Denies Slip In Education System

Northern Advocate, 12 March 1948, Page 5

Denies Slip In Education System

WANC-ANUI, Fri. (P.A.)—"People usually hesitate before criticising many of the professions, but education is something everyone knows everything about. "They have all been to school, or. if they have not, they know someone who has.”

The Dominion president of the New Zealand Educational Institute (Mr G. H. Mitchell) said this when addressing Eangitikei teachers last night.

He denied that the standard of education in New Zealand had slipped, and charged critics with comparing present standards with their own school experiences, after looking back on youth "through a rosy haze." "The system in vogue today,” he said, "is not really new.

"The changes made were not revolutionary, but merely progressive, comparable with progressive changes made in other phases of human life. WHO WOULD GO BACK?

“Nobody would dream of going back to the methods of transport or communications used 40 years ago. and those who criticise education today would surely not recommend that we return to Ibe old methods of mass instruction. with all its evil effects on the personality of the child.” Education today distinguished between the bright and the not-so-bright, between the child good academically and the child good practically, and it made provision for the handicapped child. "It is essential for all children that the three Rs be included in all cases, and schools today, despite increasing difficulty of the broader curricula, are still giving a solid foundation of fundamental education.” he said. TEACHERS NOT COMPLACENT "I do not suggest that teachers are complacent about the present standard, because they are unceasingly working' toward improving the quality of the pupil's work in these basic subjects. "If critics could visit the schools they would find things vastly different from what they imagine, because most of those who condemn the present system have not been inside a school in recent years.”