RANDOM REMINDER

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30287, 13 November 1963, Page 35

RANDOM REMINDER

REVOLUTION

New Zealanders travelling overseas are often horrified at how little others know of their country. Very often, the beastly foreigners have never heard of the All Blacks, Stewart Island oysters, the T.A.8., Rotorua’s mud pools, or indeed, of New Zealand. But occasionally the boot is on the other foot. In a Christchurch school there is an Englishwoman charged with the responsibility of introducing standard one pupils to the mysteries of social studies. She is fairly new

to the job and she has not had time, yet, to master fully the details of the syllabus as it relates to the study of the Maori. And so, one recent day, she decided to fill in part of that particular lesson by talking about English children and English schools. She met with an encouragingly lively response from her young audience, although she was somewhat astonished at the nature of the questions which were fired at her. What kind of clothes do you wear in England? She said that the clothes were similar to those worn by New Zealand

children and their parents. “Do you eat the same kind of food?” one wideeyed youngster asked. She said they did. Then the knock-out blow. “Do you think,” said one little innocent, “that you could speak a few words in English for us?” It was then that the teacher showed notable forebearance. She resisted the temptation to start talking about climbing the apples and pears and gravely told her charges that their language had begun in England, some time before it was used in New Zealand.