Springbok Fever Fires Interest In Education

Press, Volume XCIV, Issue 28010, 3 July 1956, Page 14

Springbok Fever Fires Interest In Education

Springbok fever has entered the schools of Canterbury. Teachers have no hopes that it will abate before the end of this term so they are sublimating the high spirits of their pupils into the paths of education. Symptoms of the fever are not hard to recognise. Those affected become more valuable than usual—but a-ways on the subject of Rugby footcad. The mark of the fever is found in score cards which have joined the pocket knife, the bit of string, and other odds and ends in €v ery. boy s pocket.

“This excitement is wholesome and we are doing nothing to stop it,” said primary school headmaster. “Children get the best out of sport. There is no mean spirit, and if the Springboks trounced New Zealand I think our pupils’ enthusiasm would not be dimmed. There is nothing parochial about it.”

The South Africans’ visit is colouring many school lessons. It is fairly common for social studies abou. South Africa to be taken this year at this time and. on many school walls, display projects are becoming a major decoration. New Zealand social studies are also being pursued at unheard of speed in another primary school where districts are oeing surveyed in the order of the Springboks’ matches. At the moment. Nelson and Marlborough are being covered with relish.

One master was so bold as to ask his class to pick the Canterbury team to meet the Springboks. They were allowed to consult "Mum and Dad” overnight and next morning had to nominate their players and positions in an oral exercise, giving reasons for their choice. “I’ve never heard oral work done with such emphasis, method, and persuasion,” their teacher said. “This task was real and live.”

Interest is, in many cases, very personal. One school has a Canterbury captain as a master. On another staff is the man who gives the local radio commentaries. In other schools, children are related to leading players. There are keen quests for firsthand opinions. Even school films are tending to centre on South Africa. A Music Project Perhaps the most distinctive repercussion of the Springboks’ visit has occurred at the Papanui High School. The music master (Mr T. J. Kirk-

Burnnand) was recently talking about band music to a class of boys and mentioned the American custom of band displays before big footbail games. The talk inevitably swung round to the Springboks. The master asked whether the boys would like to learn ‘‘Saric Marais.” Even boys not very receptive to music became keen. All the verses were learned in English andfthen (with Dutch boys in the school) an attack was made on the true Springbok version. Three weeks ago. a boys’ choir from the Papanui High School, accompaniea by the Woolston Brass Band under Mr D. Christensen and with Mr Colin Campbell as soloist, recorded “Sane Marais” for H.M.V. and on the other side of the disc another arrangement by Mr Kirk-Burnnand of "On the Ball” was recorded. The one disc will thus have two songs traditional to football in South Africa and New Zealand.

The Papanui High School music project has not stopped there. This recognition has fired still further enthusiasm for music and South African songs in particular. During the war, Mr Kirk-Burnnand made a collection from all countries called "War and Music.” These original versions will be used in the school’s music throughout the winter.

“The Press” found it difficult to keep the teachers consulted about this story on the educational implications. Both men and women wanted to talk about the Springboks. Springbok fever is not confined to the pupils. One headmaster put it this way: “At lunchtime, my wife, whom I had sent to get my tickets, told me with some vigour that I was the only headmaster in Christchurch not in the queue to collect his own.”