PRIMARY-EDUCATION.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XL, Issue 12538, 8 May 1915, Page 1

PRIMARY-EDUCATION.

(Contributed', to the Maii by J. Kelly. Weston.) Lord Macaulay wrote that "a nation's greatness depends upon the education of its people"—a :-.tatementwhich lias become axiomatic. At the time Maeaulay wrote these words the masses, which compose a nation, were not -educated; only the favored few were. For their benefit the greatschools of England had. existed from the 13th and 14th centuries; but im that country for hundreds- of years after that tlii> i -masses lived l and died educationally little better than sheep. In .Scotland parish schools were- instituted by Knox at the time of the Keformation-. and from that period tilt.tile accession of V : etorio, and .later, these schools supplied the Scottish poor with education; such as it was-. After the Disruption., Free Church schools of a higher type were built and manned by that body, and, that teachers; might be trained for their work, that same body built one. or .two Normal Schools. The dawn of :\ iicw educational era was at hand-, and' in 1870 a compiidleii-

iivi.' .svstchi of educatioil w;is i-iiiiusiui'at-,ed. By tlm (Mr Gladstone's Bill) education districts were set up. and Board-: established under' G-overnment; grants and control. The principle as laid, down by Maeaulay that the. State ought to educate its people had been Teeognised. adopted, and had come to stay.

. More than a generation lias passed since IS7O, and beneficent changes have been the result of,that Bill. Science in nearly every direction has made almost incredible advances', especially affecting machinery in alt-departments of labor, from tile making of Cloth down to the making of a nail or a. needle. Material imrirovement among the working classes lias been vastly on the increase—they, have better homes, shorter hours of labor, reading rooms, recreation grounds;, facilities for' travel have been put within, their, reach ; cheap literature lias been provided- sit-e-very turn --on every subject; indeed, ■everything has been done in the direction of making life at least materially brighter. "While, all this has "oeen accomplished for the benefit of the people, the question arises: Under these" .advantages and blessings has the 'race improved in moral fibre? Do our young people reverence and obey their parents better than- young people did'.-fifty years ago? Is it- a genera'! rule that the happy relationship that existed- years ago bebetween workman and master still exists?- Is business carried! on on the same honest lines? Are strikes less frequent? Are'people less selfish?. It is to be feared that to all' these questions the answer must be in the negative, and whatever causes fcive been 'at work bringing about this moral deterioration, one at least has been playing very important part—pur modern system of education iii primary schools. The past, as well as the present, system, has -gone on the assumption that ach'iid has a head, but no heart. Knowledge, more knowledge, and still moire knowledge lias been, and- is.still, understood! as education. Our syllabus provides for the knowledge of reading, writing, arithmetic, geography, grammar, composition, spelling, history, drawing, brushwork, dictation, transcription, object lessons, cookery, agriculture,-Na-ture-study, physical exercises, singing, science, morals, etc., -and a'successful taking>m of this knowledge and retailing 60 per cent of the compulsory subjects b-ick with, accuracy is the standard cf proficiency required—the copestone of our Diiiimarr system of-educa-tion. Will the reader calmly review all that field of knowledge and. in doing so, remember that all that knowledge may be acquired by instruction without one ounce of true education —that is, without real' independent thinking on the part of the pupil himself? It is for most part knowledge uhassimilated ; it is not part i of himscif. In a short time much i- forgotten. One thing, however. clings to him, and' that- is the result of this course: he •imagines -that because the acquisition of knowledge was easy, the affairs of life.will be the same. He leaves school, therefore, out for pleasure, not for work, except when it cannot be avoided, it was somewhat different under the old .parish, school regime, liven the child left school' earlier than is done now, and with- less knowledge, but what he had was his own : he had to get it by his own exertions, ami thus--a snirit -of self -reliance was, laid which proved his making in after ' days. The lad- was so far educated, whrdi-'cannot be said of our lads- today. Knowledge is the one thing need-' fuf for passing examinations, and that is the end of "the penny section. And what, after all. is knowledge- in itself?; Let- Paul, that great thinker, sneak. He says: "Though I understand 1 all j mysteries arid ail knowledge. . . . and have not charity, I am nothing." Hera we have a true estimate of all "knowledge" to the human being, apart from the heart as the guiding factor in life ; yet. strange to say, it is knowledge, knowledge, knowledge, which constitutes our modern- system of "so-called education.

That knowledge lias done a great deal for the world no one can deny; but there are two things in- every individual —the Feelings and the. Well—which 'have played' as great a part in moulding the destinies of the human race" as over knowledge has done. And yet what place has thotralning of these occupied m the education of our children ? The child is a bundle of feelings, and by tlvam so -easily' moved for good •or ill. He has a will capable of being led through his feelings in any direction. Yet. while we spend time and money on training aud developing his physical- and mental powers, these fiiuv far-reaching features of the mind are allowed to develop in a haphazard manjiisr. T'hsir training has no definite place in onr system of education. wlt-'rch, 'let it be affirmed again, i* no reaL system of education at all., in that it ■ asumes that only the intellect !« worthy of attention, while the soul may staVvc.

No greater example;.,of the folly and baneful' effects of "head "Tvuftur" is affotded us,'than can be found in those inhuman- Germans. They excel mi knowledge. Nor 'have 'their, .feelings, and iviH been forgotten in their train'ng. , Unfortunately these have been, by distorted teaching.?-, trained to hate. ' a-eJ the powers 'of light .held sway, in-" stead of the powers of darkness, the re--' suits would have been elevating instead, of. as they .ye, debasing,, degrading, ar,.d' demoraVsing. Ge.rmauy stands before us a nation under the influence of a wrong-centred education—knowledge ■alone.

What, then, should be done for the true education and moral improvement of our children? A well-meaning section of. the community savs: "introduce "the Bible'into our schools." To the- writer this scheme seems to possess two' real difficulties. On the one the : grounds of equity, the introduction of the Bible into our -ehools is a'oolitica] impossibility without destroying the system; and, secondly, the end in view—moral training—would not be' accomplished. Let me say wiiv. It has been alreadv shown that the bane of our system is too much knowledge, and the introduction of tlie Bible would mean more knowledge—knowledge, it i*; true, of a sacred nature, but still knowledge. The results for. good would be mrvified hy the mixture of tlie sacred v-Lth the secular, producing ultimately little or no difference •between the two. He would t-reati the f+ory of Joseph sold bv his brethren in the same way as the murder of the princes in the Tower by Henry ITI.

'?e would blame the brothers for the one- And 1 the King for the other, and would have bis own thoughts on both, and, as no direct- teaching of tlie Bible is to be allowed, the result might be set down as nil. .For the real education- of our children, Bible-in-;chocl.? will not directly help.

Now, lej us inquire what true cduc-a-

[ tion consists in and what it ought to be.

Professor James says that "tducation is the organisation of acquired habits of conduct • and tendencies to behaviour." This "h-ndency to boh;>viour" is not to be understood only i:i the narrow sense of th-e pupil's manners. That is included, but it is moiv than that. He 'is to be so trained that he will know How to conduct himseil in any circumstance he may be placed in by the vicissitudes of life; in other words, he is to be so trained', as to know how to live, li-mv to behave towards .himself and towards others; so trained that such habits of thinking audi acting will', be engendered as- to bring forth the best that is in him for bis' oirii 'good' and' that of others. This is training;"this is education. By th's system of' training, the "white sheet" of the child's mind would nut only retain its "whiteness" but a desire to further, increase its. brightness would -be-aroused,-., instead''--of j as at nreseut. dulled, hampered, and defaced ny befo" iriuch,'kiiowledgc.. Nor is aiiv stretch of imagination needed to sec' that- iiieh'araining &." exactly what is needed to .change men in providing them at least "with the possibility of a moral forward- movement, and with an. incentive %6 : brea'k away from the sordid, selfish aims and desires engendered. and- encouraged: .by- the-age in which we live;. Such, is the .'"tendency to"oehaviotir" which Professor: iTa'mes puts forward, as the ai-in of education, and when it is: remembered what the wrong "behaviour" of men has. done for humanity, lie.is on the right track. To-day we are in the throes of a war unprecedented in history, the cause of which is the "behaviour" of militarism in Germany. Strikes are caused by the'"behaviour" or" two parties. Homes are darkened and' saddened by the "behaviour" vof some of its ■ members. Friendships are broken -by the "behaviour" _of one or other.of professed friends; indeed', in "all the miscarried affairs of life Wis-find! the "behaviour" of someone :is to blame. "Man's inhumanity to man makes countless thousands mourn.''

Now, if it. is-not the aim of any system of education to change this wrong behaviour into right behaviour, what is the use of it? We, may as well go hack to the simole" life and' barbarism straight away;, better far to live ex na-tura than with a. cloak over it. But the race is capable-of moral progresand for this end'the schools hold the key to moral progress or retrogresion In: the days when knowledge had hot increased: in -oiifr '"public; schools the Church- held the key "to. the situation :'but the ground is'shifting; she cannot stand against- the instriiction given to. the young. Her hope lies in arousing .herself to demand: that the State shall educate the children on such educational lines as are set forth iu this art'cie, when, the aims of the Church and the school-being one, there would exist the pcssibilit i y.''of 'the two falling into'a stronger and straighter line than has ••ever' been in the past history of Church and State. Children trained with a'"tendency to behaviour" during their school- course 'would find' in ..reading the Bible something deeply' akin to what they had: imbibed at school, only tit. a higher degree. It would be'to them, 'as it were, the tributary joining the main -stream, silently, mutually cognisant of a great fact, "that a nation's greatness depends uppn the education'of .its. people.'"'"

It-may now be asked : How can snch a training be brought "about? Nothing .revolutionary. ... The difficulty at the present time felt by ;ill teachers, who view "file '-child as a living organism to be trained and educated is the multiplicity of-subjects to be taught. The sculptor needs time to chisel the man. So does the teacher need time to educate, but he has not time. At his feet lies a superabundance of knowledge which has to be disposed of and stowed away in the minds- of his pup'ls. and when he has "by fightings within and tears without," man a god to do so. does his handiwork please him ? Ts the lad-educated 1 ? By no means. All th-ii can be said is, he possesses certain knowledge; little beyond that. _ His knowledge is of use to him in gaining employment, but cf little use to him how to live and- why : so that, as a. result, at the first onslaught of temptation he goes under. "R't-v—a bright lad at school, but " is the story of hundreds of' thousands. Some might have been saved by educative teaching, instead of receiving instruction. To bring our schools under educative influences, the fust thing to be clone is to curtail the demands of the syllabic of instruction ; lessen these by at least •one-third, so that the teacher may have time to educate: not, as ho is nowgoing at high pressure speed every hour of the day to get. as he s;iys, his- workdone. To educate at high pressure speed is impossible. Time is needed for influence. "Secondly, one-half hour :■> day should be given to defin'te mora! instruction —a wide, interestiin-g. field — the standing out in relief of which is a man's duty to himself and to his neighbor. Ail other subjects such as truthfulness, diligence, patriotism, etc.. would foil into ii™'- A text book com- j piled from the noble heritage of the deeds done by the sons and daughters of Britain and other lands, told in simple story fashion, would' carry home to the child's mind the lessen given- by thc teachers, who are, with few exceptions, well qualified morally for the purpose, who are eagerly .intent on produc-iiig-'hefter educated' children, but who are hindered from doing so by causes enumerated'. When this war is over there w:ll be great change*—some short-lived, some permanent. If. however, a change in our education system happens, we can look forward with: hope; if the same baneful 1 instruction prevails and obtains throughout the world then, war will'come again, for knowledge anart from heart training, can only destroy becauseits tendency is to turn' the race into something opposed to its lushest interests. All modern education should be built on educative lines and the precepts of the Golden .Rule.should be woven into it "from-the top throughout." As a- Christian, nation, it is surely our right .to ask—nay. demandthat our children: should be educated in the .highest -.sense; and that thishould be further improved by some moral teaching in the things that make men and'nations groat. \Yp have had now forty-five years el" the present system of education in England, olus Bible-reading in schools, rv.<\ yet- to-day we.have the painful, deplorable spectacle of men debasing themselves.by drink and indifference to wcrk while the very existence of the Empire

Is .at stake. These men were instructed in knowledge, but wore not trained "to ac'buire habits of conduct with a tendency to behaviour." winch training would have made such traitorous conduct impossible.