THE TOWN SCHOOLS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LVI, 19 July 1924, Page 2

THE TOWN SCHOOLS

(To the Editor.)

Sir, —As Mr Boyes has kindly left the field open so that I may deal with Mr Smith’s latest attack upon the Town Schools, will you be so good as to allow me a little further space? The first question which Mr Smith in the most melodramatic manner propounds to Mr Boyes is - the following: “Does lie know or does ho not know that there are new as well as in tho’ Central School?” Now what in the name of creation does this question mean? What is it getting at? Of course there are always new boys as well as old boys in every school. But what then Can it be that Mi - Smith is becoming incoherent? Anyhow this is quite the queerest conundrum l have ever encountered. It looks like some plaguy riddle. I give it up! Mr Smith next asks whether Mr Boyes does or does not know tho facts about the distribution of ages with which 1. dealt fully in my last letter. Shades of Perman and Cyril Burt, I hope that Mr Boyes does know them and is pioud of them as I ani. Then comes Mr Smith’s grand climax: “Does he know or does he not know that last year 14 boys over 14 years of age left the Central School without passing the Sixth Standard at dll? That such a condition of things could exist in one of the leading schools of Nelson in the year 1923 is a tragedy.” A tr-r-r-vagedy indeed! One can almost- hear the .sob in his voice and see the tear in his eye. But the 14 boys of whom ho speaks form less than 20 per cent ol the total number of those who left the school during the year, and the latest report of the Minister of Education shows that the corresponding percentage for the. whole Dominion was no less than 25 per cent. ~ So this awful tragedy is even more ghastly than Mr Smith supposed it to be, for it extends from North Cape to the Bluff and in an even more acute form than it- exists at the Boys Central School. Why does Mr Smith continue to write such

piffle? Finally there is a mysterious referenco to some dreadful comments “.scored across the pages by the Senior Inspector.” “Scored,” bo it observed, not merely written, —another tragic touch! .What can these _ fearsome comments bo? They consist of two words, “Over classification.” Just that and nothing more. What a bogey with which to scare the public 1 Well, I would rather be guilty of over-classify-ing than of under-classifying any day, and this lis the sort of tragic nonsense with which Sir Smith has to bolster up his case. Alas, the real tragedy of the situation lies in the fact that anyone capable of asking such foolish questions and adopting such doubtful tactics should be the Chairman of the Nelson Education Board. I am, etc., F. G. GIBBS.