CORRESPONDENCE COURSES.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 28 March 1925, Page 7

CORRESPONDENCE COURSES.

GOOD WORK DONE.

PARENTS ASKED TO ASSIST. Pupite of both primary anti secondary ischoolis in, Ha.wera iare responding satisfactorily in connection with, the newspaper correspondencei courses, and the headmasters, repdrt that valuable Work is being, done. ' it Iras been pointed out, however, that the modern child relies to a great extent' on the teacher and the parent, land it- is only by the expenditure of time find trouble by those in. arithorit-y that the best results are going to be b-bitdiried. Present indications are that the correspondence courses will have to continue- for isoriie time yet, find, as it i.« the intention of the teachers to carry on the. ordinary tuition from the point to wh.ic-h; the work is taken by the present improvised systein, it behoves all concerned to. see that the- cofre®--pon den.ee work is carried out regularly and methodically. PRIAIARY SCHOOL AVORK.

Speaking of tlhe standard of work in his 'school, Mr. Bates, .headmaster a.t Haw'era-, said that taking it all .round the results in this direction, could be described as> fair. Examples .of really good work were of course received, but there were koine whose, lessons' indicated lack of concentration and care. Essays of only three, or four lines were cent in, whereas if the child were at school, under the supervision of the teacher very different work would result. “Naturally,’’ said Mr. Bates, “we are finding that the more intelligent children; who. are further on in their ordinary class work, lare tlie ones who are giving comparatively better results,”

Tn the primary schools, the actual correspondence criiihse has only b'ebn in operation: for diie w'eek, blit Mr. Bates findsi that about 80 per cent, of his scholars' are taking advantage of the lessons' so provided for. Mr. Jackson, headmaster of the Tsbwiiiti School, reports good) results from the correspondence course, but fie points out several weaknesses m connection with the response' by the children. For instance, lie raays that some, children: do the Work in one night. lie emphasises the fact that the lessons are set to cover a week’s, work, and it is regularity and continuity Til doing them that is a very' material factor in. determining success or failure. Further, lie would like parents, to see that the children arrange the work to, be submitted back to the teacher in the right order with tlhe different subjects. clearly defined.. He said lie had received .several packets. witli ho name of address attached. .

“Treating each scliwlar’s work individually and doing the explanatory writing neoessaay in order to do justice to it, demands long hours of work by the teachers,” said Mr. Jackson. “Some parents are under the impression; that we are having a. bit. of a loaf,, but actum,lb- we have more to do than when the r-ohool is open.” Mr. Jackson also pointed out that the teachers had had to put in. a good' deal of time at refresher courses. Two such courses had been held in Hawera, . and South Taranaki teachers had also been assisting at courses in other centres. SECONDARY PUPILS’ RESPONSE.

! Mr A. Gray', principal of the Hawera Technical High School, told a Star reporter that the correspondence course for his school had resulted iri good work being done by the pupils. Especially was he pleased with the work being returned by tile new scholars. He also stressed the necessity of proper arrangement of the work for identification purposes and easy handling by the teachers. Some scholars had included in the one paper two subjects, wdiich had had to he marked by two different teachers.

In all about 150 hoys and girls w r ere sending iii lessons, and if the standard of work was kept up they, w'ould he able to continue on from the point- to which the,pupils would be taken by the correspondence course.