OVER-PRESSURE IN SCHOOLS.
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."]
Sin,—At the recent meeting of Board-School Managers, held at the Rooms of the Society of Arts, Mr. Forster and Mr.Mundella
both made a very important statement- their excellent speeches. They admitted the existence of over-pressure upon some children under the present system, but they said that the managers of Board Schools might themselves apply the remedy by personal supervision,—by seeing that the teachers did not unduly force forward weakly, underfed, backward, or stupid children.
That statement appeared to me, as a school manager, most important.. But grave difficulties presented themselves to my mind in regard to it. Inspectors think themselves bound to insist that children of a certain age (over seven) shall pass up into a certain Standard. And if they are not found qnalified to do so, the blame is laid upon the teacher. Moreover, our system of payment by results makes it the direct interest of the teacher not to admit any relaxation of the rule, but to push forward all children- alike. Now, how can school managers successfully contend against inspectors and teachers in this particular; under existing arrangements ? Yet it is quite certain that mental eapacity and brain-power are not always proportionate to age. I child may have come recently to the school ; or he. may be sickly and ill-fed ; or, again, he may be naturally slow, and late in his development. I have known many such cases in our own school, and speak feelingly, for I was a dunce of a child myself. But the food cjnestion is a most seribus one. The amount of intellectual work expected of Board-School children is often- more than they, with their underfed bodies, ought to do, and the results are often extremely deplorable.
Let us never forget that education and cram are not the same thing. The preparation of all sorts of examination tasks is not necessarily cultivation of our faculties. The brains of little children especially, as doctors agree, ought not to be worked too early. For them are needed plenty of. play in the open air, plenty of exercise, outings in the country, drill, singing, and kindergarten employments ; above all, kindly influence.of kindly and wise teachers, lessons in mutual forbearance, healthful intercourse with one another. These, and the free exercise of their own observation, are the best education for them. It is perfectly true that they enjoy in our schools far better air, and even more opportunities for childish amusements, than they could have in their too often miserable homes ; but town children have inherited a weakly constitution and heads unaccustomed -to book-learning. They are, moreover, as a rule, very indiffer- ently nourished. Personally, I am bound to add, that I have found teachers considerate and kind ; but they are placed in a very difficult position, and we cannot be sure of always getting teachers who are considerate and kind, as well as skilful and book-learned. I will only add, that managers are often profes- sional men, with little spare time at their disposal, and that I • gravely doubt the wisdom of paying teachers by results.—I am,
[Mr. Noel appears to have overlooked two or three considera- tions of some importance :—(1.) The Government grant is not paid to teachers, but to managers, and is determined in part by the numbers and in part by the efficiency of the school. "Pay- ment by results" may be a legitimate way of dispensing a large public fund, and yet a very wrong way of rewarding individual teachers. If the managers choose to pay their teacher on a wrong system, and to tempt him to use improper means of augmenting the grant, that is their fault, and not the fault of the Government. (2.) There is no rule in the Code for classify- ing scholars by age, and no practice which prevents children on coming into the school from being placed by the teacher at any age in the standard for which they are fitted ; but there is, of course, a general rule that a scholar who has passed in one standard shall advance to the next in the following year. Reasonable exceptions, however, are freely allowed, and Mr. Mundella's Code for the firat time makes special provision for entire exemption, or for re-presentation in the same standard whenever a good reason can be assigned. The cases described by Mr. Noel are precisely those to which this provision would apply. (3.) We have failed altogether to find any require- ments in the new Code which are in excess of those of former years. In some respects they are relaxed, notably in the case of infant-schools, in which for the first time simple con- versational lessons, games, exercises, and varied employments are recognised as "results," of at least equal importance to regular instruction in determining the amount of the grant. (4.) Every one of the cases hitherto publicly alleged as to ill- health arising from school-lessons, has broken down, on exam- ination of the.evidence, and has proved to be the result of other causes. (5.) After all, the learning of reading, writing, and arithmetic forms part, at least, of the business for which children come to school. To designate this as "cram," and to speak of the school as if it were mainly concerned with the food, and the recreation of the scholars, is surely to misconceive seriously the very definite and limited function, for which a Department of Public Education exists at all.—En. Spectator.]
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