MAKING GOOD CITIZENS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15500, 6 January 1914, Page 9

MAKING GOOD CITIZENS

INFLUENCE IN SCHOOLS.

NEED FOR PLAYGROUNDS

POWER OF ENVIRONMENT.

"As adequate playing space round every school i? a most necessary adjunct in school environment. said Mr. T. V. Wells, in the course of his presidential address on ■■ Education in its Relation to Modern Social Problems." at the annual meeting of the New Zealand Educational Institute yesterdav.

' We are only new beginning to realise the importance of providing facilities for exercise and play for our hoy* and girls. It lino been said that piny is the expression of a universal instinct in all animal life—the young are endowed with superabundant energy, and play serves as a safety valve—play is a preparation for th.> so-called sterner duties of life. It aids in the development of the finer traits of character, it develops the iQi'-tin.-t and power of initiative, and is a very large factor in socialising the child. It is. perhaps, not far from the truth to say that the moral instruction, direct and indirect, that the schoolboy receives in his play and sport is the lamest, instructional factor in the fashionin- of his moral life. The need for ample school playgrounds was certainly not icalled by those who laid out this and other New Zealand towns, and the result is that some of our largest schools stand in the merest apologies for yards.

" Another phase of the environment Question," continued the speaker, "ig the liberty, tending to license, allowed to young people j„ the way of going out in the evening, unattended bv adults. The headmistress of the Auckland Grammar School called attention to this matter a few dr.vs ago, and I take this opportunity of endorsing and emphasising the timely warning she gave. Many parents do their full duty in tin.-, matter, but there are nwnv that apparently fail to realise their responsibilities, and I am sure the result is almost altogether harmful." Mr. Wells considered that too little attention had been given in the past, to the physical well-being of school children. In many districts the schools were overcrowded, and the lighting, ventilation, and seating arrangements were bad. " We should have facilities for open-air teaching." he said. " special schools in the large centres- for the sub-normal, and free medical and free dental attention for children of poor parents." Tho terminating of the period of compulsory education at the age of 14, was, in the opinion of the speaker, one of the greatest defects of the present school system. A system of education with compulsory attendance up to the age of 14 only was an absurdity when they thought of the needs of th State in training citizens and developing character. The most advanced thinkers on education united in urging that the school should continue its training up to the age of 18 This could not he done under the present svstem, but the lead of Germany. Austria, and Switzerland, raight be followed, and a supplementary system introduced which would secure the 'result while permitting part-time work in a vocation when necessary

" After all, it is the personality of the teacher that counts," concluded Mr. Wells. "W e are ' sized up' by our pupils far more critically and far more truly, than we often realise. Nothing can make for the beet and truest development of their character to the same extent as does the clean, true life lived out before their eves by the teacher. Whereiore it is for each, one of us to endeavour to set a high and an abiding ideal, to live up to the Wheat traditions of the profession, and to make it truly the noblest on earth."