806 



PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION J. 



18— SOME DEFECTS Ix\ QUEENSLAND'S SYSTEM OF PKIMARY 



ED LOATIOiN. 



By Jr. M. G. TOLilJE, TootcooMhti. 



Abstract. 

 A system has no permanency, but must be varied to suit the 

 changing conditions of a community. This has been the experience 

 of other countries, and Queensland is no exception to the rule. '" The 

 E d'ucatio?i Act of 1875," which established the system of primar^^ 

 education in Queensland, no doubt marked the advanced educational 

 thought when it was framed. It sought to provide an opportunity 

 for the instruments of cultui'e — reading, writing, and arithmetic — 

 to be acquired by the children of Queensland, as it was recognised 

 that the form of Government in this State was democratic, and in 

 order that this type of Government should produce the best results 

 the education of the masses was very essential. In 1875 an intellectual 

 education was all that was deemed to be necessary. The educational 

 thought of to-day, which recognises that the aim of education is to 

 secure the maximum of happiness, lays down the principle that 

 happiness cannot be fully acquired without a religious, intellectual, 

 and physical education ; that '" the people's school has more to do 

 than merely teach the vehicles of culture — reading, writing, and arith- 

 metic — that the chief aim is rather the preparation of citizens Avho 

 can, and' will, cheerfully serve their God, and their countiy as well 

 as themselves.' Our primaiy system is defective inasmuch as it does 

 not afford to the children who become the mass of the people a 

 religious or moral training; it does not effectively teach them that 

 as citizens they owe obligations to the State, and that the State 

 is under obligations to them. It does not prepare the hundreds of 

 children annually leaving school for the economic battle of life by 

 instructing them in the reciprocal duties of employer, and employee. 

 The child is thrown on the world's market quite unprepared with 

 a knowledge of the duties of citizenship, and the result has been 

 the cause of much social evil. Our primaiy system, whilst it succeeds 

 in giving the child knowledge of the vehicles of culture, fails in 

 supplying the kind of knowledge which increases his happiness, and 

 his value as a citizen. 



19.— CO-ORDINATION OF SCIENCK IN SCHOOLS. 



Btl li. A. GRIEVE, B.A., Inniti-i-lor of Schooli^, A'eir Snulli Wn/es. 



Abstract. 



The national importance of science as a factor in the development 

 of the resources of a country, and of the commercial activities and 

 coi*porate efficiency of its people, is recognised by an ever-increasing 

 number. 



The development of science has been due not only to the workers 

 in research laboratories, but to research methods of study. 



In our own countiy co-ordination of science teaching needs 

 adjustment so as to prevent waste of educational effort. 



The impulse for science teaching is due to three motives — (1) 

 Educational or cultural ; (2) Industrial or vocational ; (3) Sociological. 



Sociological considerations require that science teaching should 

 reach a greater number of people than it reaches at present. Since 

 about 20 per cent, of the population are in the elementary schools, 



