THE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18897, 20 December 1924, Page 21 (Supplement)

THE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL.

A HOPEFUL EXPERIMENT.

BY E. WrLSON WILSON.

We arc now approaching a time when educationalists will be in a position to pass judgment upon the first fruits of the Junior High School system. At the end of 1924 some two hundred and fifty boys and girls from the first Junior High School in the Dominion will take their places either in grammar or technical schools, or in commercial or industrial life. These pupils, who have just completed their course at the Kowhai Junior High School, will have done equal to one year's . work at a secondary school. It must, however, be remembered that, owing to the school having been in. existence little over two years, the full three years' course will not be covered until the end of 1925. Nevertheless, sufficient has been done along the new lines to enable judgment to be passed on the system as a whole. When secondary and university education was thrown open to the*child of the poor man as well as to him of rich parents, it was acclaimed that nothing now prevented any boy or girl achieving distinction in the field of learning. These aspirations have fallen short of realisation. A poor man with a large family cannot afford to keep a child who might otherwise be earning wages at a secondary school for four or five years. A course that is reasonably expected to be completed by matriculation will take that time. Therefore a year or two spent at a grammar school is waste of both pupil's and teacher's time, as well as waste of public money.

The rush of pupils to the grammar schools necessitated the building of extensive new schools. Unfortunately, a prejudice that the technical school does not give the same note of distinction as the grammar school exists in many parents' minds. Thus many children, who would have .benefited by a year or two years at the Technical High School, learning the rudiments of a calling they could follow later, were sent for that time to the other school, eventually leaving with an almost worthless smattering of French and Latin. The Minister for Education, in his speech at the opening of. the Kowhai Junior High School on October 2, 1922, said: "If we make the school fit the child and provide facilities for encouraging individual aptitudes, we shall be following right lines." This is what the new system does. It recognises the claim of every child, averago or otherwise, to a suitable education which will bring t 0 light his special qualifications. No longer will a large percentage of children be cast aside annually as worthless material. The Junior High School Course. Upon passing Standard IV. at the primary school, pupils automatically pass on into the Junior High School, "where they are classified according to the reports of their former headmasters, based upon the results of the year's work and examinations, and the opinion of their abilities formed by their class teacher. This enables them to be placed in classes graded according to their mental calibre. No longer need the smart boy be kept marking time or the slow boy drop hopelessly behind. _ The grouping of the older scholars from three schools enables specialists in art, science and technical subjects to be employed at less expense to the country, and to the marked benefit of the pupils. The study of languages and mathematics is begun in the advanced forms, . while all receive instruction in technical subjects. At the end of the first year the parents were consulted as to the inclinations of the children concerning their future occupations,, and their own wishes concerning them; 100 children elected to pass on to the Grammar School and 41 to the Technical College, while 126 would begin a : trade on the completion of the Junior High School course. It was noted that the courses' given at the school in woodwork, engineering, dressmaking, and millinery had influenced a large number to declare a preference for these occupations.

In the second year of the course the pupils were regrouped into "general" forms, consisting of those who intended going on to grammar and technical schools, and "modern" forms for those about to follow commercial or industrial occupations. During this second year the amount of secondary school work is greatly increased. French is compulsory for future grammar school pupils, and many begin the study of Latin. Technical school pupils may substitute drawing for French. The boys learn metalwork and the girls more advanced domestic craft. Primary sixth standard subjects are taught, and pupils prepared for the Junior National Scholarships. The number of scholarships gained at the end of 1923 proved that the introduction of secondary subjects at an earlier stage of the school work did not militate against the pupil's chance of competing in purely primary work with children of other schools.

The syllabus for A and B grades, "General," covers the first year's course at the Grammar School. The boys of all grades have gained a good knowledge of the principles underlying carpentry and metal work; the girls have a practical, as well as theoretical, knowledge of hygiene, home nursing, cooking, and dressmaking.

Advantages of the System. After three years' patient and skilful trying out of the child's likes and dislikes, his aptitudes and his limitations, the verdict may be—"Your son has little ability in mathematics, but has a decided bent for mechanics. I advise you to apprentice 1 im to a trade, but be sure lie attends night school for further instruction, in the subjects in which he is particularly interested." The boy himself is looking forward to a career m which he already knows he will make good. The school has made him, not broken him.

When the junior high school system lias become general throughout tho Dominion. ir will be possible to cut out the lowest form in both grammar and technical schools. The grammar schools will concentrate on academical subjects, and the technical schools will become purely technical. • Parents wish to know whether the change over to another high school will be an expensive one for them. Will the text books used in the junior high school bo cast aside as useless? What will it cost for new books ? This is a matter to which the authorities should pay attention, for the success of tho new system will be endangered if the man of avorage means feels that it is going to cost, him still more to educate his child in the future than in tho past. Parents may congratulate themselves that, in the primary schools -whose*standard V. and VI. pupils have been transferred to the junior high school, children of standards 111. and IV. are now receiving an amount of attention both in studies and games that, was nut possible when the fifth and sixth standards, with their attendant worries concerning proficiency and scholarship examinations, took up so much of the time of both headmaster and higher assistants. It must be remembered that the junior high school is still in the experimental stage, but all who have studied it, including some who were at first bitter opponents, are now convinced that education is -at least moving on along right, lines.