POLITICAL FIELD

Evening Post, Volume CXXX, Issue 143, 13 December 1940, Page 9

POLITICAL FIELD

SECONDARY SCHOOL

PRODUCTS

"LITTLE TO ELEVATE MIND"

I The headmaster of Wellington College (Mr. W. A. Armour), in the report he presented to the breaking-up ceremony last night, made some pointed comment regarding.^ the question of why more men' with a secondary school education do not enter politics. |He concluded with the following ob-servation:—-"In available records of local or Parliamentary politics,, one finds little.;, to elevate the mind or induce one to become an active participant." "To the charge made that the secondary schools are not producing politicians," stated Mr. Armour, "one may at least affirm ,that oral expression, class debating, and school debating are developed to an extent unknown before. Civics and New Zealand history are more fully understood by pupils 'than formerly. Yet aspirants for political honours remain few. "There are no doubt many reasons for this. One may be that the abler products of our secondary schools at-' [tain to positions of responsibility preventing them from giving time to active politics or from leaving their businesses. "The main reason, however, seems to be a distaste for becoming embroiled in the bitterness of party politics as recorded in the Press or broadcast over the air." _^