MODERN EDUCATION

Dominion, Volume 30, Issue 173, 19 April 1937, Page 4

MODERN EDUCATION

Developments in America . A visitor to Auckland a few days ago was Mrs. AV. R. Goddard, of Los Angeles, a past president of the Los Angeles Parents-Teaehers’ Association. Mrs. Goddard, who will spend six months in Australia, intends to tour New Zealand on her way back to the United .States, The Parents-Teaehers’ Association was one of the largest women’s organisations iu the United States, Mrs. Goddard said. As her trip abroad was being taken mainly as a health tour, she had been forced to abandon plans for attending the National Congress of the association, to be held in Kichmoud, Vancouver, on May 3. Naturally the association was directly concerned with education in all its aspects, but .particularly from the point of view of teaching young children. Last month many new proposals of the State Legislature bad been considered at the California congress. It had been suggested in the Legislature that the minimum amount spent on one child for one year should be reduced. Mrs. Goddard considered that the system of allowing an amount a year for the education of one child in proportion to the size and standard of school attended would upset the firm foundation on which education iu the United States rested. At present the average cost of education was a minimum of £l3/10/- for each elementary child a year, and £2O/5/- for each high school and junior college student a year. Among important developments that had recently taken place in education spheres in California was the institution of State support for kindergartens. Mrs. Goddard considered that this form of education was almost indispensable. Shatterproof glass was now being placed in school bus windows, and much of the transport to and from school was being provided for the pupils free of charge. The State age of leaving school had been raised from 16 years' to 18 years. Suggestions that schools be established as recreational centres were also being carried out, subject to the approval of the President and Director of Public Welfare.