SHIPS AND SCHOOLS
By DAVID CARR
DURING the last two years there has been quietly conducted in London a new educational experiment which has sought to supplement the normal method of teaching geography. This experiment which, as has just been announced in the daily Press, is now to be permanently established on a national basis, promises o be of considerable importance in the education and future development of the youth of this country.
Four London schools (two • elementary and two secondary) have each, with the co-operation of a firm of steamship owners, " adopted " a tramp steamer, and by means of direct correspondence with the captain and officers during their voyages, the pupils of each school have been enabled, under the guidance of their geography master, to follow the ship's course, to study trade routes, to learn about ports, countries, climates, customs and peoples overseas, and to obtain direct information regarding trade and the destinations and sources of exports and imports ; in short, the aim of the scheme has been to give the pupils a more real appreciation of the facts of world-geography and commerce and of our relation to the rest of the world than is ordinarily obtainable from routine lessons on the subject.
The scheme, in its experimental stage, has proved an unqualified success. Geography as a school subject has become alive, and it is easy to understand how readily the pupils react to studies in which the text-book aspect is enlivened by letters from " real sailors " on " real ships," especially as many of the children take a practical part in the correspondence by sending replies and questions to captains, officers and crews. Some of the pupils have even prosecuted privately both enquiry and research into matters raised in the letters.
This method of supplementing classroom studies in geography by contacts with living experience in various parts of the world has resulted in the children's attending with added zest and keenness to their lessons, and in their learning to appreciate in a direct manner the importance of, and relations between, various countries, trades and peoples. Trade and commerce become vital living activities ; the details of geography and terms such as latitude and longitude acquire definite practical meanings ; and, in a real way, the pupils learn to understand the importance of this country's shipping and the essential part it plays in our trade relations with the rest of the world.
The questions which the children ask reveal the extent to which their interest has been aroused. They want to know everything ; about loading ships and cargoes, about foreign peoples and countries, about details of seamanship, engines ai.d wireless, storms and Christmas dinners, dog-watches and cats as mascots, the amount of coal burnt and the time taken to travel from one port to the next. "How many yards in a nautical mile ?" "How do you clean the holds after carrying a cargo of coal, if you have to carry a cargo of wheat ? " " How do the people of Jamaica dress ? " " If a country had a fever, such as malaria, and a boat called at that place and her crew caught it, would they receive compensation ? " " How long does it take to unload 5,000 tons of coal ? " " How does a sextant work ? " " If a baby was born at sea under what nationality would it live ? " " To what extent do you rely on wireless reports of weather ? " " What country trades mostly in fruits to England ? " " Do you have a Board of Trade inspection and if so, what does the inspector do ? " " We often wonder if the ship's crew sing sea-shanties nowadays, and, please, ,how many miles does your ship do on a ton of coal in fair weather ? " "«e thought about you at Christmas and wondered how you spent Christmas Day being in the South- ern Hemisphere, we know it was summer and we wonder if turkey and Christmas pudding taste nice in hot weather." All these questions are answered, some (the • More instructive ones) in detail and some briefly. Captains, officers, engineers, even the cabin-boys, donkey-men and ships' cooks, have been appealed to and written to, and they have responded most generously and willingly. Geography has become a fascinating and serious game, learning is done almost unconsciously, and when the post arrives from a ship the pupils settle down eagerly and happily to a new series of letters, lessons based on them, and contacts with the outside world. Recently, when the ships concerned have berthed in London at the end of a voyage, parties of school children have visited their "adopted " ship and met their correspondents ; return visits have also been made to the schools by the captains and officers. This novelty adds still further to the attraction of the scheme from the pupils' point of.view.
The experiment qua experiment is now finished, and inspectors and teachers who have observed and-conducted it are unanimous in their enthusiasm and support. Those responsible for the initiation of the scheme have therefore decided to extend its scope to include a large number of schools throughout the country, each of which' is to " adopt " a ship, and a British Ship Adoption Society has been formed for this purpose ; the names of the members of the committee of the society, as given in the society's letter published recently in the Press,, show that wide interest has been aroused amongst edueational and shipping bodies generally. It is proposed to establish a central organisation to handle the administratiVe side of the national scheme ; a small subscription AO' cover central office expenses is to be required from each par- ticipating schoed ; educational and school authorities throughout the country are to be invited to apply for inclusion in the scheme ; and ship-owners have promised such adequate support that there should be no difficulty in working on the basis of one-ship-per-school for some time to come.
Geography has become one of the most important subjects in the school curriculum, for today, more than ever before, it is essential that a study of the peoples of the world and the conditions influencing their lives should be taught thoroughly and in a manner which is real. No other subject can so appropriately deal with actual living conditions in other parts of the world: The difficulty hitherto has been, however, to teach the subject so that it does not become an abstract study for the pupils. Children cannot easily appreciate the realities of world-geography from their classrooms and text-books. New York or Buenos Aires (for example) can so easily become just names or blobs on a map from a child's point of view, something abstract and not of much moment ; and for a child to learn that New York is about 3,000 miles away conveys very little. (Nowadays the distance which separates countries is better expressed in time than in linear measurement, and a child- can appreciate this easier if, having followed a ship's voyages, he becomes familiar with the length of time which separates, for example, New York from this country.) Failing travel, the pupils require direct and stimulating contacts with the world if they arc later in life to know the world as consisting of men and women with particular problems and living in conditions which compare with and affect their own.. The possibilities of the tramp steamer scheme in this respect are obvious, and it inspires hopes that the present school-generation will grow up stored as its pre- decessors never were with direct and concrete knowledge of world-relations and world-geographical factS.
The scheme also promises much in preparing the children of today to understand better a difficulty which our adult. generation has not yet mastered. We have not yet appreciated as a reality the meaning and effects of the relative shrinkage. of our world in time and space which has resulted from man's increasing ingenuity in and use of mechanical invention ; nor, most important of all, have we yet adopted generally the outlook which is appropriate to the fact of this relative shrinkage. As a fact, it shapes our conunercial, business and cultural contacts 4ith "other peoples, and it influences foreign relationships of all kinds as well as our individual lives and customs ; but as an outlook or way of thinking it is still strange. Our idea or conception of the world has lagged behind our practical experience of the world. The direct contacts which the ship-adoption scheme pro- vides should help the children to develop instinctively an outlook on life and the world appropriate to the practical effects of the constant world " shrinkage."
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