FARM WORK FOR BOYS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19510, 14 December 1926, Page 14

FARM WORK FOR BOYS.

PARENTS' PREJUDICES. BLIND Amy OCCUPATIONS. THE QUESTION OF. SUITABILITY. The tendency of parents to discourage boys from taking up farm work was referred to last evening by Mr. Noel Gibson, headmaster of the Dilworth Institute, at the annual prize-giving ceremony.

"" I do not pretend to be an economic authority and, as parents know, I give my advice with a good deal of hesitation when it is asked for," Mr. Gibson said. "However, when I find boys who; as far as one can judge, are more suited to farm work than' to any other, and have the desire to take it up, but are prevented by their parents, as has happened more than once recently, I think it is time I ventured to say something about it. I have had parents who would not allow their boys to go on the land because—well, farmers on the whole are dreadful people to deal with, they ' are not to be trusted, they over-work their hands and fafm life generally is the worst thing imaginable for a boy to undertake. J think it is not only the farmers who are having a bad time, nor is it only the farmers who are going to have a bad time.

"Whatever may be said for the desirability of avoiding putting boys into blind alley occupations, and whatever is done, we must realise that an occupation must be blind first because it leads no one anywhere and secondly because it has the wrong boy in it. If you take a boy suited for heavy work and the outdoor life of the farm and send him either into an office, a warehouse or a factory, for which he is not really suited, you are deliberately sending him into ah occupation which is a blind alley for him."

It was easy to understand that parents were influenced by trials which, had been borne perhaps by their own family, Mr. Gibson continued, but individual experience should not over-ride then 1 judgment of the problem as a whole. Any boy who showed a distinct aptitude for certain work should be given every encouragement to follow it, and it was difficult enouglf- for a boy to know what he really did want to do without being restrained in his choice of vocation by his parents. There seemed to be an objection that because a boy commenced work' as a farm labourer, he would continue to be one all his life. This need not be. Even supposing he did not possess enough thrift of industry to be anything else, the same boy if put into city work, for which he was not fitted, would certainly not rise to a better position there, where more numerous temptations would be placed before him, and where he would not .lead as healthy a life or save as much money.

Mr. Gibson said he did not want to persuade parents to send their boys to the; country, but he wanted them to disabuse their minds concefning what it had to-offer. They were not concerned with what, was popularly called making .a fortune, but in placing a boy in work he would -do best, thereby leading him to ultimate happiness. This was the aim of all school life.