ELEMENTARY SCHOOL CURRICULUM 727 



4.— THE CURRICULUM OF THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL. 

 By E. A. RILEY, M.A., Inspector of Schools, NS.W. 



(Abstract.) 



Scope of Education. — Education must give knowledge to the 

 outer world, of humanity, and of the self ; must train in right 

 activity in this threefold direction, and inspire enthusiasm for the 

 realisation of human ideals ; what cannot fvmction in the pupil's 

 life now or hereafter should be excluded. 



Limitations of the Citrrictdtim.— The curriculum is limited in 

 the first place by the quality and stage of development of the pupil's 

 mind. The second limitation is furnished by the number of years 

 which can be devoted to the gaining of an education. Everywhere 

 this period is being pushed further into the adolescent years. A 

 six-year elementary course, as is the case in New South Wales, is 

 the best. At about twelve years of age logical power and vocational 

 interests develop, and the pupil is ready to pass to the high or the 

 vocational school. A third limitation is furnished by the child's 

 life experiences, which furnish the basis for the interpretation of all 

 other parts of the curriculum. A grave sin of the school has been 

 its exclusion of the bulk of the child's natural, industrial and social 

 experiences. 



Increased Stiidv of Eitviroiunent Necessary. — ^The curriculum is 

 overweighted with traditionary matter. Nature study is narrowly 

 conceived, as by the country teacher who would not do much in 

 nature study because beans were hard to get. In any case, the term 

 is too narrow, and a new term, say, Environmmta, is needed to 

 include Nature Study, Home Geography, parts of Civics, many 

 applications of Arithmetic, besides much that relates to the homes 

 and the industries and occupations of the community, and which is 

 at present excluded from the school. 



The Kindergarten Curriculum a Model for the Elementary.^The 

 only curriculum adequately conceived is that of the kindergarten, 

 which is based on man's need for food, shelter and clothing, on the 

 material side, on social relationships on the moral and spiritual sides, 

 and which provides for knowledge, training and inspiration. The 

 curriculum of the elementary school should be conceived on exactly 

 similar lines. Besides the traditionary subjects, it will contain 

 such topics as food, shelter, clothing, production, transportation, 

 manufacture, trade, communication, local government, and so on. 



Environmenta. — In a pastoral district, Mary's lamb will follow 

 her to school and will set the children not laughing, but studpng 

 sheep stations, paddocks, fences, bore drains, grass and herbage, 

 drought and floods, land tenure, land taxes, shearing, transporta- 

 tion of sheep and wool, wool sales, wool buyers, frozen mutton, and 

 so on, almost without limit. The study of the management of a 

 bore will enable pupils to understand all important principles of 

 taxation. The determination as to whether it pays to keep a cow 

 will give better arithmetic than that furnished by the study of 



