EDUCATION IDEALS

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 196, 16 May 1936, Page 16

EDUCATION IDEALS

Secondary School Assistants’ Association PRESIDENT’S ADDRESS Tlie opinion that now was the time to examine tlie ideals for which secondary education in this country stood, and the ends it hoped to attain, was expressed by Miss K. V. Edgerley (Auckland Girls’ Grammar School), in her presidential address to the annual conference of the Secondary Schools’ Assistants’ Association, which opened at Wellington yesterday. In a period of reconstruction there always existed a danger that an attempt may be made to standardise tlie different types of schools, to forget that the needs they met were different, and that each had its own place in a modern scheme of education. In some quarters there was a demand for unification of the teaching services and of the inspectorate, but the result of that might well be a dull uniformity instead of a use of variety. In recent years there had been an increasing stress, but on the practical side of education a demand for manual skill in various trades and insistence that a pupil be taught to earn a living. The secondary school of the future, it seemed, would have to he on a multi-bins school of many interests. Pupils should be required to take certain essential subjects, but the rest of the time should be devoted to those subjects which would develop the special aptitudes of the pupil. Such schools would require much more equipment and a larger specialist staff. Much better provision should be made for the teaching of singing and musical appreciation, for art. physical education, and such new developments as the use of radio and visual education. In most schools generous grants were necessary to develop the school libraries. Furthermore. the spiritual factor should not be forgotten. Support was given to a remit brought forward by the Rotorua High and Grammar School, suggesting that in view of the fact that a pass in the university entrance examination was required for employment in the Department of Native Affairs, some allowance should be made In this examination for Maori candidates, to whom English was a foreign language. It was stated that the Maori spoke English in the school, and in their native tongue lit home. As a result they thought in Maori. With time their translation was all right, but under the stress of examinations they were inclined to expression in their own style. The text of a remit from the Mount Albert Grammar School, which was carried, was: “That the department be asked to restore tlie capitation grant for science purposes to the pre-1932 level, as the existing rate has seriously affected the supply of science apparatus and material in secondary schools, and has consequently limited the amount of practical work that can be carried out.” The conference also supported the following two remits, brought forward by Wellington and Rongotai Colleges respectively : — “That, in order to place the lower-grade teachers in secondary schools on the same footing as those in combined nnd technical schools, the salary bar between D and C be abolished.” “That this association requests the Minister and the department to inaugurate some scheme whereby those holding C nnd D positions will have more hope of advancement.” Officers were elected as follow: —President. Mr. H. A. Heron (’Wellington College) ; vice-president. Miss 1., S. Morton (Otago Girls’ High School); secretary and treasurer. Mr. A. 11. Thom (Wellington College) : executive. resident Mr. J. R. Cuddie (’Wellington College). Miss F. E. Kershaw (Wellington Girls’ College), Mr. G. W. Morice (Wairarapa High School). Miss C. G. Mahoney (Dannevirke High School), Messrs. R. Frazer (Otago Boys’ High School), E. W. Espiner (Christchurch ’West) : members of Secondary Schoo’s* Association, executive. Dr. A. Smith (Palmerston North Boys’ High School). Mr. A W. Short (Takapuna Grammar School), and Miss K. V. Edgerley (Auckland Girls’ Grammar School) ; auditor. Mr. S. M. Kinross.