FIVE-YEAR-OLDS

Dominion, Volume 27, Issue 188, 8 May 1934, Page 10

FIVE-YEAR-OLDS

Non-Admission to Schools TEACHERS’ DISCUSSION Repeal of Clause Wanted Reaffirming a remit of 1933 that in the interests of the physical- social, and moral welfare of the children of New Zealand, the clause forbidding enrolment of a child at a primary school until the age of six years, should be repealed, delegates at the conference of the New Zealand Educational Institute which began yesterday, brought forward a number of uew facts and arguments in support. The institution had been opposed to the exclusion of the five-year-olds all along, and had advanced strong arguments against the Minister’s policy, said Mr. A. B. Fordyce, in moving Hie remit. Among these arguments were the psychological and educational effects, and the sociological aspects, character foundation, and the health of the children. Mr. Fordyce pointed out.- that there was now ample evidence to prove that the institute had been right in its attitude. The six-year-old scheme had been In operation for two years, and tlie opinions of teachers throughout <he country had been taken, It found that the six-year-olds had much greater difficulty in adjusting themselves to the environment of the schoolroom. They were less amenable to organised control, less able to exercise concentration and less amenable to the influence of the community spirit. The socialising influences of the modern infant room were retarded. Anti-social habits had in numerous cases been ingrained and it was felt there was a definite social deterioration as compared with the five-year-olds. Defects Accentuated. Infant mistresses. Mr. Fordyce continued, had noticed that where pupils suffered from physical weakness, such as speech/ eye or teeth defects, these were accentuated.. The gap between the period of infant welfare and school medical care had been widened when really, in the interests of the children, it should be bridged. “Intellectually,” said Mr. Fordyce, “the children certainly have not gained. There has been some difference of opinion as to whether a child loses in factual knowledge or instruction, though here, too, it has to be pointed out that the course is normally a twoyear one. There is now in* some places a tendency to push- the six-year-olds, and this, a retrograde step, has tended to cause recourse to more formal methods. The result has been that wider and more important phases of infant room work—the establishing of right habits and the development of character —are being lost to the bhild.”

Tho opinions of parents were definitely against tlie exclusion of the five-year-olds, as the resolutions of the recent annual meetings of householders from one end of New Zealand to the other had shown. Parents were sending children to private schools, and the kindergartens, many of the latter being in the hands of untrained teachers. Needs of “Plus-child.” Miss K. B. Turner (North Canterbury) stressed the needs of the pluschild, who at four had a mental age of six. There was no provision under the six-year-old scheme for eases like this, and there were numbers of them who needed more training than the home could give. Mr, L. J. Broomfield (Auckland) pointed out that the present system was sometimes taken advantage of in the country, where some parents made use of the children for work about the farm. There were some who kept their children at home until they were seven so as to make tlie most of their services, and even then the local teacher had occasionally to interfere and insist on the children attending. This was a form of child slavery which the six-year-old scheme encouraged. Mr. P. W. Campbell (North Canterbury) questioned the wisdom of dragging the five-year-olds back to school. He would prefer to see them in communal playgrounds under supervision. The remit was carried unanimously. Petition to Parliament. ■ A remit that teachers and scliool <•011110 it tecs should combine to organise (he presentation of a petition to Parliament this year with reference to tlie five-years-old children was then discussed. It was passed with the addition of an amendment authorising the incoming executive to set up a subcommittee in one of the four centres with power to spend up to £5OO to awaken public opinion to a degree that, would lead to effective political action being taken to readmit the five-year-olds.