EDUCATIONAL REFORM.

White Ribbon, Volume 24, Issue 281, 18 November 1918, Page 10

EDUCATIONAL REFORM.

(Address delivered at (disburse W.C.T.U. by Mr F. Rowley, headmaster of the Gisborne School.) Let us look fv»r a moment on the present conditions of our education, considering hrst the children, then the teachers, then the conditions surrounding the school. 1. The children. The State begins to look after the children at five, and refuses to have ar.ything to do with them before that age. If the conditions of the home, the work of the parents, or the surroundings, demand that the child under five should be looked after away from the home, the State refuvs to do it. The child, the future citizen, may be left, to be cared for by unwilling neighbours, may play in filthy backyards, or streets, picking up diseases of body and of mind, and the State cares not, until he is five. Private philanthropy may establish kindergarten schools for -ueh children if it wishes, but if not, the children may go bang. Then the State provides free education up to the passing of Standard VL, and compulsory education to the age of 14. After that the brainy child may, if his parents wish and can afford it, go on to a secondary school or a technical school. Does not the slower child need the care of the State even more than the brainy one? Fourteen is just the age when the child needs control. He is just bursting into the adult condition, his whole system full of energy uncontrolled by experience. It is iust then that he knows more than lus teacher, and his father is one of these conservative old fossils who have to be submitted to because an antiquated law passed by similar old fossils says so. Just at that time we loosen tlv- bonds of control when we ought to hold them more firmly till the danger period is passed. Again the oid idea that it is necessary to develop manual dexterity while the child is still young is being disproved by the war when the educated men and women are showing in the munition and other factories that their increased mental alertness more than compensates for the lack of manual training. Thus from two joints of view we see that by raising the leaving age of our children we are going to benefit the nation (1) from the moral, and (2) from the efficiency standpoint.

2. The teacher. To say that for the efficient education of our children wc need as teachers the very pick of the race is to state a triusm. But is the Government of the day making any serious attempt to reach this ideal? Do the best boys and girls take to the teaching profession? If not, why not? In the whole Poverty Bay district there is one young man a pupil-teacher. About one-third of the teachers of New Zealand are un certificated, because there is not a sufticr*nt supply of certificated teachers. Of course, the war has had much t<> do with this. But even before the war there was a large percentage of uncertificated teachers. Years ago a goodly number of candidates applied for every position that was open, even though the pay was much lower. Now there is difficulty in getting 1 sufficient number to apply to till the vacant les on the pupil teacher and probationer staff, even though the number required has been very much reduced. It does not pay to become a teacher; the pay is too poor at the start and through the whole system to the very top. It pays a boy or girl better to go into an office than to be a teacher and it pays an experienced teacher to leave the profession and become an inexperienced lawyer. The country must be prepared to pay for its education. I believe the country is prepared to pay for it. But the men at the head of the Government, instead of being leaders, have to be push'd. Other countries are recognising the value of education, and are paying tlv* price. New Zealand is lagging behind. England is promising to introduce compulsory education to the age of 18. •» 3. The surrounding- of the school. Too many of our schools have playgrounds too small. The central school in Gisborne has three acres. That is not big enough. There is no room for football or cricket, and our neighbours are constantly annoyed by the children invading their yards after balls. Our girls’ ground is smaller than the boys’, and the infants have less still. Far too many schools have much less. The game, which used to be considered a luxury at school, is now considered a necessary part of the child’s shrool life, and the means for carrying on the gam. s should be provided bv the school, so that there should be no call on the children to provide funds, which may shut out

the poorer children, and there must at least be room in the school grounds. The buildings.—Many of our buildings are unsuitable. They were built years ago by Hoards of Education, consisting of laymen, and designed by architects who knew nothing at all about the requirements of a school. In many cases the lighting and the ventilation are bad, and this undoubtedly has a bad effect on the health of the children. Our schools must be made comfortable and homc-like and attractive. They must be better cleaned. The school committees are responsible for the cleaning. Can they do it with the means supplied them? The next j>oint I wish to stress is the size* (>f our classe*-. Here again an improvement has been made, but \\c have not gone far enough yet. I can well remember the time when 1 considered myself very fortunate if my c lass roll number did not reach 70. Now the average class in our large schools is about 54. That docs not mean that the largest class is 54. Classes cannot be made all alike; some «>f necessity are larger than others. Moreover, it is hardly right that a junior teacher with small experience and small pay shou’d teach the same-sized class as a senior teacher. It is generally recognised that 40 children should be the maximum number for a teacher—not the average

giving an average of say 35. At present it is impossible to pay proper attention to the individuals in a class, to give premier supervision to their work, and proper individual attention to the backward. . . . You are re-

commended to concentrate on: (1) Continuation classes. — Continuation c lasses aim at making some form of education compulsory for those children who leave the primary school at the age of 14, and who do not go to any other school. The classes are intended to meet the pressing needs of the community—(a) Vocational; (h) civic: (c) moral. (2) Primary schools; For these the Institute asks for improved buildings and playgrounds, and a more adequate supply of teachers. A tour round the primary schools will show that children are being taught, often in badly ventilated and badly equipped buildings, in classes consisting of from 50 to So pupils and more. Tt is felt that if the Government could only he induced to increase as soon as possible the supply of tea-

chcrs, thereby lessening the size of classes, a great advance would be made. Anybody can see that a continuance of the present state of affairs is having a harmful effect on the children, and therefore on the future nation. ... Jt is already within

the power of the Education Hoards to make attendance at continuation classes, compulsory up to a certain age, pro. vided the local school committee has first recommended this. Hut strong exception is taken b> some parents to their children, especially the girls being taken out at night. It is also urged that when a growing boy or girl of 14 or 15 has put in a day’s work of seven or eight hours he has done enough from the point of view of health, and 1 am inclined to agree with this. lam far from recommending that children of that age should be allowed unlimited freedom to ramble about the streets at night. These continuation classes should be able, however, to inspire in the young people sufficient interest in their study to make them do .1 little reading in the evenings. The suggestion is that employers should b\ law be bound to allow these boys and girls half a day a week to attend continuation classes, and that these classes should be of a two-fold nature, having the object of (1) improving the child in his work, and (2) making him a better citizen. Classes would have to be set up to study the technique of their trades or professions, to deal with such subjects as civics and history, i.c., the duties of citizenship, and the growth of the nation, its past trials and failures and successes, and also with subjects of a moral nature. Here again history lends itself. The reading of good standard novels, and the committing to memory of poetry or verse would aid in such a study. The evils of alcoholic drinking could be dealt with by a study of health and sexual instruction might be introduced. These suggestions are my own, and have not been even outlined by the N.Z.E.I. There are two planks in the N.Z.E.I. platform upon which you are not asked to concentrate >our activities, that I should like to say a few words about —more adequate medical inspection, and free dental treatment for (hildrtu in public schools. ... I therefore urge as

strongly as I can the necessity of as thorough a medical inspection of school children as possible. Since

the introduction of medical inspection some years ago the local schools have been visited twice by medical inspectors. That is almost useless. I must admit, however, that the last to conv\ l)r. Irwin, came with different instructions and different objects from the first one. She examined the schools from top to bottom, dealing specially with Standards 11. to IV. She wrote to parents, notifying them of medical or dental attention needed, and got some of them to interview her. She also selected a number of cases that needed special drill treatment for slight deformities. Subsequently a nurse (Nurse Jenkins) appeared on the scene, and made sure that the advice of the doctor had been followed; if not, a personal interview' with the parents followed. Finally a drill instructor came to the schools to give special instruction to the selected teacher in drill necessarv to put right the deformities. lam very glad to be able to report on thes' 1 activities of the medical side of the Education Department. Ry far the greatest number of cases needing attention were dental cases, and while I think all the parents were willing to sacrifice themselves, if necessary, to get the children’s teeth attended to, still I have no doubt that if dental treatment were free parents would grow into the habit of watching the teeth of the children more carefully, and even of sending them at regular intervals for inspection. I would go further, and say that all medical treatment for children should be free. To my mind it is just as essential to the State that the children should grow up as healthy as possible as that they should be educated, and just as education is free and compulsory for all children, so should medical examination and treatment be.