MODERN BOY

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXI, 14 January 1928, Page 7

MODERN BOY

FROM THE SECONDARY < SCHOOL ' a strong indictment "cannot write, read, talk, or '*>.- think" ■ ;;.;, (By, Telegraph—Special to "Th« Mail")"• ■""'.. CHRISTCIIURCIT, 13th January. !">* "It's not only that they can't .writer- !; they can't even read, or talk, or think. They come from the secondary school T primed with algebra, and geometry,- and : Latin, and goodness knows what, but; \y-,\ nobody seems to have bothered to,teach. *> them to think straight or talk decent .'-. - English. As for their writing, you should see some of the applications I've had. • In the first place they don't know what' .;■..-. to write, and in the second they can't. write legibly what they do know." .■.•■, The modern secondary schoolboy came ~- .-•■ in for a very solid time to-day when .a .'.' "Sun" reporter visited leading employers and bank managers of the city inquiring after his handwriting, which, : ;; rumour had it, was not quite as^ood-' : as it might be.- The rumour was right,and the reply quoted above seemed typi- • cal of the general feeling of Christchurch . .. business men, although most • confined r themselves to a few explosive remarks , . about the handwriting alone. The early; . new year is the time when employers are" pestered with written and personal applications for work from boys who have It ft th-3 secondary school. Accord.; v , ing to most of them "pestered", is the right word. "If only they would take ,-,. ■ some trouble in writing their application, ; both as regards composition and .style, ■<■ and realise that the impression;given*• by ;; the letter may make or mar their ..,-.', chances," said the managing director 0f.,,' a bank. "As it. '« (hey jumble a lot 01,.,> ■ words together, write them anywhere, ~,.. r sometimes even in pencil, and post ihem- •. —usually to the wrong address. The ,;, public and school teachers don't seem ■ ,•• to realise what utter tosh these, hoys ~ are capable of writing. They seem to, ».-- contract these bad habits at the secpn- ~,,. dary schools. At any rate, on the aver- ; »,_■;•; age boys coming direct from the prim- ;, ary schools show a better. hand; but , ; those from the "high' schools come with,.,, no idea of neat writing, and in its placu:.;-.. ';;■ a smattering of book.-keeping that is no'-;...-: use to anybody. Good handwriting the basis, of good book-keeping.-;,.iXou. r j can never malo a good .book-keeper o\i ,~ a boy who writes all over the .place. ~.v Yet the schools seem toi'.concentrate j>ji'' ~.; teaching him the art of-'keaping ; boc>fcs ...-.> ar.-d leave the question of hantwnfing.,; . ... to his own sweet easy will. The-re-, ~„ Fult is that when he comes hewf/.y? ■.; , have to begin from Primer 2 and teach K -•- bim how to write. '•'" We. don'V mind ... , teaching him the art of keeping books.. , : If onlv boys realised what gre4t si.ora , , r is set on a good 'hand' these day*, I am,--/ sure they would try to better their .writing. Why, often we engage a.boysole-- ■■ ]y on his qualification as a good v..'.iter. . ......: 'TROOF OF THE PTTDDIN.G''. '^ The manage.* of a leading bookshop said that he had hardly a single boy in his employ would. could write decently and legiblv. He produced "the-proof of the pudding," in tho shapj of-an. Orderbook, parts of which were indeapher-_. ... able "If the secondary schools can t, ; - or won't leach them how to write tbey .... might at least try to improve-their talk We employ here only boys who have had. • some' secondary t.ducation, yet such e.N;.: ; . piessions as 'you didn't ought, we, .■, r what was you looking at, apart iron.. ~ r the ordinary slang, are: always floating round the placa. What we business men .■; do want is the boy who can-write weil, think charly, and talk fair English V , the schools only turn him out like tin., we'll be phased to supply iig and commercial training, but we must have good writing."