AWAY FROM SCHOOL INFLUENCES.

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVIII, Issue 11, 13 July 1944, Page 6

AWAY FROM SCHOOL INFLUENCES.

"Unfortunately, the efforts of the school arc-often nullified by the influence of the home and the environment of the community. Take, for example, the 'teaching of correct speech. We all know that the English speech, as spoken by New Zealanders, is marred by two defects —the mispronunciation of the vowel sound 'i' as 'oi' and the mispronunciation of W as in the feline cry of 'meow.' By phonetics and singing it is quite possible to ensure that the child speaks his mother tongue without such defects of pronunciation, but we can ensure this only while he is in the classroom. When he leaves the school and returns home, he finds himself very often in an environment, that is amongst relatives and friends, where his efforts to put into practice what he has been taught become the

subject of ridicule. I have known parents objecting to their children being taught to speak the English tongue, r unmarred by dialect twang on the ground that they did not want their boys or girls to think themselves superior to their own fathers or mothers.

"Finally, let me say a word or two about the last of the core subjects— physical training. At most we have been able to devote only an hour a

week to this vitally-important part of the boys' education. We propose next year to double the time. Physical fit-

ness means everything to a boy both

while he is at school and after he leaves. A physically-fit boy will ensure for himself the adult heritage of a healthy mind in a healthy body."