The Hawera Star WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 1933. SCHOOLS RE-OPEN.

Hawera Star, Volume LII, 1 February 1933, Page 4

The Hawera Star

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 1933. SCHOOLS RE-OPEN.

Delivered every evening by 5 o'clock in Hawera, Manaia, Kaupokonui, Otakeho, Oeo, Piharna, Opunake, Normanby, Okaiawa, Eltham, Ngaere, Mangatoki, Kaponga, Awatuna, Te Kiri, Hahoe, Lowgarth. Manutabi, Kakaramea, Alton, Hurleyville, Patea, Whenuakura, Waverley, Mokoia. Whakamara, Ohangai, Meremere, Fraser Road and Ararata.

The beginning of the school year finds parents faced with some very old problems and with some which are not so old—perplexities which arc the pro.duct of ‘the depressed economic conditions under which education is labouring in common with commerce. The opening of the primary schools to-day doubtless provided emotional moments in many homes where very young children went forth on their first minor journey into life. Mothers parting with their babies—toddlers parting with their babyhood—that is one of the

very old perplexities raised by the opening of the school year and will ever remain so; it has no place in the learned discussions about school leaving age, the agricultural bias or any of the hundred-and-one subjects which cause ink to be spilled over the education system, but it is, at this season of tlio year, the predominating thought .within many a domestic circle. The parents of primary school pupils are, however, immune to the causes of the real worry that to-day besets the parents of children of secondary school age. The primary school boy will not be confronted for some years with the need for choosing a career, but the parents of pupils who are approaching the completion of their high school course have, in the majority of cases, good reason for being uneasy about the future. The lack of careers offering to youth is the most tragic feature of the economic situation. There is greater need than there has ever been before in the lustory of the free secondary education system for careful thought on the part of guardians responsible for guiding youth in its choice of a- career. ■The main need would' appear to be a study of the student’s aptitude and of the prospects ahead. Too often in the past there has been a determination to produce entrants for the professions, irrespective of their natural abilities, with .the result that there have been hopeless overcrowding in some spheres and a great many square pegs .produced for round 'holes. However, adverse conditions have ever provided opportunities for those who have been able to look ahead and profit by the experience of others, and it is certain that many men of the future are going to be grateful for the conditions which imposed upon them in their youth an extra year of study, the incentive to think for themselves and the shedding of mistaken notions about the desirability or undesirability of certain fields of labour. For /the present-day parents of youths approaching the time when they will have to make their own way in the world, there is still as great a duty as ever there was to equip their sons, educationally, as fully as lay in their power. For the students there-is greater need than ever to .make the best use of their time and opportunities at school. Opportunities in the commercial world will not always be as limited as they are just now, but for some .time to come competition for jobs will remain keen and the boy who has the best educationall equipment, allied to initiative, will stand the best chance of making good.