still in school."

Mr. Hanan is also an admirer of the Montesorri system, and is keeping it prominently before him in regard to future education in New Zealand. "Many people," he said, "think that Montesorri strikes the death blow to kindergarten, but this idea is not shared by those who have truly understood kindergarten. The Montessori system is waking kindergartens to a realisation of what they ought never to have overlooked, and working with modern science as an ally has been able to show a new pathway towards the achievement of our longcherished ideals. There should, however, be careful testing of Montessori work before any big move is made. The conditions of life, the vapidity of growth, and many other things are totally different in New Zealand from those in Rome. We must test carefully these principles to see how far they are applicable to our children."

FLOWERS AND GAMES. The influence of environment on character is a subject which has attracted unusual interest from students of social problems, and that Mr. Hanan is a firm believer in the influence which environment lias is evidenced by some remarks on school gardens. Mr. Hanan said he had been very pleased to see the beautiful gardens which the children at some schools in Taranak had. This was a matter to which teachers should give every possible encouragement and sympathy, for by cultivating in children a love for (lowers and things clean and beautiful they were instilling a trait which would remain and expand in their characters and which would make them better and happier men and women in after life. If children spent their early years amidst untidy and dirty surroundings it was inevitable that they would retain habits which would make them unlidy through life. Habits should he cultivated which would make them clean and tidy and give them a pure outlook. Gardens would do this. Teachers should also bo careful that their charges not only grew up to love flowers and gardens, but also grew up to show similar care for themselves. By looking after themselves while .at school children would gain habits which would remain with them. While the best method by which the nvt\! can be. developed is being afieujed to by Mr. Hanan he is also paying particular attention to the development of the body. It must, he said, be kept prominently before children that they must bo healthy in body as well as sound in mind, and to achieve this he is developing some scheme by which school children can be induced to go in for a greater variety of games. Th:ro must, he contends, he an extension and development of the activities on the play-ground, u/ere the future of the boy and girl (3 just as much, at stake as in the class-room. The present systems of physical culture and-medical inpection are being carefully reviewed by the Minister, and he aims to propound some scheme which will produce better results. All these things are matters which vitally concern the future of the people of the Dominion, and recognising that the terrible wastage caused by the war must be replaced by a robust and well-trained race of young people, Mr. Hanan is approaching the education problem with ideas and schemes wliieh will undoubtedly be applauded.