Postman & Weingartners’ Vaccination Theory: “History is not science and science is not art and art is not music. History and Science are major subjects and Art and Music are minor subjects, and a subject is something you ‘take’ and when you have taken it, you have ‘had’ it, and if you have ‘had’ it you are immune and need not take it again” [1969]
In parts of bomb-ravaged England during WW2, children maintained attendance at primary school classes. With many buildings erased from the landscape, classes were held in all sorts of places and it was difficult to assemble in time-honoured single age-grade groupings. Children and teachers got together in families and used bricks, sticks and all manner of objects as teaching aids. The older helped the younger. The younger’s responses helped the older. With few text-books available, there was much more talk during classes than had been allowed before. Those children who were shifted to rural areas experienced much the same conditions.
Teachers noticed that a great deal of self-initiated learning and sharing and helping and describing was going on in these peculiar conditions. Children were learning more and enjoying school more. Teachers also noticed that subjects did not exist in isolation as they once did. In Sumner-Miller style they asked, “Why is it so?” Could these things be applied in a more comfortable, better-resourced environment? Could some time-honoured barriers that seem to inhibit learning be torn down?
Pupils were much more interested in learning than they had been previously. Individual learning styles stood out and teachers were able to divert their pupils’ key interests towards the generally accepted syllabus requirements. The usual subjects retained their nomenclature, but methods changed markedly. Primary schools in Local Education Authorities like Bristol, West Riding of Yorkshire, Oxfordshire and Hertfordshire stood out and gained a reputation throughout the western world for quality schooling.
Marianne Parry of Bristol, Sir Alec Clegg of the West Riding and Eric Hake of Herts set benchmarks in their LEAs. Her Majesty’s Inspector, Edith Biggs wrote “Freedom to Learn” to illustrate her great love for Primary School Mathematics. Keen on art, she taught children about the advantages of applying their knowledge of geometry to art forms and by developing their observation skills. Subject barriers were crumbling.
‘Jug to mug’ teaching styles for the full school day were gradually expanded or replaced by the use a various group techniques and a very wide range of maieutic encounters. Children learned better when they were actively engaged and when they felt that had some control over their learning. Gradually, the pupils taught the teachers more about their personal learning habits. The learning environment and its inclusive culture changed as it had never changed before. From revelation came revolution.
Things moved cautiously from the forties to the sixties as positive changes are seldom accepted in schooling routines very quickly. Americans studied the British movements intensely and, in fine American style, packaged what they could. Australians studied the British efforts, as well as how the Americans applied their new-found knowledge in their own School Districts. The Poms and Yanks started it all. Like diligent bower birds, Australians read the literature [still the best ever], bought American kits and altered the structural environment.
In Queensland, Arch Guymer, Director of Primary Education 1965-70, encouraged Principals to be more innovative, to break any bureaucratic moulds that they found restrictive and to grasp the opportunities that were on offer. He told School Inspectors that merely testing subjects and making judgements about teaching expertise on the basis of test results was not worthy of their status or expertise. They were experienced enough to make judgements about what they saw and to share it. They were encouraged to fly with pollen on their wings. Arch’s successor, dynamic Bill Hamilton [1970-75], followed suit and encouraged the development of high professional ideals in all school leaders. The culture of primary schooling in Queensland changed substantially with Arch and Bill out front.
Radical changes of this nature are hard to handle however, even in Queensland. Ray Kelley illustrates this in “Skill’s Grim Progress“, adding a caution at the conclusion of each stanza.
Wouldn’t it be interesting to give the Complex Analysis and Parsing examples from a 1940′s Scholarship Examination to any group of professionals? Much of each afternoon of the Scholarship year consisted of learning the tricks of the trade to accomplish success in these particular examination questions. It might be noted that Ray’s “Complex Analysis” is a poem in its own right that illustrates the things that pupils had to do. They were painful, silly times and any link to an appreciation of all aspects of expression of the English language was incidental. In “Grrrrr-ammar !”, Ray asks how much ink was used in learning about English Grammar. Pupils learned about sentence structure by rote, by constant practice and by trying to anticipate the examination question. [If we asked pupils, these days, to illustrate the rote-learned rule that "The verb ‘to be' and other copulative verbs take the same case after them as before them", we might be in for a surprise.]
The biggest adjustments, however, were made in the teaching of New Maths as it was called. As if the change to “Metrication” had not been enough in the 1960s! Ray described some folk as “New Maths Casualty”. They yearned for “Good Old-fashioned Maths” as they tried to dance to the “Mix-Maths Polka”
A sewing teacher was hired for one-teacher schools for one afternoon each week, while the Principal taught a craft. She was either a local lass skilled in the art or prepared to have a go, or the Principal’s wife prepared to have a go. She earned four shillings and sixpence per hour, expressed as “4/6 an Hour“. Ray presents a neat story about one sewing teacher.
