COMMERCIAL EDUCATION

Evening Star, Issue 23122, 23 November 1938, Page 19

COMMERCIAL EDUCATION

SPECIALISATION BY PUPILS • VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE COMMITTEE The application of education to the youth about to enter into vocations embracing commerce was explained to the Vocational Guidance Committee at its meeting last night by Mr A. G. Valentine, vice-president of the New Zealand Institute of Secretaries. He commented that the field he covered would be necessarily restricted because no fast and bound authority as to which was the best method of preparation had yet been evolved by either the commercial or the teaching professions.

Taking as his starting point the average boy or girl, and leaving the other classifications into which they were grouped, Mr Valentino proceeded to analyse what the commercial world required of these persons. There was a direction where some schools were more successful than others. For instance, the pupil mig|it not be industrious, honest, and amenable to discipline, And these qualities could to a degree be inculcated in him at the same time that knowledge was being obtained. Some schools were more valuable to the person than others to correct these characteristics. It was of paramount importance that, the pupil be grounded in a general course, even to the extent of learning outwardly useless subjects that the business community regarded as being absolutely useless to them and to the pupil. Here Mr Valentine commented that he believed in the motto that “Knowledge is Power.”

An adjustment had been made necessary in both the educational and business worlds in the Dominion because of new Government legislation. It was necessary to appreciate the position, and not merely to bemoan the possible effects of these changes. One of them had involved specialisation at perhaps a too youthful age. However, if a pupil had participated in a general course at an early age he was certain that he was better fitted to commence specialisation at an early age in his chosen career after he had left school than the pupil who had not the knowledge given by a good grounding in general knowledge. What seemed to give credence to this theory was the examination standard set by commercial institutions. The educational foundation, it seemed, should be firmly set by the time the pupil was 16 or 17 years old. After these ages it was difficult to secure a suitable opening. There was the alternative in certain cases of the person showing particular aptitude to obtain a university scholarship and become a fully qualified accountant, holding the degree of 11. Com. The standards of writing and spelling were commented on by Mr Valentine. To him it appeared that until leaving the primary school the pupil wrote a kind of copperplate hand. On entering a secondary school, however, he was expected to make his writing smaller and to be able to produce words at a quicker pace—far faster than to what he was accustomed. This must necessarily develop a slovenly style that was difficult to eradicate. It seemed that some time early when the pupil entered the secondary school should be devoted to the practice of .speed writing. He had purposely refrained from discussing vocations for girls as separate from boys, for, to a degree, what ho had commented on also applied equally to girls, said Mr Valentine, whoso business careers in addition were apt to be cut short by entry into a wider sphere. Here he pointed out that it was essential that in the case of shorthand and typing and similar subjects, it was necessary that they should specialise early in the'ir scholastic lives. There was a discussion of various points embodied in Mr Valentine’s address. The speaker was accorded a vote of thanks.