"AN IDEAL HEADMASTER"

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 118, 22 May 1925, Page 3

"AN IDEAL HEADMASTER"

FAREWELL TO MR, W. H. L. FOSTER.

To mark their esteem and affection for Mr. W. H. L. Foster, M.A., who recently retired from the headmastership of the Clyde Quay School, members of the committee, a number of parents, and the 700 children attending the school, met together yesterday to bid him farewell, to wish him and Mrs. Foster happiness in his retirement, and to present him with a wallet containing a, substantial sum in notes. During his 46 years of service in the teaching profession, said the chairman of the committee (Mr. R. Scott) in making the presentation, Mr. Foster had made his name a household word among teachers, who would remember.him with respect and affection. He had the attributes and the temperament which went to the making of an ideal headmaster. He inspired confidence in his pupils, and enjoyed the respect and loyalty of his staff. On public occasions his organising ability had been invalu-. able. Mr. T. Forsyth, chairman of the Education Board, endorsed what had been said by Mr. Scott, and added that Mr. Foster was one of the ablest "teachers who had ever taught in the Wellington district. The board was very sorry to lose him. He wished Mr. and Mrs. Foster, on behalf of the board, a long and happy retirement. "There is no reason why the years at school should not be happy ones for the children," said Mr. Foster to the pupils. "It is often said of the children of today that they are not as good as the children of 20 and more years ago. Boya and girls, I taught some of your fathers and mothers, and you are just as good as they were-r-sometimes. There is nothing wrong with the children of New Zealand if they are given a fair deal." Mr. Foster thanked- the committee, parents, and staff for their loyal cooperation, and, continuing, said : "I' would warn committees and parents against the tendency to use our schools for purposes for which it was never intended they should be used. It has been said of teachers and children that they -arc not efficient. Schools and teachers are suffering not from a lack of efficiency; but from an excess of exploitation." He warned parents and committees against the schools being used for experimenting with halfbaked, educational fads, the children being utilised as in the nature of the raw material. Those who were responsible for that must be made to realise that they did not take over the children in a school body and soul.