RAISING SCHOOL AGE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21844, 5 July 1934, Page 17

RAISING SCHOOL AGE

MANY CHILDREN HARMED INFANT INSTRUCTION NEEDED The exclusion of five-year-old children from schools in New Zealand was criticised by Mr. 0. A. Banner, president of the New Zealand Educationat Institute, in the course of a recent address at Taumarunui. It had been described as an experiment, he said, but there were reasons for believing that it was an economy measure pure and simple, and in no sense a genuine experiment. Educational experiments should really bo restricted in scope, Mr. Banner continued, so that as few children as possible should bo affected, and in order that a close check could be kept on results. If the exclusion had been applied to a limited number of schools, there might have been some experimental value, but apparently no at-tempt-had been mado by the authors of the so-called experiment to ascertain the actual results of their wholesale policy. There was a considerable weight of expert opinion against the provision of formal instruction for children iinder the age of six, but it was not held that school admission should be delayed to that age. The functions of infant schools were character building, which could not be started too early, the development of health, strength and bodily grace, moral training, the provision of association between children, and the encouragement of solf-expres-sion through speech, dancing, singing, handwork and drawing. The authorities were judging schooling merely in terms of the acquisition of tho rudiments of knowledgo, and were overlooking more important factors. It was stated that some infant schools left a good deal to bo desired, but tho remedy was not to shut children out, but to improve the schools. Tho institute was convinced that under the new legislation many children wore suffering real harm.