"WIDELY DIVERGENT"

Evening Post, Volume CIV, Issue 25, 29 July 1922, Page 11

"WIDELY DIVERGENT"

CONDITIONS IN AMERICA V AND NEW ZEALAND JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL EXPERIMENT i ■ j THE t NEED FOR OAUTION. "To transplant an American, system, • root and branch,, was, in our opinion, to court failure." The opinion is that of the local' members of the executive 'of the Secondary \ Schools Association, and was ; voiced at a recent'■ ineetinig with, the Minister of Education and departmental officials, at which, the question,-of, proposed junior high schools was; discussed. A rojiort oi thv-iaeeting, wae supplied to the AVellington College Board of'Qoveniors yesterday' by the headmaster, of Wellington', College (Mr. T. R. Cresswell), who.is. president of the Secondary Schools', Associatioh. 'The general wish of secondary teachers, he stated, was expressed' for; a reasonable' experimentation, with a view to-, improvement of the existing -system. Tie chief .points the , ' local members endeavoured to make were:— ' ■'.'.' ■. .., '': '.. . (1)' "The desirability of the experiment being conducted cautiously. , We advocated the establishment of not moi"4 than three Schools, one in aniain centre,1 . one in a- town of the size of, say, ■Napier or)Timara, and one •in a rural district.,' We also urged that no more (schools of this type should be established, for at least, three. yeairs. • We 'stressed tSe fact, that the junior high school had been 1 ,36611 in operation only in. America, arid that conditons; there were widely divergent from those obtaining here, particularly with, respect,to population, nationality, } and finance.-./ To. transplant .an American system, root and .branch, was, in our opinion, to court failure. (2) ''We1 also1 raised' some objection, to th« junior high schools 'being placed" under education boards, except as a temporary' expedient, arid until a special boaid could be' constituted. ; The reason foT ■ our pbjectiori was that secondary schood.'..teachers, < b^inf, „, unknown (officially) to; education boards,^ would be a.t a grave disadvantage on -applying for . appointment. • . i ''■:•■'.■ ',' ..--.■"."■''.;-' ■'■'■ . (3) ''.We^also. pointed out that it was apparently.,,'proposed to appoint' >to: th« staffs 'of these schools, none but skilled ,' teaoHora of'the higher, grades .-."that ther,e 1 were to jbe\rione of.-:the\.'comparatively; inexperienced teachers -of r the -lowest' grade .''who'form.: about one-third of the staffs of our secondary schools . (in1 the Wellington;colleges'..there,are"about six-; teen'of such-teachers), vWe insisted that .the' results< of >an experiment' conducted, undei such conditions of| staffirig.Vwoulfi not form a fair basis of comparison, beItween the -new-'and. ■■.the older types of. secondary' schools; '!,':>.' „\ ■ ' "' ;. . ■•'■.. (4) "We stressed .the.; value of the continuous influence' ofi. a school;.. and ;! expressed a' fear'that "such ;iitfluence would 'be materially'weakened if cKil--dren"in the course of their/school' life passed through three institutions instead ■■ of two." •"/ ■■ ': •. ■ "■" ",■• ' ;.. I ■/'..,'i\ The headmaster added r^'.'The ..Minister '; and Departmental-officials gave tia every? opportunity-1 to express' our views' at Jengtb,-; and; we.-have to thank them for devoting practically, a whole morning: to, discussion, of/a subject, which is of'vital,! ' interest';to alt Secondary school teachers.": TilK DIiFARTMENT'S PEjOPOSALS! ' A communication regarding the proposal t6., establish jonipr-iiigh schools'. was received* from the Director of Education (>liJ.;<J. Caujjhley), with a request for an opinion as tp the most desirable localities for the erection-of the schools. The letter stated:—* '■' l-; ■ -"•■ \:” "Your board will no doubt be more or less familiar with .the proposals under consideration regarding the establish-1 ment of junior high schools. It is hoped that the final regulations concerning the establishment of one euch school in tha Auckland district . i will, soon be issued, and this may be taken, in. general, as a type of vrhat might be /undertaken in other districts, with the exception of the staff, which' will be modified according to the size of other schools established. In the meantime I shall be glad if your. J board would consider in what localities it would be; most advisable to consider the establishment of junior high schools. I may ;say ; that it is nob ..likely that more ..than 'three such school* -will be1 established 'next 'year. 'One of these should :be in. a town containing from five thousand, to' nine •thousand inhabitants, and one in1 a district where there is at present a district,high school, which would Under the junior high school system be enlarged, by, the inclusion of,the present fifth and' sixth, standards." In connection .with the last-mentioned type ,6f school, it would be desirable also to know whether it would be possible to ijohvey to the shortened: portion of the present „ primary department; of a district high school , children from small- adjacent , schools. If 'this could be dona it would enable the grade of the primary, portion of a: present } district high school to. be maintained.;, Suggestions regarding suit-, able localities as above-mentioned should be ;sent! iii within, a month from the present date (12th July)."., ; The chairman'of the board (Mr. W. F. Ward), said that there wa's really no need to worry about the matter at the present time, irt-; view-of the fact that' : the Minister bad'seated that.only three schools were to be.erected, the main one in Auckland. It was understood that they were .to be experimental 'schools. Mr.W.;H. P. Barber thought that it would be advisable to await the result of the establishment of the larger school in Auckland. TChe; new , schools might relieve th-e congestion of the high sphools. * After brief discussion on the matter the board decided to suggest Wellington and Palmerston North as the most suitable localities for the establishment of the schools. : : . •■ ■