EDUCATING OUR ADOLESCENTS

New Zealand Listener, Volume 10, Issue 244, 25 February 1944, Page 10

EDUCATING OUR ADOLESCENTS

Minister Asks For A Report On Secondary Schools N November, 1942, the Minister of Education appointed a Committee of 14 men and women to review the curriculum of post-primary schools. Last week, the Committee issued its Report-a book of 94 pages. Since this is likely to colour secondary education for another generation at least, we reprint some of the more important recommendations.

GENERAL AIMS E have set out to ensure, as far as possible, that all post-prim-ary pupils, irrespective of their varying abilities and their varying occupational ambitions, receive a generous and well-balanced education. Such an education would aim, firstly, at the full development of the adolescent as a person; and secondly, at preparing him for an active place in our New Zealand society as worker, neighbour, home-maker, and citizen. Up to a point one aim implies the other; and such qualities as strength and stability of character are fundamental to both. MAJOR RECOMMENDATIONS EFORE giving in detail suggested syllabuses for the "Core" studies and examination prescriptions for the optional subjects, we wish to state our major recommendations in a formal manner. We recommend:(1) That up to the School Certificate stage the curricula of all full-time pupils in postPrimary schools include a core of studies and activities, comprising English Language and Literature; Social Studies (preferably an integrated course of history and civics, geography, and some _ descriptive economics); General Science; Elementary Mathematics; Music; a craft or one of the Fine Arts; and Physical Education. For girls, Home Crafts is regarded as satisfying the requirements of "a craft." (2) That optional studies and activities, from which a choice could be made to suit individual needs, be provided for at appropriate stages according to the resources of each school. (3) That the approved list of optional subjects for the examination be as follows: (1) Animal husbandry. (2) Applied mechanics. (3) Biology. (4) Book-keeping. (5) Clothing. (6) Chemistry. (7) Commercial practice. (8) Dairying. (9) Drawing. (10) Electricity and magnetism. (11) Embroidery. (12) Engineering shop-work. (13) Field husbandry. (14) French. (15) General science. (16) Geography. (17) German (18) Greek. (19) Heat, light and sound. (20) Heat engines. (21) History. (22) Homecraft (23) Horticulture. (24) Latin (25) Maori. (26) Mathematics. (27) Music. (28) Shorthand and typewriting. (29) Technical drawing. (30) Technical electricity. (31) Woodwork. (32) Approved foreign languages other than those mentioned above. THE’ COMMON CORE HE substance of the "Core" permits of wide interpretation, and we expect it so to be interpreted, It contains what any intelligent parent might expect his son or daughter to be given at school (apart from studies indicated by special vocational needs or personal talents). A parent might reasonably ask that his child should have a course of physical education so that he may preserve good bodily health; that he be able to participate freely in games; that he have an adequate command_of the mother tongue, and be able to enjoy something of its literature; that he continue the study of his social environment in time

and space-in other words, that he understand in their main outlines the social studies of history and geography, and be introduced to the current problems of his country and his time; that he have a knowledge of the mathematics required for ordinary non-school purposes and be conversant in at least an elementary way with the methods and achievements of science; that he be able to listen intelligently to music, perhaps to sing or to play a musical instrument; and that he have acquired a reasonable degree of skill in an art or craft. An intelligent parent would wish a daughter to have, in addition, the knowledge, skill, and taste required to manage a home well and make it a pleasant place to live in. In what follows in this section we have taken the "Core" studies and activities one by one, stated what we believe to be their general aims and significance, and made suggestions as. to approach and content. It should be particularly noted that none of our more detailed recommendations is intended to be binding on any school. ENGLISH UR attitude to the teaching of English here in New Zealand has been much influenced by British developments in theory and practice, and by the progressive changes in the text-books which have come to us from overseas. We have passed through the stage where formal grammar was regarded as the principal part of the syllabus in English, and where detailed parsing and analysis, correction of sentences, and rules and exceptions learnt by rote in isolation from composition occupied almost all the school time devoted to the subject. To-day, though English is not yet regarded as "the foundation on which all the intellectual life of schools and scholars is based," the methods which we here recommend, with similar objectives, are being used by the best of our teachers of English. In many schools a more rational and vital course is now being given in the subject than ever before. The committee hopes to see such teaching encouraged and extended to all schools. Aims It will be agreed that the primary aims of teaching English are to develop: (a) The power of expression in speech and writing. (b) The ability to understand the spoken and written thoughts of others. The two aims are not, of course, separate or separable, but there is good authority for the division of the processes of communication into expression and comprehension, just for the purpose of emphasising that it is a two-way process. Expression serves the most simple (continued on next page)

(continued from previous page) and humble needs; and it may be carried to the point of high art in conversation and oratory, in imaginative literature and scientific and philosophical exposition. So with comprehension, which at its upper levels includes what is called "the appreciation of literature." Methods These aims call for a programme that provides for: (a) Constant oral and written expression and work involving comprehension. (b) Systematic training in the use of a library. (c) Above all, opportunity to acquire a knowledge and appreciation of literature, in the widest sense of that term. Again, the methods are not separate, nor separable. The division is only for convenience. "What is Good English?" There is implicit here, and particularly in relation to the first method, the question, "What is ‘good English’?" To answer it we must ask the further question, "Good for what?" In other words, English must be taught from the point of view of function-there is an English which is good for conversation, there is an English which is good for serious discussion, there is another English which is good for imaginative writing, and for oratory, and for description, and so on. The schools are mainly concerned with what may be called "English for everyday life"-writing and speaking, reading and listening, in relation to the ordinary business of earning a living and living with others. Few pupils will want to write essays or novels in later life; all will want, continually, to express their feelings, aims, and desires for everyday purposes and to understand the thoughts of their fellows. We must note, too, that insincere emotional writing may, in the effort to deceive the reader, eventually deceive the writer, and self-deception is mental and moral ‘suicide. Again, the form of composition which involves weaving a

web of threadbare platitudes and secondhand phrases must be fatal to the writer’s own standards of taste. The critical faculty, which must somehow be developed in pupils, as based on absolute sincerity. A pupil will never be able to detect what is shoddy, insincere, and specious if his own writing has these qualities. The second of the methods mentioned is systematic training in the use of a library. In one way or another (through the home, the town library, and the school) every post-primary pupil should have access to a generous store of books -poems, plays, histories, memoirs, biographies, travel books, records of scientific discovery, fiction, good translations. There is a further principle that should be heavily underscored: George Sampson has said that the sentence, "Every teacher is a teacher of English" should be written in letters of gold over every school doorway. The aims we have discussed cannot possibly be achieved in separate disjointed lessons. English is not so much a subject as the essential tool of every teacher of (continued on next page)

Major Changes Proposed In N.Z. Education

(continued from previous page) every subject. All day the pupil is asking or answering estions, writing notes and summaries, making comments and suggestions. Without unduly interrupting concentration on the matter in hand, every teacher should try to increase the accuracy, fluency, and grace of the children’s English. . SOCIAL STUDIES SOCIAL STUDIES do not yet occupy the place in the curriculum to which we think they are entitled. Indeed, under the regulations at present in force a pupil is not required to study Geography beyond Form II or History and Civics beyond Form IV. Education in the future must be.a process of gradually widening horizons, from the family to the local community, from the community to the nation, and from the nation to the world. Up to the School Certificate stage at least, and generally in the Sixth Form also, the course of every pupil should make due provision for Social Studies. Aims We consider the main aims of a Social Studies course should be: (a) .To assist in the development. of individuals who are able to take their parts as effective citizens of a democracy. By an "effective citizen" we mean one who has a lively sense of responsibility towards civilised

values, who can make firm social judgments, and who acts intelligently and in the common interest. (b) To deepen pupils’ understanding of human affairs and to open up wide fields for personal exploration. To some extent this second aim is involved in the first, but we wish to make it clear that we think that the Social Studies course should not be regarded merely as a means to the introduction of pupils to social duties and responsibilities; it should, on the contrary, provide scope for, and itself help to create, individual interests of many kinds, It is suggested that the three or fouryear course in "Core" Social Studies should follow the lines indicated below: (a) Study of the social life of the pupil’s own local community and of New Zealand as a whole, in relation to the geographical environment and the historical background. What is suggested is an active kind of regional survey, undertaken for a social purpose; to find out how the community lives and is managed, end how it has come to be what it is, and to study where and how improvements are needed. (b) Study of the social life of the major peoples of the contemporary world, in relation to their geographical environments and _historical devel ent (on the same lines as in (a) above). ile special attention should be given to the peoples of the British Commdnwealth, more than in the past should be devoted to those of the non-British countries bordering on the Pacific. (c) Some schools now give courses in World History. We are inclined to favour a course in the history of Western civilisation, with special reference to British history, the

spread of Western influence over the world, and its impact on other civilisations. Special reference to the history of Britain and New Zealand and the growth of democratic institutions and ways of life. GENERAL SCIENCE E are of opinion that every pupil attending a post-primary school should pursue a course of General Science, as a core subject, for three or four years. There are three major reasons for this decision. In the first place, the young adolescent has, as a rule, some popular knowledge of the nature of modern scientific research and shows an absorbing interest in its problems. Secondly, the world in which these pupils are living is a world conditioned by the achievements of science. Thirdly, scientific method, if widely understood, and if applied for civilised ends, is capable of making great contributions to human welfare. Aims The "common experience of children" in this country is rich and varied. Many of our pupils have lived in the open air in close contact with plants and animals; most of them have first-hand knowledge of motor-cars, electricity, and radio; in addition, the adolescent is conscious of the developing powers and skills of his own body. The young pupil comes to the secondary school with a little knowledge and much experience; we recommend that his course should begin by a reorganisation of this sporadic experience. The following outline of topics is suggested: (a) The earth in the solar system, ‘and the solar system in space. The vast extent of geological time. The broad geological features of the pupil’s immediate environment. (b) The elementary chemistry and physics of the pupil’s home environment. (c) The soil and the atmosphere as supporters of life. The trees, shrubs, and flowers of the pupil’s surroundings. (d) A simple study of living things, with more detailed study of selected plants and animals, (e) An elementary study of reproduction in typical plants, animals, and man. (f) An outline of human physiology to correlate closely with the programme p's Physical Education. An elementary study nutrition, especially in its more recent developments. (g) The methods and achievements of science and their more obvious effects upon human corhmunity. A glimpse into the technological development of the pupil’s environment. ELEMENTARY MATHEMATICS IFFERENTIATION between courses for boys and girls is permissible, and often, indeed, desirable. For all pupils the work should be practical and the immediate usefulness of the exercises should be evident, There should be extensive inter-relation of Mathematics with other subjects, as, for example, in the use of numerical and graphical methods to solve problems arising in Science, Social Study, Homecraft, and workshop activities. . Much of the arithmetic should be of | a social and informational character, drawing its data from daily life in the home and at work, and from the newspaper, the Official Year-Book, etc. Simple accounts can be compiled to show income and expenditure; and farm and workshop activities may be used to give practice in the use of money and measures. The post-office, the savingsbank, National Savings Certificates, ‘(continued on next page)

{continued from previous page) Social Security contributions and benefits should all figure in arithmetical exercises along with rates and taxes and budgetary details culled from local-body and national finances. MUSIC, ARTS, AND CRAFTS For the most part the aesthetic studies have been given a minor role in the curricula of our post-primary schools. Where a school has fully recognised the value of Aesthetic Subjects most of the time has been found out of school hours. We feel that a definite place should be made in the time-table for aesthetic activities. Confirmation of this attitude comes in the newly-published Norwood report on secondary education in England, which states that Art and Handicrafts should ‘receive the broadest interpretation in schools and should be a powerful means of raising taste in housing, furniture, interior decoration, and the like. With this we agree. We recommend, therefore, that all pupils of post-primary schools should pursue a course in Music and at least one of the Arts and Crafts. As in the case of all other studies in the core, we do not wish to lay down a fixed prescription for the Arts and Crafts; we think that each school should be free to meet in its own way the implications of this section, and: we trust that schools will give a progressively generous interpretation of its spirit and give much more time to the Arts and Crafts than the minimum suggested. We recommend that, if possible, arrangements should be made for enthusiastic pupils to extend after school hours the time given to the practice of an art or a craft. This is already done in many schools in music, play-production, and so forth. SEX EDUCATION E do not think there is any simple solution to the problems related to sex, and there are obvious limits to what the school in itself may achieve; but we believe that with the right approach something of value may be accomplished. Our recommendations are made in general form, as we do not wish to do more than suggest the kind of approach that we think most desirable. In the first place we believe that every adolescent should know the facts of reproduction. The natural beginning of sex education is in the first years of childhood when, often as early as the third or fourth year, the child asks his mother questions about the origin of babies. If such questions are answered -as they should be-in a simple and straightforward manner-and if further information is given as required during the primary-school years, children should enter upon puberty with a sound understanding of the elementary facts of sex. At the post-primary stage this knowledge should be extended in lessons in biology and in the anatomy and physiology of the human reproductive system. We think such lessons should be included in General Science-we note that the English Board of Education has recently published a pamphlet on sex education which emphasises the importance of "factual instruction in the physiology of sex." Yet, in itself, knowledge is plainly not enough to ensure right conduct. Selfrespect, in which personal fastidiousness is an important element, is fundamental. Adolescent boys and girls can understand that self-control is necessary to a balanced life, that some re-direction of primitive energies is a condition of achievement not only in sport, but also —

in other activities, and that fitness for marriage and parenthood at a high level must of necessity involve a period of waiting. So, too, with respect for others. A conscience even ordinarily sensitive can appreciate the danger of doing harm to another, and the adolescent can be brought to see that a healthy community is one in which normal family life can flourish and to understand the bearing of this truth on his personal attitude to sex. RELIGION IN SCHOOLS TATEMENTS were received from the National Council of Churches, the New Zealand Rationalist Association, and other bodies about the teaching of religion in schools. After giving the matter consideration, we came to the conclusion that we would not be justified in making any recommendation. The question of religious teaching in State schools involves large and complicated issues on which there are sharp differences of opinion within the community and within the teaching services. We consider that we would have been justified in making a pronouncement on these issues only if we had been specially charged to consider them. As it was, we have no reason to think that they were in mind when we were constituted a Committee. Further, a committee that ventured to deal with them would be in duty bound to invite evidence from all interested groups and to give it very full consideration. This we were not in a position to do.