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No. 10  October 1962

 

Editor: PATRICIA M. KELLY

Committee:

DAVID MORGAN

LAWRENCE A. FEELEY

COLIN JACKSON
DOREEN BARLOW

MALLORY P. LORD
CHRISTOBEL N. TAYLOR

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Education has changed radically since the beginning of this century.  We are I think quite fortunate in the respect that our education is guided to a certain extent by findings of psychologists although we agree that the system is not yet complete.

At one time there was a widespread belief that only a limited number of mental faculties needed to be trained, and that once these had been trained, they could be used in a wide variety of situations.  For example we have the fallacy that the study of mathematics (or Latin) exercises the mind so that a person can think more logically in other subjects.  Carried further this idea gave rise to the suggestion that children taught to be neat in arithmetic, etc., would develop neatness in their personal habits.  This general notion is known as the theory of transfer, and was disproved by experiments performed about 1940.  There was evidence for some positive transfer, but in each case this was too small to provide conclusive proof for the theory.  We now realise that it is not possible to instil an ability through sheer exercise of a faculty.

Modern theory of education suggests that the aim should be to provide the greatest amount of transfer from school subjects to everyday life.  Here surely we have an argument for jettisoning all these outdated arithmetic books which contain problems where a shopkeeper sells three pounds of sugar for eight pence!  We know that a person's abilities and personality change in the course of development.  This knowledge should enable us to decide on a course of teaching comparable with the individual's potential.  In this respect the British education system would seem to be at fault.  Little concession is made towards teaching pupils to live usefully in society, and too much emphasis is laid on academic prowess.  Social values after all govern so many details of human affairs.  So many teachers claim that a sense of values should be instilled by parents.  Perhaps so for the younger child, but once a child progresses to secondary school he spends seven hours a day there, on five days a week.  Schools have a great responsibility towards their pupils, and I think we are fortunate that modern teachers realise this.