CLASSICS CHALLENGE

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue 294, 11 December 1943, Page 6

CLASSICS CHALLENGE

TO INTELLECTUAL PUPILS REMARKS OF MR. K. J. DEKLOW "Change is in the air. Some of it is welcome, some is not," said Mr. K. J. Dellow, headmaster of Takapuna Grammar School, at the annual prize-giving ceremony last evening. "Few teachers will object to the dropping of foreign languages in the case of short-course pupils, nor will they quarrel much with the 'core' of subjects that are to be the basis of all courses—English, social studies, physical-education, general science, arithmetic, art, crafts -and music.

"Very many of us, however, do sincerely believe that the challenge of classical traditional subjects still makes an exhilarating -appeal to the intellectual child, just as the best teeth are grown by 'biting on something hard.'" Mr. Dellow added that there were certain fundamentals which had borne notable fruit in the character of hundreds of men and women who had passed through the school, and it was to be hoped that these would not be lost, or nothing else would be gained.At the beginning of the year the school roll numbered 517. The roll now stood at 486, comprised of 254 boys and 232 girls. Regular weekly contributions had maintained a fund from which all national appeals were supported, said Mr. Dellow, and approximately £250 had been given to this fund this year. Those present stood while the names of 50 old boys who have died in the war were read. Of this number 14 have been killed in the past year. The prize list included: —Dux of the school, J. A. Carnahan and H. R. Thompson, equal; languages and mathematics, H. R. Thompson; science, J. A. Carnahan; Mary Macdonald Memorial for the head girl, Margaret Robinson; headmaster's prize for the head hoy, G. Simpson; lan Gray Memorial, for service to the school, Margaret Robinson.