VAST EXTENSION

Evening Post, Volume CXXI, Issue 153, 30 June 1936, Page 5

VAST EXTENSION

KINDERGARTEN WORK

PROFESSOR GOULD'S HOPE

' Really the best educational work in New Zealand" was the description applied to the work of kindergartens in the community by Professor W. H. Gould at the annual meeting of ths Wellington Free . Kindergarten Assoclatiqi last evening. The only fault was ih«t there were not enough of them, he said. The studying of the individual proclivities of the pupil, so valuable and apparent a, part of the work'of kindergartens, grew progressively worse through the various stages, until it reached the university, where it was worst of all. ; Professor Gould said he hoped to see the-kindergarten movement vastly extended. He did not think there was any doubt of .the present Government being definitely behind it, "and hoped they would be even more liberal than granting a pound-for-pound subsidy. He would like to see kindergartens established not only in the cities, but available to all■ children who " needed them; and he was convinced that that meant almost all children. Ninety per cent of the children of New Zealand, and: more, would benefit greatly from attendance at kindergarten, but if that phase of education were neglected it would be trying to buildc an A 1 community out of a C 3 population.- Kindergarten work was of the utmost importance, and the Government could find no better ■ investment for its support. Even the best of homes -did not always make the right environment for children, continued Professor Gould. They were constructed primarily for the needs and requirements of the grown-up, not the needs and requirements of the child. .Children needed the; stimulus, sympathy, and understanding, of a' woman trained to attend to ;their requirements. .The speaker, scotched the . suggestion that some mothers welcomed kindergartens as a means to greater leisure, and said that occasional separation was good for, both mother and child; it saved "nerves" and bickering.

It was to be hoped that kindergartens would not be attached to primary schools and become part of a State Department, added Professor Gould. Both branches of education would suffer.