SPECIAL ARTICLE.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 18924, 12 February 1927, Page 13

SPECIAL ARTICLE.

I fIffiPATHOS OF jgE SECONDARY SCHOOL. (www* *o» T,u [gr L. H- PAI-kib 3 ■ nothine is cs-rri«ins the .Trf our lt 'K , ' ,a ! I ° rs / J !T.,th« modern '">" L *° r thero ».is Imp, «i,c .-vstem *rJL«tion—that of mam> or break. {(A through the priiMiirv pchool, M on to the feo< iHiarv Kthool, in»t-inc".> tn the in'.i versify, 'rflj hare stood tho to,t a* c-iti--2«SrkKblywcll. Hut the modern SSilt clainw ,I,c w ! ,rl<l KSL-d«» fur in 1,1 ty s,iort iL that tlio child of to-clay must ! t psychology "11 hi-' " WB > , with tuition no less individusSSTiuhl that there must bo almost R, systems of education as there JfcSbin order UmL the child of m£o»y * 11,0 suc,:cs!,f " l a " a un ' fgl*i of t>morrov. policy of Experiment. ' all is the child troubling the j&tf* when his pnronry course .h [ A short tnno wnce Jio Krhool wju> instituted u-s rterc t1..0, -j"''! "< » w«. 'n should be domiciled tor a f if*ss3i toi».i i™ti{ w«5 had Bono through the eld EJrJ 'HTnker, tailor, soldier, »tc., ia order to find ««t , ffiodS chowo, if a»y>. « lf ° h ili Bnder the new regiino the Junhag lost casto and it (hat any more will be lis country. It is now he High School, workon with tho Technical contributing its own of tuition, will best needs; of the modern Vocational Training. hesitation and experin from uncertainty je common and indiviucation and vo:ational ional training is not education may, under ia, be vocational tramin the true sense has mining a livelihood—amount importance to in our young counmay possess incidental U direction. Its prime teach us how to livo. eesy to define, but it ice all those elements nn * generous outlook intellect and an unit—a knowledge and our language, race, and • of the humanities, a appreciation of other er age*, self-knowledge, selflone lead lifo to sovcri, and it ia tho basinets ion to give these thm •ryone fortunate enough It. n from truo ednoaiion ill that it slgnifiii, has IM tirne and. Jim proouiea; toe umiih 6Ui« u ft ttands to vocational training, a modem tgpertmtai fmpUd tp meet ■ tie needs 0/ rtofon Jife.-JThis ia tho Itjoii wbtri the variWUamt be treated m aptisontinne their study a insanities, and tho initiaj stages have ffjlJ plumb mathe!p« to their depths, 0 be tutored in the in commerce, and ught to to know what •very man for his ally American, but # that country. In* ugh, if slow-going Americans havo is of tho Btnto to to particular clianevery facility for h to tho other end, that they go out n thoir particular tai has become tho lis are apt to think vides its members !l will overcome tho rt of tho individual itable to efficiency natural in an ago has produced such rial things, motors, ty, wireless, that hat thero must be in improvement in a and human relat natural, but most is partially true to t she contains tho isans and commerfew educated men. ot go unheeded by minion education, -worn, but not anducation and vocaessentials in tho Tho problem that ffith in New Zcato mix tho two — iply the mixturo to hat instruments to tion. Ti l recently tem with true cduaiftant feature pretional training had teniion. To-day is ilist, and vocational in our educational happy day for this h aro woven, not 1 proportions, into nm, and when both loniously, the one with the means to [, tho other to make mean state, education lias tho r, and whenever in component parts refercnco should alii principles of true these which make i s :ine man and ucd and levcl-head-rinciplcs it was of f-knowledgc, selfs the Greeks and have been instruling the greatness Britain. Universalss in time of youth ngrained in tho inhe reached man's rvo to enlighten his his judgment. It national well-being and plumber should itencd a vision of holar and politician id class creeds are >is must bo one of lucation alone can

*f the child must begin fstion, nnd vocational Mt commence until the M an age when he is re•Mtt. Then true educa-

tion and vocational training should go hand-in-hand until both have become part of tho person. The result should be an efficient workman and a gentleman. Details in the.working of such a scheme and the precise age for tho various changes arc questions for the child psychologist. Junction °f a Secondary Bchool. The task of the secondary school is to train the body of the pupil, bis morals and his mind—so that it is open to an intellectual appeal. In New Zealand secondary schools the physical side is. excellently catered for and is probably tho sphere in which the training approaches most nearly to perfection. A saying of old Etonians, prompted, no doubt, by this and the moral phase of secondary school life: "You must choose between going to Eton and getting an Education," could, with the necessary change, bo well applied to some prominent Dominion secondary schools. The mora! side is also given much attention in New Zealand. The boy is taught, sometimes very sternly, tho value of discipline, and learns to apply it to his daily life. Again no more glorious Heritage has been bequeathed to New Zcaiand than that of tho "publb; school spirit." In this country wo know it as "the school spirit" or "esprit do corps." It is nothing tangible but merely the spirit of the English publio school, a little change permeating our Dominion schools. It is tho greatest gift of a school. Almost his first day at collego a boy feels its presence; he seizes it, makes it his own and carries it with him through the years as a perpetual source of inspiration of his filial pride and devotion for his old school. It can be claimed that in the realm of physical and moral training tho New Zealand secondary school is not lacking, but what of the cultivation of the faculty of intellectual appeal?

An Important Aspect. Jt is not proposed, nor would it bo desirable, that a secondary school should make deep intellectual training its aim. All classes do not require such culture, and those who do must seek the university for it. The primary Bchool, secondary school, and university all combine to train tho student physically, morally, intellectually, and vocationally, and the separate links must bo made to fit into the chain. Thero must ho liltlo overlapping, and no gaps. The scholar must be taken right on. Tho secondary school must not tako its pupils to a certain stage and then set them adrift in an unsympathetic world to shift for themselves. This is done to-day in many cases. Of the four aspects of the child's training set down, the task of providing the first two must be that of the secondary schools. The last two will be provided whore necessary by the university or by special vocational departments of secondary schools cr by separate vocation schools as circumstaucos may direct. Also, the secondary school, receiving as it does tho pupil at the plastic age, must be asked to give him an adequate grounding and make him teachable in the sense cf being open to an intellectual appeal. This is the pathetic side of our secondary education. In many cases its significance « misunderstood, and in as many more it iB absent c/ not appreciated bv the teachers themselves. If the boy at the termination of his secondary school career is loft "unimpressionable," then the only avenue through which he can bo appealed to rcstheticr.lly or intellectually is closed or left only halfopened, a state more dangerous than complete ignorance. Then wo must call his education a failuro or a fertile seed with evil as its kernel, tvhonce will surely spring so much of the distrust and dissatisfaction abroad in the world to-day. For him, .whatever success he may achieve in his chocen occupation, his intellectual training rnnct remain somethirr; of a tragedy. He has been shown a fr.r distant horizon, but has been left unprovided with the means to reach it. lie has had instilled into him a few truths, but has not been given tho intellectual poise to not them at their right value, and to use thsm for his own end tho common good. If lie «w without catching some of the spirit with which John Drinhwctcr crodited his character who . "Had a heart to praise, an oye to see, And beauty was his kinn." then be he "tinker, tailor, soldier, sailor," it were bettor tlint the vision of the horizon had been kept forever from his eves. This is the charge upon the secondary schod: to point hint to the hnrisnn nnd so to cnuip him intellectually that his journey tA.tlier may lie. as wo humans count it, tolerably successful.