U.S. schools disappoint

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33424, 4 January 1974, Page 8

U.S. schools disappoint

The ordinary schools in the United States were a disappointment but some areas were making efforts to rectify the shortcomings of the established system by setting up alternative schools, Mr M. J. Me-’ Allum, of Bryndwr, said ■ yesterday.

| Mr McAllum returned recently from a 70-day tour of I the United States where he visited 16 cities and studied a I wide range of educational matters and aspects of pollution. civil rights and law and order.

His tour was financed by the United States Department of State and arranged by a private organisation, the Experiment in International Living.

Mr McAllum said he was dismayed with secondary schools where children aged from 15 to 17 were known only by number and with a lecture system where the teachers were not interested in whether students passed or failed.

Alternative schools sought to make education less impersonal and to involve parents and the community more. In some instances parents had to sign an agreement to contribute a set amount of their time to the school in a way that suited their ability.

Community colleges in the \ United States were similar to technical institutes in New Zealand but a wider range of people attended, and there was a greater selection of liberal arts courses such as history and anthropology. A person could begin a course at a community college and switch to a university and he would receive some credit for what he had done at the college.

Pre-school education had grown rapidly because of the high cost of living and the ! increasingly held view that women had a right to work. If American women with young children w'anted to work it seemed much easier for them to do so than it would be in New Zealand, said Mr McAllum. He said the provision of recreational facilities was uneven. the rich being amply catered for but the poor being badly off. Much of the disparity was caused by the reduction or cessation of a number of Federal grants and agencies.

Busing — the means whereby an attempt was being made to balance the numbers of black children and white children in schools

— was still a cause of tremendous controversy, said Mr McAllum.

■ Many' people, while they might accept such civil rights matters in theory found it hard to put them into practice.

Mr McAllum said he was constantly asked where New Zealand was. Americans rarely knew and often associated the Australian white immigration policy with New (Zealand, which he said was an indication of the importance many placed on racial matters.

This year Mr McAllum will be teaching at Colenso High School. Napier. He trained at the Christchurch Teachers’ College, where he was president of the secondary division’s Student Association last year.