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Hokitika Guardian, 8 December 1934, Page 4

At a gathering of educationists Mr T. Coacle, of Bryanston School, spoke on “The Use of Leisure.” He said that education, as commonly conceived in England, had always meant handing on tiie culture of the past to the rising generation. Such a theory was bound to lay, great stress on what it called character building, or character moulding, and it relied mainly on the perpetuation of traditional values, on the discipline of scholarship and organised games, end the discipline and ideal implicit in the prefect system. T,he chief defect of the traditional system, though >it had been in every way humanised compared with what it was before the war, seemed to be that it was based on fear. | Under the surface, and determining curriculum and activities, was a vague fear of what might happen if new criteria .took the place of the old. This fear was nervousness as to the essential nature of boys and girls, and it was nowhere more clearly shown than whore leisure was deliberately restricted. This fear, largely unconscious in the mind of authority, was reflected in the outlook and behaviour of the l>3y s and girls. The traditional system, with its limited 'd specialised interests* arid lines ot study and its subservience to the examination system, so filled the time of the average, and even more of the sub-average, hoy that up to the age of about 16 he was given almost no freedom of choice in school work, and it simply did not allow him t,he opportunity, or leave him energy out of school, for pursuits other than those few that wore more or loss officially recognised. Every (human chi'd, a.s distinct from other young anjnulls, developed (or should develop at school) an increasing consciousness of the creative power of life within him. T;he number of boys and girls for whom school work provided scope for this development was definitely limited. Excellent as they were for certain purposes, orcranised games did not meet this particular need either, i Mfhat was necessary was more and more varied opportunities for the informal exercise of hand, imagination and brain, separately or ip conjunction, for all boys, and not for the few whose parents could afford to pay for them.