TOO MUCH STUDY

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22515, 4 September 1936, Page 8

TOO MUCH STUDY

" BURNED OUT" BOYS EXAMINATIONS BLAMED BRITISH MEDICAL OPINIONS [from a special correspondent] ' LONDON, August 15 Homework and school feeding were discussed by the medical sociology section of the British Medical Association at Oxford last week. Dr. Kaye le Fleming, chairman of the British Medical Association Council, and a recent visitor to New Zealand, stated during the discussion that the examination system was wrone. The effect of work which it demanded, sometimes on things of no use in after life, was that boys became "burned out," just as the athlete became prematurely burned out through over-training.

Dr. William Brockbank, medical officer of Manchester Grammar School, who opened the discussion, complained that the whole education system was at fault, but added that some boys liked homework. "It should not bo forgotten that the quick and clever boy enjoys exercising his powers," he said. "The boy is thrown on his own resources and the work is therefore individual, as contrasted with the work done during the day in collaboration with the teacher. "I have had very few complaints from either boys or parents that homework has affected a boy's health and physical condition, and from my observations I am quite satisfied that it- does not. Dr. A. D. Lindsay, Master of Bailiol and Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University, said many boys who succeeded in getting a scholarship were afterwards so worn, out as to present a tragic sequel to the elaborate system 01 scholarships and examinations.