LETTERS FROM CHILDREN

Press, Volume XCIII, Issue 27875, 25 January 1956, Page 6

LETTERS FROM CHILDREN

English Language Found Confusing

CORRESPONDENCE SCHOOL EXTRACTS

'The Press” Special Service AUCKLAND, January 23

Children whom their teachers seldom, if ever, see reveal their personalities, talents, prides, and prejudices in letters, drawings, and articles sent to members of the staff of the Education Department Correspondence School. Extracts from these communications are published in the school’s magazine “The Postman.” The letters come from remote Pacific islands, sheep runs buried in the lonely hills and lighthouses perched on promontories off the rugged New Zealand coast —places which are too isolated and under-populated to support schools. These written exchanges help to compensate for the absence of personal relationship between teacher and pupil.

. Many of the letters contain interesting facts about far away and little known places. But the delightful touches of humour, much of it unconscious. take the fancy. A Rugby football enthusiast vividly described how the centre threequarters made several good breaks calving his way through the opposing team. Although he had probably not been to a local body meeting, a school!b°y defined the duty of a chairman “to &t s. g l ®* th ? sense of the meeting, is withheld throughout.” One pupil gave the adjective corresponding to the noun abdomen” as “abdominable.” A Natural Note There is a natural note in these observations of a member of the infant school: We have a calf called Jinj. Murre can scid along on his botim. I ha .X?r for 3 ‘gsaws. luv from Meryl—p 3 ” went away for a holiday to Auckland. We saw th,g. fluffing rivers and we saw the steam coming out where the Maoris are. Uncle Robert went past all the cars.” This communication from Peter, of a South Island country town, suggests that he was carried away by his visit to the big city. Or Uncle Robert’s express transport might have confused his geography. The unsophisticated native of the romantic South Seas is apparently not as rare a bird, as anthropologists.believe. Elizabeth— writes from the Cook Islands: 'There aren't any springs here. We just have a hurricane season and a cool season. The hens have chickens all round the year and don't know about spring. . . Frances—was perfectly frank when sne was asked to write about “Mv Busiest Day.” "I am very sorry but u- j® never bad a busy day. My birthday is tomorrow, I will be eight. I will have to get busy then. I like helping Daddy best. I don’t like Mummy’s kind of work.” Heather—, a standard one pupil, has a sense of humour, even if it is at father s expense, “One day I was sewing on the sofa, I dropped my needle. I looked and looked for it but could not find it, so I went out to play. After a while Dad came in to have a cup of tea. While he was waiting for the kettle to boil he found he had a thorn in his finger. He said, ‘Where can I find a needle in this house? He sat down on the sofa and then jumped up with , a fright. He found a needle alright. He sat on my lost needle.”