BACKWARD CHILDREN

Evening Star, Issue 25672, 21 December 1945, Page 8

BACKWARD CHILDREN

OCCUPATIONAL CENTRE'S YEAR A small group of interested people attended the break-up of the school year at the Occupational Centre for backward children in Moray Place yesterday. For parents and those people who are professionally interested in this more difficult avenue of education, involving as it does the most patient skill in both routine and exploratory work with but a small reward for the most arduous repetitive instruction, this ceremony holds much more than the passing "interest attached to the ceremonies held at the year’s end in the ordinary school. The exercises showed a gratifyingly high standard of results. Pathetic though they were in the intensity of their concentration, the children had achieved a clarity of enunciation and a sureness of rhythm which spoke volumes for the care with which they had been given their instruction. And tho affection in which they held their mentors was eloquent. There were some songs . and little action songs, some solo recitations, the work of a percussion orchestra, and some simple dancing steps. A small play based on nursery rhymes was quite competently carried out. One youngster with advanced musical talent played a few popular tunes entirely by ear—an ear which surprisingly showed an appreciation of the harmony of chords. At the close of the demonstration. Mr R. R. Hunter, chief inspector of schools for the Otago district, paid a tribute to the work of Miss J. C. Greene and her assistants. He forecast the early opening of a hostel which the board has in train in 1946, and beyond that he could foresee the day when homes would he built there to accommodate the children. Afternoon tea and a Christmas gift party for the 36 children followed the more formal part of the proceedings.