TECHNICAL SCHOOL INSTRUCTION

Press, Volume LXXV, Issue 22656, 10 March 1939, Page 15

TECHNICAL SCHOOL INSTRUCTION

TO TIB BDITOK Of TIE PIIII • Sir, —For a long time past I have felt inclined to write on the subject of technical school instruction. Recent publications have again brought this matter forward. I have four children, two of whom have attended the Technical School day and night classes, but mostly night classes. To my mind it has largely been a waste of time and of money. The educational reward has fallen far short of the efforts made to receive it. Cold wintry rides and the loss of pleasures at home and abroad, have soured any ambition these children have for further learning.

I have another daughter who left school 12 months ago. This girl has been happily at work ever since. Her report from school indicated that she was adapted for hand work rather than head work. The previous two children also had similar advices in their reports. I have come to the conclusion’ that the Technical Schools merely attempt a general education. Children who want specialised instruction can receive this only to a very limited extent. .They must take subjects that are a trial to them and mostly of little practical value in the line of life they have chosen. The desire to leave these schools and go. to work is understandable, and well within the ability of those in authority to prevent" and cure. My son wanted to take electrical work. His school report showed that he could do well with his hands, but that his mental ability was merely average. His Idea was to become a wlreman. His first task at the Technical School was to write an essay on the Stone Age. Much of his time at the evening classes was taken up with interest sums. This was typical of the three years of his class work at the evening classes. For more than two years the words and meanings of volts, amps or watts were -never heard in his classrooms. It was only after I had made complaint that he was “promoted” to instruction in these terms. Look at the number of students who leave the college and go to work, pay for their instruction in private colleges and learn in a few weeks what should have been theirs long ago :.i the Technical School.

There appears to be a competition between -the High Sfchool and the Technical School. In the public mind, the first is a gentlemen’s school and the other a tradesmen's —-the one for academic training, the other for technical instruction. Owing to the academic mind of the heads.of the Technical School, this school has too much of a smattering of the academy and the technical side suffers. Recent remarks by one of our educationalists were published and were along the lines of my own experience. I do not intend to harass the minds of my two youngest children by forcing them to attempt learning subjects they are clearly not adapted for, but rather will see that they are helped along lines nature has made them happy in.— Yours, etc., PARENT. March 6. 1939. ["The Technical High Schools, as the name indicates, must include in all their courses a considerable proportion of general educational subjects,” said the principal of the Christchurch Technical College, commenting on this latter. “These ace largely prescribed in the regulations of the Education Department, and the principal has no power to depart from them. Provision is made, however, for the .inclusion in all courses of a considerable proportion of practical work. Some of the other subjects such as drawing, mathematics and science are taught with a practical object in view, and the courses should all be attractive and helpful to children with aptitudes for handwork. Despite the correspondent’s suggestions, it is to be Roped that no post-primary school will attempt to make specialists of children at the age of approximately 13J years, this being the average age at which they enter these, schools, since a sound general education is still of paramount importance at this stage. The evening classes, attended each year by more than 2000 students, mostly between the ages of 15 and 25, have organised courses in engineering and other trades, commerce, home science, etc. Their aim is essentially to promote technical efficiency in trades and commercial subjects, and to enable students requiring success in different examinations to achieve their desires. The trade courses are largely drawn up with the advice of representatives of the trades concerned and in most practical subjects the work is subjected to examination by examiners from these trades. The trade advisers stress the importance to all tradesmen and particularly to those who have to pass a registration examination, of a reasonable knowledge of mathematics, physics, drawing, and English. This epneerns plumbers, engineers, radio servicemen, electrical wiremen, and others. Despite this, there is no academic tendency in the evening school, and many fulltime and part-time specialist teachers for commerce, home science, engineering and woodworking are employed in both day and evening classes. A glance at the prospectuses issued by the college would impress one immediately with this fact. The suggestion that the Technical High School courses are influenced by those provided in the high schools and that the courses are very similar, hardly calls for an answer. All the post-primary schools of Christchurch have about as many pupils as they can possibly take, and the spirit among them is more of co-operation than competition. Each school is doing its own work in the community, and endeavouring to meet the needs of the type of pupil entered in it for instruction. The Technical High Schools and the high schools have this, however, in common, that they realise that to produce the right kind of citizen, a liberal education is necessary. It is impossible to comment on the subjects taken and the progress made by an individual unknown student.”]