High School Pupils To Attend Olympic Games

Press, Volume XCII, Issue 27751, 31 August 1955, Page 3

High School Pupils To Attend Olympic Games

An opportunity to attend the Olympic Games in Melbourne next year nas been given to 50 pupils of the Pukekohe High School, who will pay for their four weeks’ trip with money they have earned themselves. Two boys have already earned £5O in the hope of being selected. The chance of attending the games was made possible by the headmaster of the school (Mr L. V. Bryant). As soon as the venue of the games was confirmed more than two years ago, Mr Bryant made travel reservations for a party of 50 children.

The party will travel by sea to Sydney ana will fly to Melbourne, arriving the day before the games open. The pupils will be billeted in Melbourne, and leave on the return trip to New Zealand the day after the games have finished. A particular interest in the rowing and cycling events will be taken by the children. An old boy of the school, R. Parker, of Mercer, who is an Empire Games gold and silver medallist in rowing, is the school's rowing coach, and it is hoped that he will represent New Zealand in Melbourne. Another old boy, P. Baird, won a silver medal at the Vancouver games in cycling, and he may also represent the Dominion. Tours in New Zealand

Although the trip to the Olympic Games will be a milestone in the history of the school, it will be by no means the first trip that organised parties of girls and boys from the school have made together. Mr Bryant is a firm believer in the axiom that travel is an education, and since he has been headmaster he has taken his pupils on tours through the North and South Islands. Nine years ago, he took a party of 36 boys to Mount Ruapehu. The party camped on the slopes of the mountain, climbed to the summit, and then walked down to a railway station for the journey home. The whole trip cost £3 for each boy. Since then, parties have been to Egmont and.Waitomo, and other districts. Two parties that went to Ruapehu consisted of 30 girls, who climbed to the top.

Four years ago, Mr Bryant took a party of 25 boys to Mount Cook, ana it was then that regular trips to the South Island began. The boys climbed Malte Brun (10,421 ft and a number of lower peaks. Since then, parties of up to 60 pupils visited Canterbury, Otago, Central Otago, and the Hermitage. Last Christmas 30 girls visited the Fox and Franz Josef glaciers. In 1953, a party of 18 girls flew to Norfolk Island with two staff members and camped on the island during the September vacation.

This morning, a party will arrive in Christchurch to travel on to the Ball Hut, near the Tasman Glacier, in a specially-chartered bus. The party comprises 18 boys and eight girls. “There is a need for purposeful travel for youngsters to make them better citizens, provided they do not travel as the result of parental indulgence,” said Mr Bryant in an interview. “They have got to earn the right to travel, and travel sensibly to places of value. I hold the view that unless a headmaster appreciates the value of these tours, there is a certain driving force that is lost.” Mr Bryant said he felt that youngsters should pay for their own trips and not expect wealthy relatives to dip into their pockets. ’‘Travel can be done in a relatively costless way, and these adolescents must not be too pampered,” he said. “There is no need for it. In fact, luxury travel for young people gives them a wrong slant on things.” Children were not the only ones who benefited by travel, he continued. Adults, too, could gain much experience. Travel Encouraged “Four of my staff members are now overseas, three of them on scholarships,” he said. “I encourage that. They are better teachers as a result of travel, and the youngsters will be better citizens, too.

“Literally dozens of these youngsters who have been on these tours are now travelling overseas. They are taking jobs on the way to finance themselves.”

Mr Bryant is a firm believer in co-education, and children at his school are permitted to mix as freely as they wish. “The test of co-education is the attitude adopted by the authority” he said. “Some so-called co-educa-tional schools are no more nor less than mixed schools. The term coeducation can be a misnomer. In some schools, classes are mixed or segregated solely for the purpose of convenience and time-tabling.”