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141
Report of the Medical Officer (Education).
Remote memory was tested by the multiplication table, which was known parrot fashion up to
about six times by nearly all the older children, and up to three or four times by some of the younger
ones, but constant errors occurred at all ages by asking for a single pair, e.g., 5 by 7. It appeared,
too, that a response might be obtained by asking for five sevens, when it entirely failed on asking for
five times seven. The children in some infants' departments march to their classrooms from the playground
to the inspiriting strains of "three threes are nine," etc., and mass repetition of the tables is in
common use. It would seem as if this established an unbreakable association of the table as a thing
to be sung as a whole and not used piecemeal. At any rate, it suggests a rather more frequent
practice in dodging in the tables.
Memory and observation were also required to answer question on the destination of the trams
in neighbouring streets, and the companies whose trains ran through neighbouring stations. The answers
of the boys in the elder boys' school, many of whom travel a distance, showed considerable
local knowledge, but in the ordinary special schools blank ignorance was the rule, especially as to trains,
even when the children passed the station every day. The girls showed a rather better knowledge of
the contents of local shops, but were almost immeasurably behind the children in the ordinary elementary
schools in this respect.
The request to put the right hand on the left ear produced more incorrect than correct answers
but the error was often corrected after a time or on a repetition of the command.
Only 10 could not say which day to-day was. Of 18 children who knew the day of the week
11 were unable to give the name of either yesterday or to-morrow, 2 knew to-morrow but not yesterday
and 5 yesterday but not to-morrow; 33 who knew the preceding could not give the day before yesterday
or the day after to-morrow. Some of the older children knew the date, but this and the actual day of
the week was often only a matter necessitating a short memory as it is usually written down and often
copied daily by each class.
For the test of describing a picture the illustrations in the various readers and in a child's toybook
were employed, save in a few cases in which to save time pictures hanging on the wall of the room
were utilised. Strictly every child should be given the same picture as a test, but as it was necessary
to examine more than one child at the same time this was impracticable, and it also appeared that
the news of the picture used spread through the school in the case of the elder children.
The results were classified according to the type of response. Some would mention the name
of one object in a picture only, e.g., "cat," adding no qualifying adjectives to the noun; others
enumerated several objects, also without qualification; other groups, instead of practically employing
nouns as interjections, added a qualifying adjective or participle, e.g., "little boy," girl running";
a more advanced group employed a short sentence such as "boys playing soldiers"; others used two
or three such short sentences for each picture, while a few gave a continuous narrative, or at least
employed longer sentences. The frequency of each type is shown in the following table, which shows
a steady improvement with age, though the more elementary type never entirely disappears. This,

These results may be checked by a series of similar tests carried out two years ago in an ordinary
school, from which it would appear that verbs are used in description between the ages of 7 to 8, short
sentences at 8 to 9, and longer sentences 9 to 10. In a school in a good class neighbourhood where
the children receive the benefit of reasonable home encouragement the age limits are lower. The
continuous narrative or long sentence may be regarded as a point against educational incapacity at
earlier ages and as evidence of benefit derived at a later age.
In the test of description from memory of an object the children were asked to say all they knew
about some common object such as a cat. The object had to be varied for the reasons mentioned above,
especially as after the first day it was noted each child began "a cat is a very useful animal.' This
expression was not counted, but other objects substituted. It is possible that this expression was a
test of remote memory, as on inquiry it was found to occur in a reader in use in some schools. The
answers were marked from 1 to 7 according to the fulness of the account, the minimum mark being
for "a cat is a cat." The best result was from a child who knew all about the habits of the house
fly and the bluebottle fly, but this was because he was in the habit of fishing and used gentles as bait.
He was not equally good on other objects, but this shows the importance of finding the subject in which