TRUE EDUCATION, FREEDOM AND INDIVIDUALITY.

Taranaki Daily News, 23 April 1918, Page 3

TRUE EDUCATION, FREEDOM AND INDIVIDUALITY.

Sir, —To the great majority of parents and teachers "school" is synonymous with discipline, with quiet, with rows of children sitting still at desk, and listening to the teacher, speaking only when they are spoken to. It is generally understood that there is a certain accumulation of facts that every child r.iust acquire, or grow np to be illiterate. These facts relate principally to adult life. . Therefore it is not at all Riirprisins; that the pupil is not interested in them, while it is the duty of the teacher to wiforee them. Children have to learn these facts, to memorise them, and they learn the use. fnl accomplishment of what they are told .to ,do, not what they want to'' do. But is the doing of uninteresting ■ ind distasteful tasks a character build?r? Because the children are allowed to move about freely, or sit 011 the floor, or have their chairs at an angle, instead of in a straight row, that is not to say that they are not learning. The mind of a child works more freely when he is at ease and happy than when he is under restraint. To-day swaddling clothes for an infant arc a recognised nuisance—a hindrance to physical growth. In the same way are the swadilliiirr clothes of school lifo —the straight-hacked desk, head to the front, and arms folded, cramping and nerveracking to the growing' child. The child s energy is stored up while he is under teacher's eye. Immediately lie is out or school he realises that lie is free, and behaves like a little animal. Give a child liberty to- move and stretch when he feels inclined, in school or out of it, with opportunities for real exercise right through the day, and ho will not become so nervously over-wrought that he is irritable, or aimlessly boisterous when left to himself. .Trained' at doing things for himself, he will be able to keep at work and think of other people where he is not under restraint. A truly scientific education can never develop while children are treated in Hie lump, merely as a claas of children, fcjr each Iclikld has an individuality of its owjii, ancT science must take stock of all the facts concerning this individuality. Each child should be given an opuortunity to show what he can do. Only 1 as the teacher becomes acquainted with each child under her care individually sail she hope to understand that child, and it is onlv in this way, the training »f each child along the particular line that it has the inherent capacity to specialise in, that a scheme of education will be evolved whereby the scientific and artistic standard will be approached. How is a teacher to understand a child if lie imposes himself and his teaching to such an extent that he is made to act like every other child? If each and every child is given an bpportunity to express itself, to show what are its particular qualities, the teacher will have an Klea along which lines to lead certain children, giving Ihem useful instruction along those lines, in this way helping them very materially, by fitting them to do something of benefit to themselves, and to the community as a whole, in after life.—l am, etc.,

M. C. P. ARE WE DOYVN-HEARTED? Sir,— I The letter signed liy "0. S. C." In your issue of Tuesday, on Panicky Ministers, was well-timed and much to the point. As a Britisher, I feel a tinge of shame when I read the howl from our leaders—the very men who ivithin up to a month ago, were pledging our honor, our last man, and lasi thilling. Look at the position, The enemy's foot is not treading an ineli i of the soil is Great Britain, Tk<

army is intact. The French are much battered, 1mt i Paris is atill 50 miles from tile line. The navy, as we nil know, is ready to a man 'to smash llir whole crew of baby-killers if only it oould get the show. The merest fringe of the might of the great American nation is in contact with the enemy, not, to speak of the numerous allies. Then don't we possess the very keys to the earth's gates? Look round the map of the world anil see Gibraltar, Malta, Suez Canal, practically the whole of South Africa, India, Australasia, New Zealand, and hundreds more are fortresses and pillars of strength. Is this fact a mere coincidence, or have we as a nation lost faith in the greatest of all strength, the (ireat Ood above? Reading history down through the ages, canAve not see His guiding hand down to Waterloo, when such a crisis as tlw present confronted the nation ? Then down on to the Crimea, Indian Mutiny, and then last, but not/'loast, to the grand pioneers, some of the flower of the British race who colonised and made New Zealand what it is to-day. Did they falter and cry off? No, thank Ood; they were made of sterner stuff, and reproduced the noble army of boys whose heroic sacrifices and hallowed memories will last for all time. Have they died in vain ? Have those of us who have stayed at homo really made sacrifices? When this .country ceases to spend £10,000;000 on gambling and drink per year then, and only then, can we hope to do any good. No, Mr. Editor, let us one and all brace up for further great efforts, and cast aside any weak and faltering leaders and look to God and lie will roe us safely through.—l am, .etc., AKE, AKE, AKE! Waitara, April 20.