INCORRECT SPELLING

Auckland Star, Volume LXXV, Issue 41, 18 February 1944, Page 3

INCORRECT SPELLING

N.Z. STANDARD DISCUSSED

PARENT EXPRESSES COXCERX "I am very concerned about the inability of children to-day to spell correctly. In fact I have decided to give my children additional assistance at home, for they do not seem to be taught properly at school," said Mr. M. V. Ross, at a meeting of the Auckland School Committees' Association, when the Director of Education, Dr. O. E. Beeby, was present. He added that he also doubted whether arithmetic was of as high a standard as formerly. He thought the effect of the war on teaching staffs might be partly the reason for the trend. Dr. Beeby said the amount of time spent on arithmetic to-day was much less than 20 years ago, but he considered time was saved by omitting former subjects such as stocks and shares problems, which were not really necessary. We understand from the majority of school inspectors that the standard was about the same as formerly. He believed the modern child who had been through the modern school was in a better state to face the world than his parents were. As far as spelling was concerned, it could be "taught and taught," but with many people it slipped back once the teaching ceased. Recently he had spoken with some officers who had returned from overseas, and they said the spelling in the letters they had had to censor was often appalling. These writers, he pointed out, had not gone through the schools in the last few years.