Illiteracy

Press, 8 May 1978, Page 20

Illiteracy

Sir, —How topsy-turvy can you get? Promotion at school is based on social reasons, and now illiteracy is blamed on the home. Surely the home is primarily responsible for social needs and the school for literacy? And remedial work is unnecessary when the job is done properly in the first place — just ask any dressmaker or carpenter. A child whose reading can be remedied later is a child who could have been properly taught earlier. If secondary teachers were agitating for really small infant classes, the better training of infant teachers, and more effective methods of teaching reading at the infant level, they would have the whole-

hearted support of all of us. —Yours, etc., (Mrs) M. E. RITCHIE. May 5, 1978.

Sir, —You are to be commended in advocating the abandonment of social promotion in schools. This concept, along with the abolition of the proficiency examination, was foisted on New Zealand by the first Labour Government which, in matters educational, was under the spell of Dr C. E. Beeby. He, in turn, was spellbound by the theories of John Dewey. This unfortunate conjunction led to the jettisoning of many sound principles of scholarship and teaching and laid the foundations for today’s insecure edifice. The irony is that whereas the United States, which spawned Dewey, long ago abandoned his theories, we have continued to build upon them. The principal of Auckland Grammar School, John Graham, last year fired a broadside at those he termed “educational idiots.” They might be more precisely described as Dewey-eyed dolts. —Yours, etc., GRAHAM RHIND. Mav 5, 1978.

Sir, —In ethnocentric New Zealand it is no surprise that many Polynesian children reach secondary school illiterate. From his first day at school the five-year-old Polynesian is often labelled deprived. His pre-school ex-

periences, not fitting the ruling middle-class pakeha norms, are considered irrelevant and lacking. His teacher’s expectations are minimal — and he achieves accordingly. Pakeha New Zealanders must recognise and accept the validity of cultural values other than their own individualistic and competitive ones. We are not an egalitarian society. We are complacent and bigoted, and we have the education and the political system we deserve. — Yours, JANE WELLS. Doyleston. May 5, 1978.