BOYS OF TO-DAY.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 16 August 1924, Page 16

BOYS OF TO-DAY.

DETERIORATION OF HOME LIFE. HEADMASTERS’ VIEWS. The headmasters oi u oiling,>.ou primary schools were enteri..ui;ed by rueRotary Club on Tu.-.day, and speeches were made by Messrs -J. C. Webb (Taorndou) and W. H. 1.. v oster (Clyde Quay;. • Air Webb said that the problem oi the boy was like some of tne puzzles they had to solve at sciiool; they remained so for ever. At the same time he did not think that the difficulties twenty years ago were so abtruse as they were to-day. In those days boys ivere more solid than to-day. They had more application, and ‘their devotion to study was more marked than at present. The boys were not coming up of such good quality. Probably that was because the parentage had deteriorated. Home life for The boy had not altogether gone, but was', disappearing very rapidly. Fathers and mothers did not look after their boys as they used to. He sometimes wondered whether they were not going rather incautiously iii their efforts. Every week some very well-meaning but senseless dissipation was provided v Inch interfered with children’s education. Che Rotary Club should concentrate more on the boy after lie had left school, for until that stage the school could very well look after him. It was during the age of adolescence, that care Horn outside bodies was most welcome. , ( Mr Foster struck a different note ‘ 1 have no fear,” lie said, ‘for the New Zealand boy if he is allowed to work out his own salvation in a proper environment. This country of ours loi the climate it possesses and for the opportunity it gives to a pupil, is unsurpassed.” If they looked at the homes they could not wonder at the lack of parental control. The flats, the shanties, anti the rooms so manv people lived in were utterly unfit for the bringing up of a family decently Hie housing problem was undoubted! y at the root of the deterioration of home life One thing he disliked to see was- the boy’s growing attitude towards work; he felt that the ev ample set him by men was to dodge work whenever possible. He had alk«; VS in uni,lnism for the workers, but he was afraid that its re enii-ifr U l inere i! sl l lg . wa S es and short ening hours had had the effect- of reducing the members to a. state oi mediocrity. He felt that if the bov was given his chance there- would K zlalSLr t 0 !r. f ° r + the young New Sen d bwk lf reate , r lnterest was aken in the boy when he entered tS f and som u s " ch scheme as that in force in the Royal Navv to conserve a small portion of hi* sat wh - **« wnnL f 1 to w ’ er e adopted, if of W co " s ' d<!rl ' W .r mat. „