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Frank Tate encouraged the introduction of educational reforms during his years as Director of Education. Tate was intent on revitalising learning and freeing the schools from rote memorisation. Scholars in the infant grades, he argued, should be exposed to many and varied stimuli. Teachers must encourage individual mental development, stimulate intelligent thought and expression, and guide the students to think and act for themselves. Inspectors must help improve teachers’ methods rather than intimidate them and stifle experimentation. The senior grades would continue in this vein. Australian geography and history were increasingly nurtured. Nature studies were introduced, with an emphasis on excursions into the country to study geology, geography, nature study and history. New texts in all subjects were regularly adopted. In-service training was established to help teachers develop courses that ‘satisfied not only the intellectual and moral interests of a child, but also aesthetic and constructive interests’.23
The Fourth Class at Arnold Street, 1903. There are 81 boys in the class.
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The innovations of Martin Hansen, who preceded McRae as Director of Education between 1928 and 1932, involved Princes Hill directly. Aware of the possible applications of new technologies in education, Hansen experimented with the use of moving pictures, radio broadcasts, gramophones and epidiascopes in schools. In 1930, the 12 to 14-year-old pupils at Princes Hill participated in an experimental programme of this kind. Films concerning economic geography, physiographic geography, physiology, nature studies, general science and composition were screened and commented upon by teachers.40 As students moved up from grade to grade, the subjects changed and the work increased in difficulty and quantity: Latin, French and algebra were added to the general course of English, geography, history, mental arithmetic and writing. When high-school subjects were adopted, Grades 7 and 8 were transformed into forms E and F. Pupils in these grades studied a second language, book—keeping and commercial work.41 Students who wished to sit for the scholarship examination attended extra classes each day for half an hour before school and half an hour during lunch. They studied Latin, algebra and Euclid. Slower students were placed together into a composite grade. The amount of homework set was regulated by the Department: only ten words of spelling and seven lines of arithmetic, three times per week.42 Teachers, however, often used homework as a means of punishment. The introduction of the ‘High School’ syllabus to grades 7 and 8 at Princes Hill was a significant step. In 1916, fifty four scholars entered form 1, selected from those in grades 7 and 8. They were students who had undertaken to pursue further education as preparation for the second year of the ‘high school’ course. Children who intended to leave school at the age of fourteen continued with grade 7 work.43 By 1924, the course was extended to form 2. In 1923, Princes Hill was chosen as one of three schools to experiment with a modified High School course for grades 6, 7, and 8, known as the Dalton Plan, and a special scholarship class. Six ‘Daltonised’ subjects were taught: written English, literature, mathematics, geography, history, and drawing. Specialist teachers were assigned and subject rooms established. New textbooks were bought. These included Lay’s Geography of Europe, Lay’s Grammar and Composition, High Roads of Literature, Federal Arithmetic, Progressive Arithmetic and The History of Australia and New Zealand. Student progress was monitored through assignments, completed by the students at their own pace. The Inspector’s report notes that the course encouraged initiative and self-reliance among the pupils. Two years later, however, Mylrea requested that the experiment be abandoned at Princes Hill. Believing that children planning to end their education at the elementary level were not benefiting from the new course, he reintroduced the ‘General Course of Study for the E1ementary Elementary School’.44
In December 1931, Mylrea received a memorandum from the Department noting that High Schools in the vicinity were complaining that Princes Hill had included a second language, book—keeping and commercial work in its year 9 course. Mylrea’s defence illustrates his concern for students. In a climate of depression with little work available, he argued, he was offering scholars finishing year 8, especially boys, a future rather than a life of idleness. Year 9, he hoped, would entice pupils to return to school; it was not intended to compete with High Schools.45
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