LESS CLEVER CHILDREN.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19390, 27 July 1926, Page 12

LESS CLEVER CHILDREN.

JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL WORK.

CHIEF VALUE OF SYSTEM.

The opinion that the most useful work of the junior high school would 'consist in caring for the less clever children was expressed by Mr. R. E. Rudman, headmaster of the Kowhai Junior High School <it the householders' meeting last • evening.

"Give a brainy boy a load of books, and put him in the Sanara Desert and he will forge ahead without any teachers,'' said" Mr. Rudman. But the slower children, he added, did not always get as good a deai as they might at school. Owing to the largt classes, the desire for results in examinations, and the domination of the proficiency examination which loomed as larg<? in the primary schools as matriculation" in the secondary schools, the slower 'pupils were apt to be neglected through the. fau-tr. of nobody* but the system:' In the junior high school it was possible to give- the 'children more sympathetic treatment and find out what type of work they were suited to. - Under the old system, it was held that education should be cultural, but a new country could not afford that, and had to have vocational education. Any vocational subject would, however, if properly handled, be cultural as well. Greek 'and Latin were : useful, subjects, but they could be dono without, and the children o, poorer parents must get to work as 'soon as possible. Tri the junior high school the medium-brained and slower-brained children would be well looked after.