Woman to lead teachers

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 33003, 24 August 1972, Page 6

Woman to lead teachers

(From our educaton reporter) WELLINGTON, August 23. New Zealand’s 11,000 secondary-school teachers have elected a woman to lead them next year, through what is predicted to be a “crisis period in secondary education.” She is Miss Helen Ryburn, principal of Westlake Girl’s High School, Auckland.

A forthright, fairminded, and brilliant debater—for the cause of young people and teachers—Miss Ryburn believes implicity in the concept of dialogue.

Gone, she believes, are the days when teachers, school boards, and school principals can treat children as “examination fodder.” Pupils must be prepared to meet a changing world but this can only be achieved if they feel involved in their own education process. “It is far better to bring pupils into decision-making and establish freedom within a framework of law which is the result of dialogue between teachers, school boards, and pupils,” Miss Ryburn said. At a time when schools are being called upon to undertake increasing responsibilities, once thought to be the province of the home, Miss Ryburn believes that schools should teach sex education, but only after establishing the closest possible dialogue between community ana school. The present laws relating to sex education do not, she believes, make it difficult for this to be done, so long as information is given and no attempt is made by teachers to persuade young people to

adopt certain attitudes on sex matters.

As dialogue Increased between pupils and teachers, it was inevitable that many questions, once thought forbidden, bust be faced by schools. “All this can be done in consultation with parents,” Miss Ryburn said. “Most schools, I am sure, are aware that unless schools tackle some of these problems then no-one else will do it.” Miss Ryburn, who was bom and educated in India, where her father was a Presbyterian missionary, is deeply conscious of growing problems in New Zealand of racial tension. She is an outspoken advocate of teaching New Zealanders to accept a multi-racial society. “There is a basic assumption that the pakeha can adapt and grow in a multiracial society and that it is only Maori and Polynesian children who need special help, but we have to help the pakeha child to adapt, too,” she said. “After all, we must all learn to live together.”

No easy way lay ahead for secondary education to quell dissatisfaction and frustration in young people. There was no easy way to help young people to become more worth-while citizens, but school and community working together could achieve this so long as this liaison gave every young person a chance of success. “This does not come just from examination success,” said Miss Ryburn. “A child must feel successful in some other way as well in the school. He must leave with respect for himself and others. He must feel part of a system founded for nis, and society’s, benefit.” Miss Ryburn, who is a cousin of a former vicechancellor of the University of Otago, Dr H. Ryburn, was a primary teacher before graduation.

From Auckland University, Miss Ryburn taught at Auckland Girls’ Grammar School, Huntly College, and Westlake High School. When the latter was converted to separate boys’ and girls’ high schools in 1962, she joined the staff of the girls’ school.