Land Problems and National Welfare 



past 30 years has not been directed to fostering 

 this individual thought among the scholars ; in 

 fact one has sorrowfully to admit that its effect 

 has been decidedly the opposite ; I have my- 

 self heard a teacher rebuke a child for a really 

 intelligent answer, because, forsooth, it was not 

 quite in accordance with the textbook ! 



We are improving, but we have still great 

 leeway to make up, and it would be well if the 

 inspectors could show that they value the 

 evidence of individual thought more than a 

 display of cut and dried knowledge. " In- 

 spectors must direct attention to the interest 

 displayed by the scholars in their work, and 

 must think less of the am.ount of knowledge 

 exhibited." (" Town Child.") 



And again in reference to a definite subject of 

 the curriculum, drawing — *' Art teaching for the 

 few who have talent in this direction is useful, 

 but for the many it is worse than useless." I 

 feel most strongly on this subject, and my 

 technical training as an architect qualifies me 

 to assert that, taken as a whole, the time spent 

 on drawing is unprofitably spent ; freehand 

 drawing on smooth paper with a hard pencil 

 is not freehand, though if coarse brown paper 

 and charcoal were used it might serve as a 

 means of testing which children had the power 

 of expressing themselves on paper. A sufficient 

 knowledge of scale drawing to enable a child to 



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