Inside the Primary School [antikvár]

Foreword by Lady Plowden, Chairman of the Central Advisory Councilfor Education (England) whose report Children and their Primary Schools was published in January igój and is known as the Plowden Report. This is a book to be welcomed. It describes for the generál reader the primary schools of England today. It telis how the schools and their curriculum developed, how they are organised, and how and what the children in them are learning. There has been a great wind of change in the primary schools since most of the adults of today were primary school children and many of the old beliefs have been blown away. New and exciting things are happening; this is the only stage in the whole of education when the child is educated as a whole person, and his many interests can be encouraged. Formai examinations are far away, there is no specialisation in subjects and the child can rangé freely over the wide field of knowledge within his comprehension. There is a greater emphasis on the child learning, rather than on the child being taught. One is an active process while the other may well be passive. We all know that you can take a horse to the water but you cannot make him drink. It has been thought in the past that you could send a child to school and make him learn. The new methods in the primary schools have shown how much more the child learns and how high can be his achievement if instead of being made to learn, the emphasis is on making him want to learn. This is one of the most important skills of the teacher. There is however an even stronger influence than the school in the education of the child, and this is his home and all that goes on there. If these two powerful influences are kept apart or, which is worse, puli in different directions, the educational development of the child is hampered. His life should not be in separate compartments, with lack of understanding iü