MEDICAL EXAMINATION OF STUDENTS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXX, 26 March 1936, Page 2

MEDICAL EXAMINATION OF STUDENTS

(To the Editor)

Sir, —If your correspondent Vigilans had sacrificed his Latinity and signed his name we should have been able to assess the importance—if any—of his opinion and the justice of his claim to speak for training college candidates in general.

My excuse for noticing an anonymous letter is the suggestion therein that such a resolution as that in question could be allowed to become an accepted motion in the absence of due consideration. The subject of the motion came before the Board on three occasions, and on the 16th instant a full discussion, in which the chairman, secretary, inspector and members took part, followed by a lengthy statement by myself. I considered and was unanimously supported, that a most unfortunate wrong had been done to an exceptionally able candidate owing to the rigidity of the regulations, and partly through the embarrassment inevitable in the case of a sensitive candidate who has to submit to a lengthy examination by a woman doctor —even so kindly and sympathetic a doctor as our own school medical officer. My colleagues were at one with me in the desire to prevent such injustice in future. I am afraid “Vigilans” survives from the bad old days when the prerequisites for a.successful teacher were a loud voice to out-bawl his pupils and a strong right arm to wield a frequent strap. But we have changed all that and we now have among our most successful teachers men sensitive enough to develop, after an examination by a woman, such exaggerations of slight nervous movements as may in one short hour render valueless the hard work of five years and shut the door for the candidate on the profession for which he feels—and is—particularly fitted. Let me add that we are equally firm in our desire that girl candidates shall bo examined by a woman doctor. —I am, etc. FRANK A. CARLING. Nelson, 26th March.