TECHNICAL SCHOOL.

Manawatu Times, Volume XLVI, Issue 1977, 19 November 1921, Page 5

TECHNICAL SCHOOL.

ANNUAL PRIZE-GIVING FUNCTION. The annual prize-giving ceremony in connection with the' Palmerston North Technical School was held in the Empire Hall last evening. The great interest taken in the affairs of the school was made manifest In the very large attendance, the hall being being too small to accommodate all who wished to attend the function. Prior to commencing the prize-giv-ing a short programme of elocutionary items was given by the school’s elocutionary class under the direction of Mrs C. Swallow. The following numbers were contributed:—Sketch, "The Brown Paper Parcel," Misses Gwen Piper and Irene Nott; "The Mercy Speech,” Miss Joyce Jordan; recitations, Misses Lulu Hancock, Phyllis Dovoy, Ida'Walker, and Dorothy Ferguson; sketch “Granny's Picture," Misses Lorna Ferguson and Vivian Healey, Before introducing the speaker of the evening (Mr J. H. Howell, Director of Technical Education at Wellington), the chairman of the Technical School Committee, Mr W. F. Durward, congratulated the school on the successful year’s work jjust a. corapllshed. After touching on the work of the year which has already been fully dealt with in the- annual report, the speaker concluded by referring to the necessity for the public contributing more generously to the maintenance of the institution, and by making an appeal for assistance in this direction. The Director (Mr F. D. Opie), who was greeted with prolonged applause, thanked the pupils who had assisted in the entertainment of the visitors and paid an eloquent tribute to the teachers who had co-operated with him so loyally during the year. TECHNICAL EDUCATION. After thanking those present for their reception, Mr Howell went on to deal with some aspects of technical education. Now that every Country in the world, ho said, was linked up by different means of communication, one with another it was fssentlal that each should progress simultaneously. Those not adopting progressive methods, would fall behind. The leading countries of the world were paying great attention to technical education, and in order to keep up, New Zealand would have to follow suit. In spite of the progress which had been made, New Zealand was in some respects far behind other countries. The reasons for lack of progress here were twofold: One was the tendency of certain sections of the community to look down on trades involving manual lab. our, and consequently on education for those trades; the second was that there were other people who did not look upon technical learning as a thoroughly cultural form of education. Dealing with the latter reason, the speaker said that no form of education was truly cultural unless it secured the co-operation and held the interest of the pupil. By its many different avenues, the speaker claimed that technical education was able to do both; and that therefore technical education was truly cultural. Dealing with the aims of technical education, Mr Howell said we must not limit our attention to technical work only. It must be remembered that while we were teaching the boys and girls to become producers and distributors, we had primarily to tench them to become home-makers and good citizens. The short time available made this the most difficult part of the work. In this connection, . he stressed the importance of students obtaining a thorough knowledge • of the Mother tongue. It might be said that the ability to speak, write and express oneself clearly in English was not necessary to a tradesman, butV the speaker pointed out how erroneous this impression was; how necessary it was,, in order to study the growth of our civil and political institutions, and that we should also study the whole system of government of other countries besides our own. English literature was a treasure house of the best thought of all nations and of all times, and in order to tap that great fount of knowledge, to learn to appreciate its great lessons, we must first master our own tongue. / AMERICAN EXAMPI.ES. Another great object of technical schools was to give full opportunity for the development of character. In this respect we were far behind the Americans in particular. In America the characteristics of every child were given full opportunity few development. The Americans had learned that the. boy with a gift for leadership must have that gift trained to produce the best results, and that it was of fundamental importance that the children should be trained to be loyal to those with whom they had to work. The extent to which these principles had been applied In American schools the speaker illustrated by the example he had seen of a school in Los Angeles. This school, had 1800 boy and girl pupils from 12 to 18 years of age. At the school, * lunch with a menu arranged by the pupils was served to music by the school orchestra. The staff serving the sieal were engaged, paid and controlled by a student body. On the playing fields a match was in progress. The gate money from the large crowd assembled was collected by the pupils, who supervised the grouhdsmen and paid them their wages. There was even a school bank which, at the time he was there, held 400,000 dollars. In a school like that were • limitless possibilities for training character and teaching the pupils how to hold positions of responsibility. Such activities engendered a splendid spirit of loyalty and the school which would develop later into loyalty to country and to fellowcountrymen. The speaker asked the pupils of the Palmerston North Technical School to consider the possibility of establishing their own students’ association, embracing clubs ranging from games clubs to debating and orchestral societies. He looked forward to the time when technical schools would be linked together in a similar way to university colleges, and he predicted the time when technical schools would be oßntres of community life. They had a great task in front of them, and it belonged to everybody, but if they were to carryit out successfully they must,receive a greater measure of support from the public than had been given In the past. (Applause.) The prizes were distributed by Mrs Howell. Afterwards a vote of thanks to the staff, proposed by Mr M. H. Oram terminated the function.