THE MEANING OF "SCHOOL"

Press, Volume LXXI, Issue 21533, 24 July 1935, Page 8

THE MEANING OF "SCHOOL"

ADDRESS BY MR L. F. DE BERRY The true spirit of the word "school" was discussed by Mr L. F. de Berry, headmaster, of th'e West Christchurch District High School, at the annual reunion dinner of the West Christchurch Old Boys' Association, which was held last night at Dixieland. "School," said Mr de Berry, did not mean the building. If it did there would be no such institutions as old boys' associations. It was the old > boys who made a school. Those ■ pupils who were yet at school moved ; in a spirit left by oid pupils. Nor was ! that spirit left by the few great per- j sonalities a school might produce; a school was dependent upon its rank and file, who set the example of real i citizenship. I It was the duty of every school, Mr de Berry continued, to make or to help to make, good citizens. In the world to-day. which had its Hitler and its Mussolini, and where so many people who waited for orders, the increasing purpose of schools was to produce men and women who could stand by themselves. The British tradition of citizenship had no tolerance of disciplinary control by kings or dictators. In so authoritarian an age as this, there ' was a tendency, wherever there were schools, associations, and parliaments, for power to be m the hands of one or two. As well as ciitzenship, there- ; fore, schools had also the duty of i teaching pupils both the privileges and I dangers of self-government ' Schooling was more than a material training which fitted people to earn j a mere existence. Above all, the great need of the world was an ap- j preciation of culture and a love at I the beautiful J