THE EDUCATION QUESTION.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXI, Issue 2497, 12 July 1888, Page 3

THE EDUCATION QUESTION.

TO THR EIIITOR. Sir,-There ate three aspects in which the education question is at the present time discussed by all parties interested in the welfare of the rising generation of this colony, viz., civil, religions and retrenching aspects. With the lastnamed, however, I intend to have nothing to say upon the subject, as it has been already so ably discussed by far mere competent judges than I am. I can only assert that I am thoroughly in accord with the views so ably and clearly enunciated by Mr G. W. Russell, at the meeting held here on Monday, the 2nd inst. "The law that governs education properly so-called is the law of development. Every part of a living organism, whether animal or vegetable, grows by use, and is produced by circumstances to fulfil a special requirement. The attributes, the forms, the very colours of organic life have been determined by the conditions of existence and the surroundings. The physiological question is purely one of nourishment. When any part of the body is used it attracts nourishment to supply the elements consumed, and grows, so as to meet further requirements. In this way predestrians and dancers develop the muscles of the legs, and tho blacksmith works up the muscles of his arms. Everything grows with use. It is so with the mind. If a child is taught the multiplication table in such a way as to develop its memory, it will, by dint of hard driving, be able to take in thefkures as they stand, and cither by sight or sound connect them, so that if asked how much tweWc times twelve make, it will answer one hundred and forty-four. The pupil will have no notion how to answer the question unless he happens to have learnt a division-table side by side with that of multiplication. In the same way yon teach a boy or girl to translate certain books of a classical author, and if you start him fairly he will go right, but if a different text is substituted or he is asked to bring his knowledge of the meaning and construction of words to bear on a new subject he is as much at fault as if he knew nothing; of the language which has formed part of his excellent education, The like is true of the student in science, he may be a marvel of memory, and astonish his examiners, who, of course, judging only by results, award him the highest honour, but when he comes to stand in need of the faculties of research and application he is worth literally nothing, and what is worse, it is probably too late to develop these faculties which have been neglected. How much better off in the struggle of life is the less crammed but well-trained student, who perhaps, because he lacked the blighting attentions of an expert tutor, has had to dig out his tacts for himself, and to consider and compare and arrange them, so that his faculties of observation of research, of collocation have

grown by use and become robust powers of the intellectual constitution. No boy or fill under our present educational system need deplore the want of aids to learning, and those teachers are the most excellent, though unfortunately not always tho most highly appreciated, who develop the mind by training rather than treat it as a portmanteau to be packed for a trip to the examination hall—who in fact educate instead of simply cramming. It follows that more pains should be bestowed in training the faculties of mind than in storing the memory with information, and that the subjects taught and the manner of teaching need to be selected for their training value rather than their intrinsic or marketable worth. Latin and Greek, if they do not already form part of the subject matter of school teaching to boys and girls under twelve years of age, ought to do so. Although thevo is a disposition to substitute other Iswiiagcs for Greek and even Latin in the"tralning of the young, it is difficult to imagine any subject more important than the origin and growth of the words in which our ideas are habitually expressed, and this can never be brought home to boys or girls unless they have been taught at least the rudiments of Greek and Latin, and so much of the grammar of those languages as will enable him to parse the inflections whereby modifications of meaning are expressed, and out of which modern words with limited significancies have grown. The training of the young is an employment for which high qualifications are needed. Education consists not so much in cramming the minds of children with information as in training their faculties to acquire the knowledge of which they may hereafter stand in need. It is the vice of the present system of teaching that it doe 3 little or nothing for the miiul itself, leaving its development to the chapter of accidents which is not education or even teaching, but simply cramming, Merc book-learning forms a small, and as the business of life goea, quite a secondary part of education, Women may have the happy knack of bearing with the tempers of children better than men, but they cannot impart to the mind of a boy that power and grasp which it is essential he should possess. It is a fact that cannot be denied that nearly all weakmindedncss and want of decision men show in life is due to the'fact of early female influence. Boys should be placed under the tuition of men at the outset of their school days. Those who have not been so treated, except in very rare instances, regret it in after years. Women should teacli girls, men only can train boys.—lam, &c, McGILLiriIADRIE. Cambridge, 7th July.