SECONDARY SCHOOLS

Hawera Star, Volume XLVII, 16 December 1927, Page 10

SECONDARY SCHOOLS

MEETING ALL REQUIREMENTS.

IMPORTANCE OF VOCATIONAL SIDE. SUCCESSFUL EXPERIMENT? AT NEW PLYMOUTH. The amalgamation of the New Plymouth High School and Technical College was referred to in the annual reports presented at the Hoc is High School breaking-up ceremony by the headmaster (Mr. \V. H. Moves; and tiic director of the technical department (Mr. A L. Moore). Referring to the amalgamation in the course of his general report, Mr. Moyes stated: “After two years’ negotiation, the composite school came into existence at the beginning of the first term, when, although the necessary legislation had not been completed, it was decided to combine the teaching stalls of the two schools and to provide a course of work that would meet the requirements of every pupil likely to enter. It has for a long time been recognised that the secondary school syllabus fell far short of the requirements ol a large percentage of the buys taking advantage of the free place system, it must be remembered that whereas under the old conditions die secondary school catered for a more or less privileged class, to-day it is our liounden duty to consider those keys who choose agriculture or trade ir commerce as a career, equally with those who aim at entering the professions.

“It will naturally he asked what measure of success has attended the adoption of the present scheme. lean only say that through the loyal cooperation of all concerned, the many difficulties inseparable from such a sweeping change have been overcome,] and that from now on the increased efficiency of the school cannot fail to exercise an influence for good on all those who come within its walls. “An idea of the wide scope of the syllabus can be gleaned from the fact that no fewer than eight different .ourses of work are now available. Of these four are professional and four are vocational. The former have been arranged to cover the syllabus set for the solicitors’ general knowledge, the engineering preliminary, and the public service entrance and accountants’ preliminary examinations. The latter, on the other hand, embrace no particular examination syllabus, but are specially adapted to meet the requirements of those who have no intention of sitting for the public examinations. “The past decade has witnessed many experiments in education, and much has been heard of self-discipline and similar phrases. We are oldfashioned enough to believe that there is no royal road to learning, and that the acquisition of it must be associated with much that is distasteful to the ordinary boy. We do believe, however, that if our subjects can be attained by the avoidance of tasks that are wearisome and of doubtful value, no effort should be spared to substitute for these something that will hold the interest of the student throughout his school career. I think we can honestly claim that the amalgamation of the two schools has enabled us to put into practice these ideas.” Supplementing this report, jNI r. Mr.ore stated: “During the years immediately ahead of us we shall see if the scheme has been successful. This period will provide the acid test. If we can retain the boys on the vocational side, and its true relative value is given due recognition, as I believe it will under the present headmaster, then success is assured.

“The great need of the present day is to train for individual differences. The old type of education which tended to train all students along scholastic lines must go. We must recognise the fact that the hand is as important as the brain; the one is useless without the other. It is unfortunate that history places so much stress upon the cleric, the soldier, the statesman, etc., without recognising that none of these could be without the tiller of tlie soil and the labourer. I do not want you to confuse these sentiments with the Labour controversies of the present day.

“True ‘man does not live by bread alone,’ but man does live by bread. However lofty a man’s personal idealism may appear, however willing he may be to forego not only the delights

•ut the necessities of existence, he has no moral right to foster his children on educational theories which ignore the basis of life. This argument does not imply that every school should he turned into a farm and a kitchen, or that excessive toil should be exacted rrom children, but it demands that those practical and social experiences, which the children of peasants have enjoyed ever since man learned to seek increase in corn and cattle, should be shared by all children in a sane curri- . ulum.

“These experiences include not merely the care of plants and animals; they lay the foundation for craftsmans!) ip in the use of tools, for science in the observation of an open-air world and in the adaptation of materials to use; and finally, for the fine arts which evolve, now as alwaj s, from the renewal of experience, visions, sounds arising from contact between the mind of man and the objective world. These employments are to be stressed, not with the intent to exclude science and letters in the upbringing of the young, but to restore the balance; there is abundant time for both, as is adequately shown in the few schools which have the courage to depart from tradition. The plea we make is not in any sense based on class distinction. It rests solely on the nature, the body mind of the child as shaped by the vast centuries which have gone to the making of him

“To-dav om- civilisation is very complex. We must give every part its true relative value, so that our boys, hand-workers and brain-workers, will

■raw up with healthy respect for each other, which will go far to create a better understanding and minimise friction in future industrial life.”