IMPORTANT YEARS

Dominion, Volume 31, Issue 72, 18 December 1937, Page 13

IMPORTANT YEARS

Secondary Schooling

PROFESSOR’S VIEWS Dominion Special Service. Dunedin, December 17. The importance of pupils’ third and fourth years at secondary school was emphasised by Professor G. E. Thompson when speaking at Otago Girls High School break-up ceremony to-day. Professor Thompson said that both from the point of view of the University and of the pupils’ later life, it was desirable that these years should be spent at school. “I notice from the report that the average stay of pupils at the High School is two years and a half, ’ Professor Thompson said. “I suppose it is the same in most schools, but to me it is disastrous that this very expensive part of the New Zealand education system should be availed of only to that every small extent. I think years spent at school, particularly the third and fourth years, are productive of development and change in the life of a girl or boy that no other year will produce. ’ No matter what walk of life may be entered, it is difficult to find any year that will make up for those.”

On the university side, Professor Thompson added, it was well known that the time boys or girls spent in post-matriculation classes at a secondary school improved them much more than a similar time as a university student, and that those who went to the university after two years postmatrlculation were kings and queens among their fellows. Perhaps it could not be helped, but it would be desirable if the post-matriculation period could be extended so that the young people of New Zealand could grow up to be an educated democracy.