Educational Aims And Needs

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31659, 20 April 1968, Page 4

Educational Aims And Needs

Educating New Zealanders. By Jack Shallcrass. Reed. 154 pp. “Feminine Viewpoint” must surely be one of the most popular programmes on the National Stations; in the last few years it has established a very high reputation for informed comment and provocative opinions. The programme is “feminine” chiefly in that it is heard at an hour when only women are at leisure—this is unfortunate, because it severely limits the audience of much high quality material. This drawback is to some extent remedied by the occasional publication of “Femin-

ine Viewpoint” lectures, which tradition the present volume is following. As a member of the staff of Wellington Teachers’ College, Mr Shallcrass writes with a wide experience not only of the classroom situation but also of addressing adults on educational topics. The unusually high interest level that he succeeds in maintaining is probably due to the original form of the talks: Mr Shallcrass speaks from the Damoclean position of one who knows his listeners will switch him off the moment he becomes dull, and so he never becomes dull. It is a pity that more books on education were not first presented in broadcast form. But the inevitable consequence is that Mr Shallcrass never dwells on one subject at any length, and avoids spending too much time substantiating his arguments. This deficiency is one that should have been remedied before the series was presented in book form: the book

lists given at the end of each chapter, though comprehensive and in themselves excellent, fail to provide the specific references that theorists will require. This is just another reflection of the audience-range that Mr Shallcrass has in mind: in-service teachers and parents. Enough has been writen for the educational theorists. Mr Shallcrass is concerned with providing practical advice for the young teacher perplexed by jargonriddled teaching guides, for parents worried by their child’s low reading rate. In “Educating New Zealanders” there are no “classroom climates,” no “verbal interactions,” no "spiral curricula,” no “decision-making theories,” nothing, in fact, but sound and sympathetic advice, advice that is not merely a restatement of the ideas expressed by overseas authorities, but a radical revaluation of educational aims and needs directed specifically to the New Zealand situation.