An Ex-Inspector's Opinions

We have received the following communication from an esteemed correspondent, whose professional status qualifies him to speak with authority :—Dr Truby King's animadversion upon our educational methods come in time; also the strictures laid upon the present Syllabus by the Premier. There is no doubt that the much vaunted new Syllabus is a perfect nightmare both to teachers and to pupils. The Premier says that it is overburdened; and it is. The question naturally arises: How is one to interpret it so as not to do too much or too little? There is a [unclear: t] mendous difficulty here before the [unclear: teachers] and inspectors. Luckily our [unclear: insepection] here are alive to the shadow—a [unclear: miserable] one, indeed—that envelops the teachers but it will always exist as long as there is a periodic examination of schools at a stated date. The teacher'6 bread and butter depend in a sense upon the [unclear: result] of this periodic examination of schools, [unclear: and] also his reputation and his chance of [unclear: pro] motion. It is not the fault of the [unclear: inspec] tors; it is the fault of the departmental system that compels him to examine the whole of a school on certain regular lines Moreover, it is also the fault of school committees, who demand from applicants for positions certain excellent (?) paper results which arise from the method of examination. That appears to many conmitteemen the chief good points about a teacher; and what can they otherwise judge from? It is a method that has the sanctity of vogue; and such results as they judge by are mostly the result of cram-which is the wrecker of brain tissue, energy intellect, and originality. The memory made the engine which produces the excellent "pass" results, so called; and the multitude of undigested facts crammed home by the teacher who wants to get a good pass overburden the reason of the pupil. The teacher, be it kept in mind must get over a certain amount of ground and the fault cannot be exactly all laid to his account.

The whole spirit of examination, and therefrom, also the teaching, wants changing, is changing, and ought to be quickly changed. At present there is too much rigidity and form about examinations, and the teacher and inspector do not appear as a friend, a sympathetic one, to the pupils. Examinations, as at present [unclear: con] ducted, from the primary schools [unclear: upward] are often a pure test of memory, and making it so gives the cram wedge' an opening to produce its dire result. Formal [unclear: ch] examination assumes children to be [unclear: a] endowed with a certain and equal [unclear: abso] faculty which can at will reproduce [unclear: ever] thing absorbed. It assumes, also, [unclear: the] the brain ought to work like a machine [unclear: s] constructed as to produce certain [unclear: mathe-] matically correct results when called [unclear: upon] to do so at intervals, and intervals, [unclear: unf] tunately, according to the laws of [unclear: Na-] ture, allow the evaporation of much [unclear: of] the amount absorbed, and, unfortunatly intervals are a quality of time that [unclear: have] curious effects on the human brain.

Again, it is unfortunate that Nature [unclear: have] not fitted children with similar capacities, page 19 ideas size of head, number of convolutions and brain cells, quality of brain tissue, and will and energy to meet these regular and formal examinations. That's where the laws of cosmos fail. Further, all heads of homes should have the same constitution, the same power of giving attention to their children, the same aims, 6ame leisure to attend to them, the same standard of comfort, and the power of production of healthy specimens of young humanity, and the powers ought to rest with the children or parents or somebody to regulate the development to adolescence and puberty to [unclear: imbo], or a period of exact time when the pupil can be released from stringent study.

To these arrangements might also be added a mechanical regulator of the doings of microbes, in order that all children might have even health at the same time and place. Then, and not until these happy arrangements are made, or a new Creator arrives and recasts a world better suited to the demands of the great god Examination, will the paralysing rot depart from systems of education. Those are some of the defects affecting mentality in our schools and colleges. There are others, however, of which I may be tempted to write at another time.

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