UNKNOWN

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10074, 23 August 1910, Page 3

UNKNOWN

AN INTERtc k PAPER.

Tlae following mcercbUiig paper dealing witn '-borne cationai Tneory," was i>_aU by *.oj I Reginald 1* oss at the meeting of tn< Yv'airarapa brancii of the Teachers institute on Saturday last: — "once a ,> cur, ou tne retiremenl from oflice of him who has been elected then - prebiuc»i.t, a custom nat grown up ior nieuiuers to exact toll lii the lorm of an address on matters aUecting uieni in their vocational capacity, 'ihis paper has been written lor tlie dual purpose of responding to a general desire among members for an address of some kind, and to evince to those members guilty of destructive critic- 1 of the institute's usefulness, the that, after ail, the local executi. - have members' interests at heart. To-day I wish to speak on Some Phases of Educational 'injury." What is the theory of Education? Robbed of all ambiguities of detail, and shorn of all technicalities, it may be considered as that which enables its possessor to place his daily occupation as a teacher on a scientilic basis. This will be manifested in the way he plans his work, and the methods he adopts for working his plan. Its subject matter is the child, body and soul. Professor Adams tells us that the, master who would teach "John" Latin, must know Latin and must know "John." "Theories are often not very attractive, and are apt to be propounded by very visionary creatures—dreamers of dreams," we are told. ' 'And is not an ounce of practice worth a pound of theory." At first sight there is something of modesty about the man who disclaims all pretentions to be an educationalist, who is quite content to be a plain schoolmaster, to be teaching and not talking about it in any way. "Give me a class," says he, "and I shall teach it. Do not trouble me with theories." Educational short-cuts are found—as man has found that mushrooms are wholesome and toadstools are not—not by scientific treatises on the chemical properties of the constituents of each, but by experience. So say a small and diminishing number of teaching folk. The knowledge of their life's work possessed by these superior persons reached them by no earthly inlet. They are (as we are told) "Teachers by the grace of God, born, not made." To-day I am going to speak to you of three phases of this science, and the first shall be Correlation, which has such an important bearing on those schemes of work we draw up for the guidance of ourselves—and others. Now, Correlation may be thought of under two phases: Ist, the direct application of the knowledge gained from any study to life's problems; 2nd, tho inter-relatedness and interdependence of the studies. We sometimes think of correlation as the adjustment of the child to the world through a study; the ciiild and the world are to be brought into correlation on the assumption that the educated man is singularly apt both in the everyday and in the eventful happenings, of life. The psy-} cliology of the-nervous system and of activity set's out this idea of adjustment as the fundamental principle of mental development. Consciousness is constantly elaborating the deliverances of hand, eye, ear, etc., into higher and more abstract forms, and then applying the results through the motor", the doing side of our minds, to real problems. Our educational writers insist that studies shall connect with, not dis-associ-ate, children from life. In modern times Ave have been getting into much closer relation to realities on the physical and on the humanistic side alike. By means of excursions, by sand tables, by training camps, by laboratories and field work in science, by cooking and sewing, by physical and manual training, by games in and out of school, by pictures and realistic descriptions and constructions in geography and history, studies have a basis upon fa<.ts and realities. And yet, are not some of us still verbal realists, bookish, and failing to connect up school and home? Again, to what extent should our studies overlap and intertwine ? Some studies naturally overlap. To quote an instance : "John" finds the rainfall for the last 24 hours is 2.96 inches (geography); he plots this on his graph paper (drawing) 3 he considers the action of this on the animal, vegetable and mineral world j (natural study); lie compares this with previous records (history); and perhaps from his measurements obtains his first real knowledge of the meaning of a decimal, to say nothing of calculating the fall per acre (mathematics). From this standpoint no study has an isolated existence. Each is simply a new way of coming at the world as a whole. Studies cluster around a few important, farreaching ideas—ideas which illuminate wide avenues of facts. These ideas occupy strategic positions (we arc told) in any study. They arc the organising centres from which armies of facts are interpreted and controlled. It has been said that ideas are the suns in the firmament of knowledge, that facts are only nonluminous planets, and that teachers are specially prone to forget this. As Professor Adamson tells us: "Selec-

I tive synthesis is the very essence of mental development; synthesis of ideas on a plan and the plan, the method of scientific correlation." I wish to speak secondly on a subject for which I will coin the phrase

I"motivising" our school Work. Within the memory of those now teaching the chief duty of a master seems to have been to aid the child to acquire facts compiled and set before him. To link up these facts and real life was not considered; this was left to chance. "He will understand it , when he attains his intellectual majority," it was thought. There was no suggestion of duplicating life's problems and methods of gaining knowledge. The change has been from a logical to a psychological method tipon the recognition that a child is not a littleman, not a little logician, therefore logic is mental pabulum unfit for the digestion of the undeveloped. Under the old masters children learnt organised facts, hoping they would come in handy, and so were required to know every cape and headland of Great Britain ( from Land's End to John o' Groat's. Under the new tflie child first finds the need and then studies to satisfy [ it, i.e., the child is unable to express itself and so learns descriptive words, adjectives, to satisfy the need. This is the way tlie mental development of the race has proceeded. We have a, motive for doing our work; should not our boys and girls ? After the school door is slammed a child gains much valuable knowledge without teacher or book. He immediately uses such knowledge to satisfy a present need. The prospect of utilising this knowledge supplies him with his motive for acquiring it. And why do many big boys and girls wish to leave school at a time when their mental content is being doubled each successive year? Is it not because they find the work there less interesting and less valuable than they would wish? Have they not a hankering for contact with the real problems of life, where they will have a motive for what they learn and a use awaiting it when learnt?

One of our greatest problems will be solved when we have learned to duplicate life's situations in our schoolrooms. Motiving deals with both practice and tkeory, with subject matter and method alike. That much can be done has been proved. Nb primary teacher nowadays asks a child to learn first its alphabet, then the syllables, and lastly the words in a logical way in order that the little one may ultimately attain the power of reading. No; she gives the child a motive for reading his first little sentences from the card or board. It may be in order to understand and describe the picture on the card, or to play a game, or to know what to do or to tell another child what to do. But while our little one is satisfying these little daily needs it has felt, he is gaining one of the ultimate ends of education. And in the upper classes do we give boys a motive for their reading? Do we always ask him to read a paragraph simply for practice,? Why should he read distinctly, correctly, and with feeling to a class that knows all about it beforehand ? Has he a message to deliver? I think not. Then should we not see that he has? And finally, let me briefly touch on the master as a unit of society. The teacher's work is am. arduous one; severe preparation is necessary; he must either be alert for new-methods or be content to be considered an "old fogey." Is there any other calling where the out-of-date man more quickly fiialls behind? There is a man's work and a woman's work within the class-room for one who would continue a good teacher. And yet, no matter how zealously one may labour, if one's horizon..is limited by the walls of the schoolroom and of the study, there is culpable neglect df a sphere of interest rich in results. Without forgetting the breadth and variety of our calling is it not a fact that until a man is something more than a teacher he is not the man he should be? Here are certain interests which as a man, he cannot neglect without serious loss to himself and his work, and he is a man first and a schoolmaster afterwards. The occupation of a teacher teno\s to optimism. He is in daily contact witfii young life at its freshest and best. There are exceptions, notable ones as a rule. The teacher is not very highly regarded as a man of wisdom in the business affairs of the place. He is supposed to be keenly alive to any possibility of obtaining increased school facilities, increases in the salaries of himself and of his staff, irrespective of whether such be wise or in the best interests of the service as a whole. Is not this public opinion a product of a restricted horizon on the master's part? The schoolmaster is not debarred from fraternal fellowship in the various institutions which form a large part of the social life in many districts. He will be for meeting, as a man among men, tli>> members of other professions and callings whom he is likely to find in such places. If lie avails himself of the opportunity of meeting men in legitimate relief from his constant association with undeveloped yo«th, ho will be the better man, and with wider interests the better teacher.