1930 - Annual Convention Report

              S I X T E E N T H A N N U A L C O N V E N T I ON 41
Women have been elected to the School Boards this year, schools have
been visited and one Institute reports appointing a committee to co- operate
w i t h the teacher and the School Board in any way they might be of service.
This fine spirit should mean advancement for the school where such co­operation
instead of critical attitude is present.
In some rural districts High School work has been introduced through
the efforts of the Institute. Children obliged to be out of school through
illness have been tutored so that they might pass their examinations, ' by some
of our members who were formerly teachers. The teachers, I was pleased to
see, were not forgotten amid the varied activities of the year. They were
entertained by many Institutes, one at least entertaining the teachers an­nually
in October, thus welcoming the new teachers as well as welcoming
back those already on the staff. In one town where there are a number of
teachers, the Institute invited the Alliance to send a representative from both
the Public School and H i g h School, to be present at the meetings. It was
thought this would take the place to some extent of a " Parent Teachers
Association."
This is the work done ' by the Women's Institutes of Alberta during 1929.
A l l o w me to express my gratitude to the Conveners who supplied me with
the material for this report.
Now a word on the modern trend of education. One who is following
public opinion today must be impressed with the fact that the aim is steadily
towards making the educational course for the average child more practical.
Teaching to do things as well as theorize about them, thus tending towards
what is known as " Creative Education."
This education we are told gives the child a chance to develop his own
personality, thus following out Lord Elgin's thought that the meaning of
true education is the drawing out of character rather than the moulding of it.
A man prominent in educational circles in Aliberta said not long ago: " In
my forecast of the future I see developing a new type of school, which may
be known as the Intermediate School, where pupils will spend about half
their time on the regular academic subjects and the rest on practical sub­jects,
such as manual training, elementary experimental science, domestic
science, household arts, etc. This school would be for pupils of Grade V I I . ,
V I I I . and possibly I X . It would supply the needed interest and stimulus for
the early ' teen age boys and girls and enable them to find themselves and
toe prepared to select their high school courses much more intelligently."
In regard to education itself: I will leave with you the words of Dr.
Norwood, head of the visiting delegation of British School Masters. He
says: " We think we have in England a very definite tradition of education.
It is an education that is based on religion and aims at character rather than
at an intellectual performance pure and simple. A system to prevent material­i
sm which if followed in Canada and the United States would save civiliza­tion."
OUTLINE
Standing Committee on Education and Better Schools, 1930- 31.
For the mothers of pre- school age children I would suggest:
1. That they endeavor to teach their children to make decisions for
themselves. We are told that many people fail to succeed in life because the)'
cannot decide on a definite course of action, they simply drift instead of work­i
n g toward a definite goal. An opportunity to teach children this way may
be given in simple things, for instance: Give the child the choice between
two cereals for breakfast, presenting both and asking him to make a choice;