Articles prior to the school opening
A selection of articles found predominately in the 'Theosophy in New Zealand' magazine that track an interesting pathway into a new landscape of developing a school with theosophic principles.
OTHER BUSINESS
Under the heading of "Other Business," an interesting discussion developed on the subject of child education. A humorous suggestion of a "No Tears," or a "No Cane" League, evoked information that some teachers find their chief difficulty is in stiffening themselves against too much lenience. One speaker pointed out that in cases where the attempt to gain the love of the child is not successful, there must be a will force in the teacher which can take the place of physical force, else order will not be maintained. This implies self-training among teachers, and is a gradual process. There was some agreement that it is not yet possible, in every case, to dispense with corporal punishment. The Chairman remarked that we shall have to provide for the education of children of a newer and higher type. Finally, a committee, consisting of the sixteen teachers present, was appointed to act with the Chairman, with the object of formulating some scheme for united effort.
From “Theosophy in New Zealand’ Magazine Jan 1916
Under the heading of "Other Business," an interesting discussion developed on the subject of child education. A humorous suggestion of a "No Tears," or a "No Cane" League, evoked information that some teachers find their chief difficulty is in stiffening themselves against too much lenience. One speaker pointed out that in cases where the attempt to gain the love of the child is not successful, there must be a will force in the teacher which can take the place of physical force, else order will not be maintained. This implies self-training among teachers, and is a gradual process. There was some agreement that it is not yet possible, in every case, to dispense with corporal punishment. The Chairman remarked that we shall have to provide for the education of children of a newer and higher type. Finally, a committee, consisting of the sixteen teachers present, was appointed to act with the Chairman, with the object of formulating some scheme for united effort.
From “Theosophy in New Zealand’ Magazine Jan 1916
SCHOOL APPEAL
A correspondent (G.C.T.) [Geoffrey Trevithick], endowed with a sanguine temperament and a flowing pen, sends us an appeal to his fellow Theosophists in New Zealand. "Brothers," he writes, "there is not a single Theosophical school, though there are over one thousand members in our Society. Yea, I knew you would be shocked. We have such lots of children, and soon there will be more, extra special ones, too, Sixth Reinforcement: yet we have made no provision for their education. To begin with, let us open one good Kindergarten. They are amazingly simple to start; no apparatus; nothing but the household cat and other common utensils. Any teacher sufficiently gifted to attract the little nuisances to school, and keep them there, is hailed as a public benefactor, and rewarded accordingly. But, of course, in our school we should have the best and sweetest teacher and all apparatus that loving hands can make, sitting up o' nights in rosy sacrifice."
It is evident that G.C.T. will supply the enthusiasm and the rainbow sentences; valuable motive forces; there is now a vacancy for a person with a notebook, who will ascertain how many children in each district will be likely to attend, and what fees may be expected. We have many teachers among us who would be willing to make some sacrifice to start such a work, but he or she will need some further endowment than a free prospectus.
G.C.T. is quite right that the time for action is near. The New Zealand Section has long had in view the establishment of some school or college, but the scheme is vague as yet, and it depends much upon the prospects of the Vasanta Estate? A special committee was appointed by the Annual Convention to report upon Vasanta Estate, and that committee should make its recommendation to the Executive within the next few months. That, however, need not hinder any Lodge from establishing its Kindergarten.
From “Theosophy in New Zealand’ Magazine April 1916
A correspondent (G.C.T.) [Geoffrey Trevithick], endowed with a sanguine temperament and a flowing pen, sends us an appeal to his fellow Theosophists in New Zealand. "Brothers," he writes, "there is not a single Theosophical school, though there are over one thousand members in our Society. Yea, I knew you would be shocked. We have such lots of children, and soon there will be more, extra special ones, too, Sixth Reinforcement: yet we have made no provision for their education. To begin with, let us open one good Kindergarten. They are amazingly simple to start; no apparatus; nothing but the household cat and other common utensils. Any teacher sufficiently gifted to attract the little nuisances to school, and keep them there, is hailed as a public benefactor, and rewarded accordingly. But, of course, in our school we should have the best and sweetest teacher and all apparatus that loving hands can make, sitting up o' nights in rosy sacrifice."
It is evident that G.C.T. will supply the enthusiasm and the rainbow sentences; valuable motive forces; there is now a vacancy for a person with a notebook, who will ascertain how many children in each district will be likely to attend, and what fees may be expected. We have many teachers among us who would be willing to make some sacrifice to start such a work, but he or she will need some further endowment than a free prospectus.
G.C.T. is quite right that the time for action is near. The New Zealand Section has long had in view the establishment of some school or college, but the scheme is vague as yet, and it depends much upon the prospects of the Vasanta Estate? A special committee was appointed by the Annual Convention to report upon Vasanta Estate, and that committee should make its recommendation to the Executive within the next few months. That, however, need not hinder any Lodge from establishing its Kindergarten.
From “Theosophy in New Zealand’ Magazine April 1916
SCHOOL APPEAL
Last month we published an appeal for Theosophical schools or kindergartens, and this month the claims of the children have further advocacy. This is no sentimental campaign for indiscriminate indulgence: we know that in many cases there is too much thoughtless indulgence already. But it is emphatically our opinion that we must direct more attention towards the children. Suppose that we set aside one-third of the time we give to self-culture and self-gratification, and one-half of the time we give to setting right the politics and religion of case-hardened adults, would not this diverted energy be well applied in cultivating in the children an ardour for beautiful things and a love of all the arts? It will be a truly Theosophical venture to drop the present, so important to us, in order to build the future, which we shall not see.
From “Theosophy in New Zealand’ Magazine May 1916
Last month we published an appeal for Theosophical schools or kindergartens, and this month the claims of the children have further advocacy. This is no sentimental campaign for indiscriminate indulgence: we know that in many cases there is too much thoughtless indulgence already. But it is emphatically our opinion that we must direct more attention towards the children. Suppose that we set aside one-third of the time we give to self-culture and self-gratification, and one-half of the time we give to setting right the politics and religion of case-hardened adults, would not this diverted energy be well applied in cultivating in the children an ardour for beautiful things and a love of all the arts? It will be a truly Theosophical venture to drop the present, so important to us, in order to build the future, which we shall not see.
From “Theosophy in New Zealand’ Magazine May 1916
OPEN AIR CLASSROOMS
In the Worlds' Work (June), the headmaster of a Sheffield school, writes upon the advantages of teaching in the open air and gives advice which we must keep before us when we design our first Theosophical School. "The tyranny of the class-room and the desk," he says, "will have to go. There must be less crowding of children into hot, ill-ventilated class-rooms, less sitting by the hour at ill-fitting desks." Photographs of children engaged in out-door study illustrate the article. In one, with pipes and buckets, the working of fountains and the gravitation system are made clear, and in a manner which is more pleasant to the scholars than a discourse on pressure and levels could be. In another, the reflection of light and heat is taught by actual experiments with burning-glasses and mirrors. Another group is marking the sun's course across the sky by the shadows thrown by an upright pole, and he says, "they see--without any telling—how much higher is the sun's path in June than in December (the reverse for the Southern Hemisphere). How much better to learn these things out-of-doors, using the sun himself—and enjoying his beneficent rays—than indoors with diagrams." Drawing, chemistry, singing, sound waves and echoes are other subjects that can well be taught in the open air.
From “Theosophy in New Zealand’ Magazine October 1916
In the Worlds' Work (June), the headmaster of a Sheffield school, writes upon the advantages of teaching in the open air and gives advice which we must keep before us when we design our first Theosophical School. "The tyranny of the class-room and the desk," he says, "will have to go. There must be less crowding of children into hot, ill-ventilated class-rooms, less sitting by the hour at ill-fitting desks." Photographs of children engaged in out-door study illustrate the article. In one, with pipes and buckets, the working of fountains and the gravitation system are made clear, and in a manner which is more pleasant to the scholars than a discourse on pressure and levels could be. In another, the reflection of light and heat is taught by actual experiments with burning-glasses and mirrors. Another group is marking the sun's course across the sky by the shadows thrown by an upright pole, and he says, "they see--without any telling—how much higher is the sun's path in June than in December (the reverse for the Southern Hemisphere). How much better to learn these things out-of-doors, using the sun himself—and enjoying his beneficent rays—than indoors with diagrams." Drawing, chemistry, singing, sound waves and echoes are other subjects that can well be taught in the open air.
From “Theosophy in New Zealand’ Magazine October 1916
A WORD TO PARENTS, BY A TEACHER
A SHORT time ago I heard an address about primary education in America. Among other things, the speaker said that men and women there may disagree on politics, on religion, on a hundred and one topics, but they are united in believing in the best for the children and in seeing that they get it. One could not but compare this with the attitude of New Zealand parents, who may say that they want the best for their children, but whose actions show that they simply do not care. Most of them bundle the children off to school at five years of age, because it is a local habit so to do. Very, very often, they don't even take the trouble to see the man or woman who is to do his or her will with them. The state has provided a system of education and the newspapers say it is "the best in the world," or it is "ridiculous," "too stodgy," or “too high falutin," as the editor has been worried by someone into thinking for the moment. Anyhow, there is the system, there are the schools and there are the teachers. Why need the parent attempt to take a hand? Give the teacher the child and let him do what he can with him.
Can a parent, a conscientious parent, really feel as free from responsibility as his actions proclaim him? A great majority of fathers and mothers are content not to know what their children do the greater part of the day, during almost all their childhood. They trust the teachers, they will say, but that is not the reason. They simply do not think anything about it. Some mothers think enough, for the first few months of the first child's school days, to be sorry that their baby is a baby no more, but is becoming a very ordinary little boy or girl, with fewer and fewer pretty ways. Yet even that sadness is not enough to make a mother investigate the cause of the change. She takes it for granted that it must come to all little ones.
Again, some mothers in introducing a new pupil to a teacher say resignedly: "Now he'll begin to take colds and measles and all the school troubles," and the teacher cannot contradict or reassure her. The mother takes it for granted that the time has come for illnesses and she is resigned. It seems to me a wrong state of mind. If school is going to undermine a child's health there must be something wrong with the place, or the system, or the carrying out of the system, and a conscientious parent should refuse. to allow his child to take the risk. He may not keep his child from school, but he can work so that school shall become a fit place for his family.
How many of you know whether your children are living in clean, healthy rooms, and using suitable furniture and apparatus? Some of the seats our children use are quite dreadful. They are so old, and old-fashioned, that I do not remember having seen any like them, even in my youth. There is only one way of making some people realise that there is anything the matter with them and that is to make them sit on them during a lecture. In one large class, medical examination showed over half the children to be suffering from spinal curvature. After proper seating was provided not five per cent. in the same room showed this trouble. The effect of bad seating makes itself apparent, but there are worse effects which do not show for years.
Then with regard to the teaching of the children. Most men will say, "The teachers arc paid to see that that is all right." So they are, and so they do, as far as they are able; but some are less well trained than others; some have old-fashioned ideals and methods; some are held back from their best by the traditional methods and ideas of their superiors. So long as the parents do not demand that the most up-to-date ideas shall be applied, educational practice, in any given place, may be in a rut. Even when a parent is interested in his child's progress he seldom investigates the system under which the child is being brought up, but occasionally he applies some test which he thinks would have been put to him, when he was a boy. He would not test the men in his employment so, for, "business methods have altered." He would not in any business matter say. "We never did this when I was a boy," for, in business, he expects the present to differ from the past: he requires the latest thing and the best.
Now, old ideas of what was right and proper in a pupil, do not fit with modern ideas at all. They certainly do not fit with Theosophical ideas. Years ago, and alas in some places to-day, the good child sat still, in as receptive an attitude as could be induced, and tried hard to accept and retain what the teacher had to give;—that is, the good child under the good and conscientious teacher. A passive child was "a nicely behaved child." Of course, if, through physical defect, or lack of development, or through poor teaching, the child could not store all he was given, and produce again what was asked, he had to suffer a punishment, havings no connection at all with his failure;—a thrashing. Modern educationists will have nothing to do with that good child. They want the live, natural child, full of curiosity and questions. They want to catch his natural interests and begin his schooling there, studying him all the time, filling his needs and leading him to desire to know and to do, till no one can stop him,
Would you rather have the child who, when asked why she stepped over a ball of waste paper instead of lifting it and throwing it into the Waste-paper basket, said "you didn't tell me to, teacher," or the boy who came in ten minutes late because he wanted to see a workman join two pieces of pipe down a hole in the street, so that he would know how it was done? Which is most likely to be a success in school, and out of it? Some people may think the girl a nice respectful child, but I do not think she ought to respect the teacher who made such a ninny of her. And the boy? He was a baby, or he would have known that we cannot make a practice of stopping by the way to conduct even very interesting investigations, but is it not a pity that we cannot? Would he have got as much good in school during those ten minutes?
In America the schools are used by the parents. The teachers are visited, asked about the children, the work, the apparatus. Every person is proud of his district school and determined it shall be as up-to-date as his business. Why is there no such interest here? Is it not a duty of parents and all who believe in the future of the child? Suppose you start now to become the thin edge of the wedge. Visit where there are children. Ask what they do in school. Get the parents to invite the teachers to tea, if the teachers won't invite the parents to school. Ask the teachers why they do this and that, how they do so and so, what their ideas are on such subjects as discipline. Make them feel it worth while to discuss their work with you. Talk "children" and "education" and help to move things for the little ones. Don't be, or appear, a crank; but think, have opinions, and gather the opinions of others, with which to modify or strengthen your own. Help to awaken real interest in the school years of the child.
AGNES F. R. inkpen.
From “Theosophy in New Zealand’ Magazine Sept 1916
A SHORT time ago I heard an address about primary education in America. Among other things, the speaker said that men and women there may disagree on politics, on religion, on a hundred and one topics, but they are united in believing in the best for the children and in seeing that they get it. One could not but compare this with the attitude of New Zealand parents, who may say that they want the best for their children, but whose actions show that they simply do not care. Most of them bundle the children off to school at five years of age, because it is a local habit so to do. Very, very often, they don't even take the trouble to see the man or woman who is to do his or her will with them. The state has provided a system of education and the newspapers say it is "the best in the world," or it is "ridiculous," "too stodgy," or “too high falutin," as the editor has been worried by someone into thinking for the moment. Anyhow, there is the system, there are the schools and there are the teachers. Why need the parent attempt to take a hand? Give the teacher the child and let him do what he can with him.
Can a parent, a conscientious parent, really feel as free from responsibility as his actions proclaim him? A great majority of fathers and mothers are content not to know what their children do the greater part of the day, during almost all their childhood. They trust the teachers, they will say, but that is not the reason. They simply do not think anything about it. Some mothers think enough, for the first few months of the first child's school days, to be sorry that their baby is a baby no more, but is becoming a very ordinary little boy or girl, with fewer and fewer pretty ways. Yet even that sadness is not enough to make a mother investigate the cause of the change. She takes it for granted that it must come to all little ones.
Again, some mothers in introducing a new pupil to a teacher say resignedly: "Now he'll begin to take colds and measles and all the school troubles," and the teacher cannot contradict or reassure her. The mother takes it for granted that the time has come for illnesses and she is resigned. It seems to me a wrong state of mind. If school is going to undermine a child's health there must be something wrong with the place, or the system, or the carrying out of the system, and a conscientious parent should refuse. to allow his child to take the risk. He may not keep his child from school, but he can work so that school shall become a fit place for his family.
How many of you know whether your children are living in clean, healthy rooms, and using suitable furniture and apparatus? Some of the seats our children use are quite dreadful. They are so old, and old-fashioned, that I do not remember having seen any like them, even in my youth. There is only one way of making some people realise that there is anything the matter with them and that is to make them sit on them during a lecture. In one large class, medical examination showed over half the children to be suffering from spinal curvature. After proper seating was provided not five per cent. in the same room showed this trouble. The effect of bad seating makes itself apparent, but there are worse effects which do not show for years.
Then with regard to the teaching of the children. Most men will say, "The teachers arc paid to see that that is all right." So they are, and so they do, as far as they are able; but some are less well trained than others; some have old-fashioned ideals and methods; some are held back from their best by the traditional methods and ideas of their superiors. So long as the parents do not demand that the most up-to-date ideas shall be applied, educational practice, in any given place, may be in a rut. Even when a parent is interested in his child's progress he seldom investigates the system under which the child is being brought up, but occasionally he applies some test which he thinks would have been put to him, when he was a boy. He would not test the men in his employment so, for, "business methods have altered." He would not in any business matter say. "We never did this when I was a boy," for, in business, he expects the present to differ from the past: he requires the latest thing and the best.
Now, old ideas of what was right and proper in a pupil, do not fit with modern ideas at all. They certainly do not fit with Theosophical ideas. Years ago, and alas in some places to-day, the good child sat still, in as receptive an attitude as could be induced, and tried hard to accept and retain what the teacher had to give;—that is, the good child under the good and conscientious teacher. A passive child was "a nicely behaved child." Of course, if, through physical defect, or lack of development, or through poor teaching, the child could not store all he was given, and produce again what was asked, he had to suffer a punishment, havings no connection at all with his failure;—a thrashing. Modern educationists will have nothing to do with that good child. They want the live, natural child, full of curiosity and questions. They want to catch his natural interests and begin his schooling there, studying him all the time, filling his needs and leading him to desire to know and to do, till no one can stop him,
Would you rather have the child who, when asked why she stepped over a ball of waste paper instead of lifting it and throwing it into the Waste-paper basket, said "you didn't tell me to, teacher," or the boy who came in ten minutes late because he wanted to see a workman join two pieces of pipe down a hole in the street, so that he would know how it was done? Which is most likely to be a success in school, and out of it? Some people may think the girl a nice respectful child, but I do not think she ought to respect the teacher who made such a ninny of her. And the boy? He was a baby, or he would have known that we cannot make a practice of stopping by the way to conduct even very interesting investigations, but is it not a pity that we cannot? Would he have got as much good in school during those ten minutes?
In America the schools are used by the parents. The teachers are visited, asked about the children, the work, the apparatus. Every person is proud of his district school and determined it shall be as up-to-date as his business. Why is there no such interest here? Is it not a duty of parents and all who believe in the future of the child? Suppose you start now to become the thin edge of the wedge. Visit where there are children. Ask what they do in school. Get the parents to invite the teachers to tea, if the teachers won't invite the parents to school. Ask the teachers why they do this and that, how they do so and so, what their ideas are on such subjects as discipline. Make them feel it worth while to discuss their work with you. Talk "children" and "education" and help to move things for the little ones. Don't be, or appear, a crank; but think, have opinions, and gather the opinions of others, with which to modify or strengthen your own. Help to awaken real interest in the school years of the child.
AGNES F. R. inkpen.
From “Theosophy in New Zealand’ Magazine Sept 1916
EDUCATION FROM A TEACHER'S POINT OF VIEW
Education, as it affects the children of the present generation, is being more or less constantly discussed, but ultimately the working out of the decisions arrived at rests with the teachers. Just how far the teachers will be able to carry out the ideal that is being so earnestly sought for in the various conferences depends not so much upon the Education Departments as upon the parents of the children. One frequently hears a mother complain that the teacher does not understand a child, and she goes on to explain that the child is shy or nervous, or perhaps is high spirited and does not mean to be naughty, etc. If parents who were really in earnest about the education of their children in its general sense, and not only in its intellectual aspect, were to prepare a few weeks' lessons and take a few children, all at different stages, and try to teach them, giving each child the attention due to it, they would begin to understand that it is almost impossible for a teacher to attempt anything beyond a general intellectual teaching, and that it is not reasonable to expect teachers to train individual pupils as they should be trained, and as most teachers recognise they should be trained, while they are expected to manage so many. A country teacher cannot get an assistant until he has an average attendance of 36: that means he may have any number up to forty or forty-five children attending his school, and all classes from the infants' to the sixth standard to teach. How is it possible for him to give individual attention to any child without neglecting some others? Again, if certain rules suited to the majority of the children are to be enforced, and any serious infringement of a rule to be met with punishment, how can one child be treated differently to the others, no matter how desirable it may be, without the teacher being accused of favouritism, and thus losing a certain amount of influence over the others?
Many young teachers enter the service with great ideals, and in a short time they begin, gradually it may be, but none the less surely, to drop them, and content themselves with carrying on the ordinary work which will be examined by the inspectors. Still, it must be admitted that the Education Department seeks to place ideals before the teachers, as the following extract, taken from "Suggestions for the Consideration of Teachers," will show: "The purpose of the school is education in the full sense of the word: the high function of the teacher is to prepare the child for the life of a good citizen, to create or foster the aptitude for work, and for the intelligent use of leisure, and to develop those features of character which are most readily influenced by school life, such as loyalty to comrades, unselfishness, and an orderly and disciplined habit of mind. . . The establishment of character must always be one of the main aims of Elementary Education."
Yet it seems to me that the realisation of the ideal is hindered principally by the number of children a teacher has to take charge of, children of various ages, temperaments, and abilities. If parents could only be brought to realise the fact they would soon have things managed differently. No teacher should be expected to manage more than 15 or 20 children, and there should not be more than three classes, at the most, even in that number. Let parents think for a minute of the time that would be taken out of school hours to prepare each lesson for the next day's work for the three classes, and to prepare them so that they could be presented in different ways so that the lesson may be understood and intelligently followed by "each child." Let them also think how necessary it is that the teacher should understand each child he has to teach, how much thought and preparation is necessary to prevent faults that might cause discord, and then say whether it is reasonable to expect teachers to attempt anything like the successful application of the principles set forth in "Education as Service" under present conditions. Theosophy supplies the solution to most puzzles. I am wondering if, in the near future, members of the T.S. could not start a school, a Theosophical School, which would give teachers the opportunity of putting into practice the principles given by Alcyone. When we remember that he says, "I write on the subject because it is one that is very near to the heart of my Master, and much of what I say is but an imperfect echo of what I have heard from Him;" and when we know, too, that there are many special Egos coming into incarnation at the present time, many of them in New Zealand, does it not seem that such a step is not only desirable but "necessary "if we would do" all" that we can to prepare the way for the coming of the World Teacher? An elementary school of the kind should lead in every branch of education, intellectual, moral, and physical. It should be inspected, and the children examined by the Government school inspectors, who would see the splendid results achieved by increasing' the number of teachers in the schools, and then once it was seen to be really advisable the extra money needed by the Department to carry out the scheme would soon be found.—country teacher
From “Theosophy in New Zealand’ Magazine Jan 1916
Education, as it affects the children of the present generation, is being more or less constantly discussed, but ultimately the working out of the decisions arrived at rests with the teachers. Just how far the teachers will be able to carry out the ideal that is being so earnestly sought for in the various conferences depends not so much upon the Education Departments as upon the parents of the children. One frequently hears a mother complain that the teacher does not understand a child, and she goes on to explain that the child is shy or nervous, or perhaps is high spirited and does not mean to be naughty, etc. If parents who were really in earnest about the education of their children in its general sense, and not only in its intellectual aspect, were to prepare a few weeks' lessons and take a few children, all at different stages, and try to teach them, giving each child the attention due to it, they would begin to understand that it is almost impossible for a teacher to attempt anything beyond a general intellectual teaching, and that it is not reasonable to expect teachers to train individual pupils as they should be trained, and as most teachers recognise they should be trained, while they are expected to manage so many. A country teacher cannot get an assistant until he has an average attendance of 36: that means he may have any number up to forty or forty-five children attending his school, and all classes from the infants' to the sixth standard to teach. How is it possible for him to give individual attention to any child without neglecting some others? Again, if certain rules suited to the majority of the children are to be enforced, and any serious infringement of a rule to be met with punishment, how can one child be treated differently to the others, no matter how desirable it may be, without the teacher being accused of favouritism, and thus losing a certain amount of influence over the others?
Many young teachers enter the service with great ideals, and in a short time they begin, gradually it may be, but none the less surely, to drop them, and content themselves with carrying on the ordinary work which will be examined by the inspectors. Still, it must be admitted that the Education Department seeks to place ideals before the teachers, as the following extract, taken from "Suggestions for the Consideration of Teachers," will show: "The purpose of the school is education in the full sense of the word: the high function of the teacher is to prepare the child for the life of a good citizen, to create or foster the aptitude for work, and for the intelligent use of leisure, and to develop those features of character which are most readily influenced by school life, such as loyalty to comrades, unselfishness, and an orderly and disciplined habit of mind. . . The establishment of character must always be one of the main aims of Elementary Education."
Yet it seems to me that the realisation of the ideal is hindered principally by the number of children a teacher has to take charge of, children of various ages, temperaments, and abilities. If parents could only be brought to realise the fact they would soon have things managed differently. No teacher should be expected to manage more than 15 or 20 children, and there should not be more than three classes, at the most, even in that number. Let parents think for a minute of the time that would be taken out of school hours to prepare each lesson for the next day's work for the three classes, and to prepare them so that they could be presented in different ways so that the lesson may be understood and intelligently followed by "each child." Let them also think how necessary it is that the teacher should understand each child he has to teach, how much thought and preparation is necessary to prevent faults that might cause discord, and then say whether it is reasonable to expect teachers to attempt anything like the successful application of the principles set forth in "Education as Service" under present conditions. Theosophy supplies the solution to most puzzles. I am wondering if, in the near future, members of the T.S. could not start a school, a Theosophical School, which would give teachers the opportunity of putting into practice the principles given by Alcyone. When we remember that he says, "I write on the subject because it is one that is very near to the heart of my Master, and much of what I say is but an imperfect echo of what I have heard from Him;" and when we know, too, that there are many special Egos coming into incarnation at the present time, many of them in New Zealand, does it not seem that such a step is not only desirable but "necessary "if we would do" all" that we can to prepare the way for the coming of the World Teacher? An elementary school of the kind should lead in every branch of education, intellectual, moral, and physical. It should be inspected, and the children examined by the Government school inspectors, who would see the splendid results achieved by increasing' the number of teachers in the schools, and then once it was seen to be really advisable the extra money needed by the Department to carry out the scheme would soon be found.—country teacher
From “Theosophy in New Zealand’ Magazine Jan 1916
CONVENTION MINUTES
Friday the 29th December was a day of conferences. Perhaps the most interesting matter was elicited during the discussion among educationalists. The Montessori system was warmly commended. Mr. Sydney Butler described his methods of teaching and of using colour influences. Violet and blue have proved the most useful. He has been aided by gifts of pictures from English Art Galleries and his scholars are becoming familiar with some of the greater works of art.
From “Theosophy in New Zealand’ Magazine February 1917
Friday the 29th December was a day of conferences. Perhaps the most interesting matter was elicited during the discussion among educationalists. The Montessori system was warmly commended. Mr. Sydney Butler described his methods of teaching and of using colour influences. Violet and blue have proved the most useful. He has been aided by gifts of pictures from English Art Galleries and his scholars are becoming familiar with some of the greater works of art.
From “Theosophy in New Zealand’ Magazine February 1917
THE NEW ZEALAND SECTION'S , FIRST SCHOOL
The Educational Trust Board announces that, at last, after many disappointments, it has found and purchased a property at Auckland ideally suitable for the Day and Boarding School which the Section, at last Convention, decided to establish.
It has been exceedingly difficult to find a site with sufficient area, sunny yet sheltered, and so placed as to be fairly accessible for the day-scholars who are ready to attend. In this property almost all the requisite conditions are fulfilled. Its western limits lie only a few minutes' walk from the tram-line and its eastern boundary reaches the top of Mt. St. John, There eight acres of public reserve form a roaming-ground for the children. supplementary to the four and a quarter acres of freehold now purchased. The land descends by terraces, slopes and lawns, from the hill-top to the tramway level, and though it commands wide views, it is so sheltered by well-grown trees that out-door tuition can be carried on almost anywhere.
The cost of such a property is naturally no light under-taking for a small Society, yet the cost is not so great when tested by the value of land in the vicinity and by the present expense of building a house and making improvements of such quality as those now secured.
We have no doubt that members will be proud of their School and will freely support it. For some years regular contributions will be needed; but if each one who is able gives a little, all difficulty will disappear. One pound per year is not much for most of us to spare; even those whose means are small will scarcely miss it, if it be put aside at the rate of five pence weekly, or one shilling and eight pence per month.
The Treasurer of the Trust needs at once £500 more in loans at five per cent to complete the purchase money, and begs all members to send in without delay their promises to tribute annually to the Income Fund. Gifts of books, pictures and furnishings will be welcome.
The School will be opened early in February, 1919. It will, at first, be conducted as a Primary School, so that only those children who have not reached the Proficiency Certificate level will be eligible. Ere long, when the staff is complete, classes for more advanced children will be added.
From “Theosophy in New Zealand’ Magazine February 1918
The Educational Trust Board announces that, at last, after many disappointments, it has found and purchased a property at Auckland ideally suitable for the Day and Boarding School which the Section, at last Convention, decided to establish.
It has been exceedingly difficult to find a site with sufficient area, sunny yet sheltered, and so placed as to be fairly accessible for the day-scholars who are ready to attend. In this property almost all the requisite conditions are fulfilled. Its western limits lie only a few minutes' walk from the tram-line and its eastern boundary reaches the top of Mt. St. John, There eight acres of public reserve form a roaming-ground for the children. supplementary to the four and a quarter acres of freehold now purchased. The land descends by terraces, slopes and lawns, from the hill-top to the tramway level, and though it commands wide views, it is so sheltered by well-grown trees that out-door tuition can be carried on almost anywhere.
The cost of such a property is naturally no light under-taking for a small Society, yet the cost is not so great when tested by the value of land in the vicinity and by the present expense of building a house and making improvements of such quality as those now secured.
We have no doubt that members will be proud of their School and will freely support it. For some years regular contributions will be needed; but if each one who is able gives a little, all difficulty will disappear. One pound per year is not much for most of us to spare; even those whose means are small will scarcely miss it, if it be put aside at the rate of five pence weekly, or one shilling and eight pence per month.
The Treasurer of the Trust needs at once £500 more in loans at five per cent to complete the purchase money, and begs all members to send in without delay their promises to tribute annually to the Income Fund. Gifts of books, pictures and furnishings will be welcome.
The School will be opened early in February, 1919. It will, at first, be conducted as a Primary School, so that only those children who have not reached the Proficiency Certificate level will be eligible. Ere long, when the staff is complete, classes for more advanced children will be added.
From “Theosophy in New Zealand’ Magazine February 1918