WRONG VIEW

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXI, 28 June 1926, Page 5

WRONG VIEW

OF SECONDARY EDUCATION ' (United Press Association.) WELLINGTON, This Day. “I should like to refer very briefly to a wrpng view of secondary education that is all too prevalent,” said the Director of Education at the opening of the Hutt High School. Many parents think that unless their children are being taught Latin, French and mathematics, they are not receiving secondary education. Parents therefore often insist on these subjects being included in the course of instruction for their children. Mr Caughley said that in some cases children were not suited to the study of these subjects, though they' could study to great advantage in other subjects. In most cases children woul i not be able to continue study to a.profitable stage to a point where at least they could read Latin or French with the some ease and profit, or use mathematics in some real way. Unless such a stage was /reached the real objective of education was defeated. The-old idea that certain/subjects gave a special kind of mental training or discipline of value in itself, apart from the content value of the subject, was exploded long ago. Mr Caughley said: !'We claim that, a fuller study of the English language and literature, with the additional time that might be given to it that is too often wasted on acquiring a useless smattering of a foreign .language, would give far better educational and cultural results even on very .points the study of foreign language is supposed to score on. He also put in . a plea for manual work and home science. Besides being useful these developed a kind of . thinking that could never be gajned from mere abstract study.