UNIVERSITY STUDIES.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 121, 24 May 1935, Page 6

UNIVERSITY STUDIES.

THE RETARDED STUDENT.

(To the Editor.) My own experience as a student at the University College confirms the criticisms recently made of the standard of attainment reached. At the Grammar School in the upper and lower sixth I found myself among students of keen intelligence who were acquiring knowledge at an amazing rate and who were happy to work hard. At the University I found myself in an atmosphere of mediocrity. At the end of my first year I passed the B.A. examination in four subjects, and of three of them, English, Latin and chemistry, I knew less than I did at school. I can go further and say without hesitation that any boy who spent two years in the upper sixth at the Grammar S-chool twenty years ago had reached a higher standard of education than many of those who obtained their B.A. degree at the same period. Yet the rules of the University were so inflexible that these boys had to spend three years at the University before being permitted to take their final B.A. These three years might have been useful to the boys if special classes had been available for them at the University, but in my time, unless new subjects were taken, the student was attending lectures many grades below what he needed. It was not until my fourth year in an honours class of three students that I had any lectures worthy of the name. This is no reflection on the staff, who simply had not the time to do more than teacli the hare elements of a subject to all students alike. In the light of my experience it seems that we are trying to educate too many mediocre students to a mediocre standard. Our better students suffer through being grouped with lower-grade students. If the entrance examination and the B.A. degree were raised consider* ably in standard the less suitable students would be weeded out, and the standard of honours mark would automatically be raised. This would ense the "burden on the staff and have the added advantage of costing no more than the present system, and might permit the formation of special classes for the exceptional student. M.A., LL.B.