FULL BALANCE OF EDUCATION

Evening Star, Issue 20980, 19 December 1931, Page 11

FULL BALANCE OF EDUCATION

HEAD MASTER'S APPEAL TO PARENTS [Special to the ‘ Star;’] AUCKLAND, December 18. “I want parents and friends of the college in this time of difficulty to be sternly insistent on, and loyal to, a full balance of education, the ideal for which the college stands. Let no one make the education of his son his first economy. If the standards of motor cars, social entertainment, or personal pleasure have to be curtailed do not allow your sons to lose their great chance of getting a solid start in life.” These observations were made by the Rev. H. K. Archdall, head master of King’s College, in the course of a report at the annual presentation of prizes. In expressing satisfaction that the popularity of accrediting as a substitute for public examinations was now definitely on the down grade, the head master said: “I cannot but be saddened at the tendency in New Zealand to rush off to some foolish notion or nostrum as the one thing necessary, the only principle being that we ought to try anything once. There are a good many people who have ■ to eat their words* on this matter of accrediting, and it is a little comic to observe that two university professors bad to go to England before they reported against the proposal of accrediting for matriculation.” “ We do not belittle learning or sneer at intellect,” added the head master, “ but the knowledge to be followed must be the sort that makes men wise and not merely clever. We link the playing field with character and not merely with physique. But we do not propose to assign primacy to brawn over brain.”