‘Red book’ used by teachers in 1928

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 32880, 1 April 1972, Page 20

‘Red book’ used by teachers in 1928

Mr N. A. Garden, who retired this week as headmaster of the Ashburton Borough school after 42 years in teaching, began his career to the guidelines of what was popularly termed the “red book”—but the differences between that and the “little red book” recently cleared by the Indecent Publication Tribunal. could hardly be greater.

The "red book” used by Mr Garden was published in 1928, and in 222 pages contained the entire syllabus and instruction for primary school education.

This was one of the major changes in education that Mr Garden has seen during his career; a great deal more freedom is now allowed teachers as far as curriculum development is concerned. "Teachers were confined to much narrower channels, and had to work within the bounds of the ‘red book’,” said Mr Garden yesterday. Education Department instructions for primary teachers were today contained in a number of volumes, far more comprehensive than the old books, and were used more as a basis for teaching than cut-and-dry methods. Mr Garden, who, at 62 years, has been headmaster of the Borough school for more than 10 years, began his career as a pupil-teacher in the town of his birth— Orepuki. Southland—in 1930. In those days intending teachers spent a year gaining practical experience before attending Teachers’ College. He spent two years at the Dunedin Teachers’ College, where he met his wife, before taking his first permanent appointment in the remote one-teacher school at Nokomai. in the hills near Kingston, Southland. The school catered for about 16 pupils, drawn from a nearby gold-mine and sheep stations. Mr Garden taught at Nokomai for two years, later spending 25 years teaching at small rural schools throughout Otago and Southland. His last appointment before transferring to the Hinds school in 1958 was as headmaster of the Arrowtown school. Mr Garden was headmaster at Hinds for two years before being appointed headmaster of the Ashburton Borough school. Speaking on the problems and future of teaching. Mi Garden said that the Education Department had done a great deal to bring teaching faculties up to standard, although teachers inNew Zealand'often complained at inadequate conditions. “For; the first 20 years or 80 > of. .’fiy career I taught in conditions that would appal many of today’s teachers,” he saidi. "There were many substandard schools then, often without adequate lighting or heating, and, while teachers did not accept con-

ditions cheerfully, we were forced to accept them.” On sex education in schools. Mr Garden said he accepted the New Zealand Education Institute policy of many years—“it is a matter for the home.”

He said, however, that trends towards encouraging children to undertake additional voluntary work, and free work under supervision at schools, should be encouraged. “Children should be encouraged to work by themselves, given guidelines. They should be taught how to study—as we do in our Form II classes, to prepare them for secondary school.” Teaching, for Mr Garden, has held “many frustrations, but also many rewards.” Now he is retired, Mr Garden has moved from the beadmaster’s residence in Burnett Street—which, after 90 years, will no longer be used by the Education Department—to his own home in Walnut Avenue.

He will live in Ashburton, and continue his work as general administrator for the Intellectually Handicapped Children’s Society. “That will probably take up quite a bit of time,” he said.