THE SCHOOL SYLLABUS.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXVIX, Issue 8140, 18 May 1906, Page 7

THE SCHOOL SYLLABUS.

/ EVILS OP OVER STUDY. \ JBRAIN BECOMES PREMATURELY EXHAUSTED. . HIGH PRESSURE CONDEMNED, Speaking with reference to Dr. Truby King's severe indictment of tbe present education system at Daneaia on Thursday night, Dr. Levinge, ex-superintendent of the Sunnyside Asylum, endorsed Dr. King's statement that high-pressure education is a fruitful source o! mental deterioration in the young) ani that it has a tendency to exhaust the nervous forces, and v vital enfrgv. "1 think," said Dr. Levinge, "the chief difficulty is I tbe anxiety of masters to get the hest possible results. They naiurally press the most brilliant studeifts to achievements which may be beyond their strength with a complex education system and a syllabus aaoh as Dr .King indicates. There oan be no doubt there are comparatively few brains able to STAND IHE STRAIN without suffering from exhaustion. It depends also to a great extent on tbe physical health of the ahildren tiubjeoied to the test, and in the case of weaklings their bodily weakness often indicates their mental condition. There may, however, be other causes oontributinc to mental breakdown than high pressure education, and which are, I think, often ascribed > to thiß case when it is really due to inherent physical weakness. Parents often show a disposition to sacrifice the future of their children by their anxiety to get educational results at too early an age. That they are really discounting the future is shown by the taot that so few of THE BRILLIANT PUPILS and students at school or college ' tarn out the moat brilliant in after life and the inference is that their brain has beoome prematurely exhausted. Unfortunately neurosis is on the inorease, and in many oases these brilliant youths and girls have inherited a neurotic strain, consequently educational methods may be credited with producing results which have really arisen from other causes. The evils of overstudy may often be corrected however by more attention to physical development. The principal .underlying the Rhodes' scholarship is to my mind the right oi/e. These scholarhips are awarded to youths who have not merely shown great intellectual capaoity but who have PROVED. THEIR PROFICIENCY * in athletic games and general manliness. Briefly, mental education and development should take place pari passu with physioal development." The headmas'.er of tbe West Christcburch District High School remarked that Dr. King's criticism appeared to be applied indisciimSnately to the work of the primary and secondary schools. "As to tbe present primary school sylla- * bus" he said "a groat deal more freedom is allowed the teacher than evei he had before, 'lhe spirit of * the present syllabus iB certainly opposed to tbe system of 'cram. Unfortunately there are individuals who will ADOPT A SYSTEM of 'cram* under any syllabus but the one we are at present working under is a marked advance on any rormer syllabus. Then, again, If parentß have bright children they are anxious to see them distinguish themselves -in the competition for scholarships and_ it frequently happens thit the'examination and not the [EDUCATIONAL INTERESTS of the child becomes the end of ' study. The scholarship is a bait to ! both child and parent and they strive for it by all means in their power. Take a snbjeot like science. In order to quality in the limited time at their 'disposal in some scientific subject for the junior university scholarship a largo amount of cram is inevitable. Training and scientific method, , wnich ought to be tbe foundation of the child's education, simply go to the wall, for any scientific process would be such a slow one that, in the limited time at the pupils' disposal, be simply could not qualify for examination in that way. The woik required for the junior university SCHOLARSHIP EXAMINATION is as high and higher in some lespects than the degree standard, and to win one of tbeae scholarships presupposes an exceedingly large amount of study over and above the ordinary school work. It is a point to be considered whether the standard is not too high, parti^ular- • ly if it theans that tbe brightest of our boys and girl« oan only gain a distinction of that kind by excessive work. I must say that I have never heard of any instance of MEN'J?AL BREAKDOWN from overstudy, but the fact re* mains that in many cases arduous study takes place during the most critical years of a child's life, and tbe fruits of overwork may not show themselves at the time. It is a question whether it would not be better for* the State to spend its money on candidates who were tested on broader lines, and more on the principle laid down, in tbe Rhodes' educational bequest." ,