Page 9 - Journal 2018B FINAL

was Prime Minister and Playford Premier of SA. TV had only been available in black and white for 6 years, (colour did not come till
1975). There were no personal computers, electronic calculators, video recorders, internet or iPhones and President Kennedy’s decision to go to the moon had only recently, in 1961, been announced - to be realised in 1969. So social media communications and computing were either only in their infancy or not yet available.
THE TRANSFORMATION OF EDUCATION
Professor Sir Mark Oliphant
2nd August 1962
Introduction
By far the most important activity of civilised man is the education of the succeeding generations. This was important in the past, but I will endeavour to show that it must
take precedence over everything else in the future. In theory, the over-riding importance of education is recognised today, and lip service is paid to this principle by all governments. But, in fact it receives far less attention
than do military and economic problems, in many governments it is the Cinderella of ministries, and the increasing financial burden of education is resented by taxpayers and treasuries.
Conclusion
To sum up. I am all too aware of the paucity of my knowledge of education and of the limited extent of the reading I have been able to do in the immense field on which I have been asked to speak. These are my views as of today. I make no apology for the fact that they may
be subject to profound change in the future. So, in good faith but without any conviction that I can do more than contribute a mite to the central question of our time, I suggest that education for the space age should be along these lines:
1. Primary schooling must continue to concentrate on the three R’ s, but it should include an elementary introduction to the history of mankind and enough about science to satisfy the natural curiosity of the young. Above all, it should encourage enquiry, with patience for the everlasting Why? and sympathy for the vivid fantasies of childhood. The foundation of a foreign language can well be laid at this time.
2. Secondary schooling must undergo a revolutionary change, its emphasis being on the total of human knowledge, rather than
on subjects taught in tight compartments in isolation from one another. For instance, no student should be able to escape at least three years of science, but that science should be
a unity of natural knowledge and not divided into chemistry, physics, biology, geology, and mathematics. This does not mean a vague hodgepodge of no deep intellectual value, like what has been called” general science”. The principles must be taught as thoroughly as before, but, for instance, the energy principles are the same for biological systems as for physical systems, and there is no conceivable reason other than habit for treating them separately.
Throughout all parts of secondary education, it will be necessary to reduce the amount of factual information which must be ingested so that sufficient attention can be devoted to the rapidly growing basic principles required for understanding. As already mentioned, factual material is better stored in books, tables
and machines, than in the human mind. By adopting this principle from the beginning, students will learn rapidly how to dig out
any facts they require. Powers of reasoning, and ability to express clearly whatever it is necessary to convey to another, are far more important than the memorising of sets of data which can never be complete.
At this level students should be encouraged to use all the mechanical aids to their work which are available. They should hear and see the very best of teachers through films or television, and through these media they can see demonstrations in science, geography, art and music which they could never experience in the school itself. They should be allowed to type their work, to use calculating machines, slide rules, or tape recorders, as they will
later on. In quantitative subjects like most
of science, mathematics, and economics,
they should be made aware of the limits of accuracy which can be attained and of the value and validity of intelligent approximations.
It is the aim of education to give to each new generation as much as possible of the total
of human experience. During the years of schooling only the foundations can be laid. In other words, school studies must be as much a process of learning how to learn, as of actual imbibing of knowledge.
Number 02 / 2018 | 7