TOO SOON AT WORK

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

TOO SOON AT WORK

YOUNG SCHOOL CHILDREN j Wages of 25s to 30s a week paid to beginners today were attracting too many young children into commerce or industry before they were developed either physically, mentally, or vocation ally for such work, said the director of the Wellington Technical College (Mr. R. G. Ridling) in his annual report at the college breaking-up ceremony last night. Experience had shown that only a very small proportion of such young leavers succeeded in part-time education at evening classes, Mr. Ridling continued. Out of their own experience parents, should know that children of 14 arid 15 years of age could not know what was best. If given their heads too soon, not only did they hurt themselves but they jeopardised social progress. Progress would come only through education and that did not necessarily mean only through established schools, but through right social relationships, and the school, if it were an institution of culture, was surely the place to develop that attitude. "I urge parents to prevent their children rushing into new experiences before they have learned values," said Mr. Ridling. "Experiences may elevate or may debase us. They are to be nosed into rather than rushed. "It will amaze many parents to know that from some first-year classes 50 per cent, of the students have left already and, in some cases, half the remainder do not expect to return next year. We are being stampeded by an emergency situation and are not thinking seriously enough of the future welfare of our young people."