Dr. Ausubel Amplifies Report On Bodgieism

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28541, 21 March 1958, Page 10

Dr. Ausubel Amplifies Report On Bodgieism

(New Zealand Press Association)

WELLINGTON, March 20. Dr. D. P. Ausubel, of the Bureau of Educational Research at the University of Illinois, made it clear today that he did not lay the entire blame for bodgieism on the secondary schools.

He said that in his address to the Justice Department’s annual conference of psychologists in Wellington, he listed four other causes unconnected with the secondary school—the increase in industrialisation, urbanisation, slum conditions, and the drift of Maoris to the cities over the last 10 years. “I think it is highly regrettable that some newspaper accounts of my remarks before the conference could make it appear that I laid the entire blame for bodgieism on the authoritarian discipline of the secondary schools.” Dr. Ausubel said. “It is doubly regrettable that responsible Government officials should attack my views on the basis of some fragmentary versions of my address that appeared. “It is one thing,” Dr. Ausubel said, “to make snap judgments on off-the-cuff remarks made by an overseas visitor. It is quite another thing to comment on a reasoned set of arguments presented as an invited paper before a professional society. In the latter instance inter-nationally-accepted principles of professional courtesy and integrity require that responsible persons withhold public comment on such a paper until they have an opportunity to read and study it in its entirety. “At this conference I clearly and unequivocally stated that the causes of bodgieism were multiple in nature, and suggested as a hypothesis that certain secondary school practices might be one among the many causes. In

addition to the factor of authoritariah discipline in the secondary schools I made mention of insufficient opportunity for pupils to acquire status and recognition in extra-curricular activities and to interact socially and interpersonally with individuals of the opposite sex.

“I also made specific reference to four other causes completely unconnected with the secondary school, namely, the increase in industrialisation, urbanisation, slum conditions, and the Maori drift to the cities over the last decade.

“Constructive progress in combating juvenile delinquency is not fostered when necessarily incomplete reports of a comprehensive analysis of the many factors involved could make it appear narrow and one-sided, and when the public in consequence react emotionally to such reports instead of being able to consider carefully and naturally the whole argument presented,” said Dr. Ausubel.