Practising numbers and chanting the times-table were crucial teaching methods. They were justified by the latest psychological ideas about automatic retrieval and the importance of memory for cognitive development. Resources may have been limited but what mattered was the teacher's ability to use resources well. The times-table chart, pinned to each classroom wall, was the most important resource of all.
Practical teaching methods were used such as preparing receipted bills, calculating the cost of flooring, painting, and papering rooms, the finding of areas, calculating money, and weighing goods. But it wasn't all applied work. Pupils had to reason out problems, demonstrating the successive steps on their slates.
The episode shows how the high quality of primary school arithmetic created an important group in New Zealand society – the highly skilled artisan – today's tradespeople. It was the creation of large numbers of these skilled workers who were the heart of the nation's industrial economy.
They were New Zealand's engineers, fitters and turners, plumbers, gas-fitters, electricians, painters, marine engineers, technicians, blacksmiths, metal workers, builders, clothes designers, wool-spinners and sewers. Not university educated, in fact many didn't go to secondary school, but the rigorous teaching of numbers, weights, measures, and money at primary school meant they were not only ready for apprenticeships but for contributing to all the practical work needed to maintain a home.
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Professor Elizabeth Rata is a sociologist of education in the School of Critical Studies, Faculty of Education and Social Work at the University of Auckland where she is Director of the Knowledge in Education Research Unit (KERU).
The episode shows how the high quality of primary school arithmetic created an important group in New Zealand society – the highly skilled artisan – today's tradespeople. It was the creation of large numbers of these skilled workers who were the heart of the nation's industrial economy.
They were New Zealand's engineers, fitters and turners, plumbers, gas-fitters, electricians, painters, marine engineers, technicians, blacksmiths, metal workers, builders, clothes designers, wool-spinners and sewers. Not university educated, in fact many didn't go to secondary school, but the rigorous teaching of numbers, weights, measures, and money at primary school meant they were not only ready for apprenticeships but for contributing to all the practical work needed to maintain a home.
Click to view
Professor Elizabeth Rata is a sociologist of education in the School of Critical Studies, Faculty of Education and Social Work at the University of Auckland where she is Director of the Knowledge in Education Research Unit (KERU).
3 comments:
Professor Rata's series on the history of education in New Zealand is not only fascinating but provides a very valuable record for today and into the future.
Using different bases (3 feet to a yard, 12 pennies to a shilling, 14 pounds to a stone, etc) was a great way of sharpening young minds and making them versatile.
I remember one problem the teacher set us in Standard 4 involving a circular swimming pool of given dimensions for which we had to calculate the amount of cement that would go into it and the total cost. I've got a funny feeling most primary school teachers today wouldn't have a clue where to begin.
Barend, it will all return one day. Smart technics will end.... and fingers will be needed... and reduced size brains will be exercised. Maybe the brains of monkeys as humans will be extinct.
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