SECONDARY SCHOLARS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22917, 21 December 1937, Page 17

SECONDARY SCHOLARS

THIRD AND FOURTH YEARS MOST IMPORTANT PERIOD OTAGO PROFESSOR'S VIEWS £by telegraph—OWN* correspondent] DUXEDIX, Monday Ihe importance of pupils' third and fourth years at secondary schools was emphasised by Professor G. E. Thompson, when speaking at the Otago Girls' High School break-up ceremony. Professor Thompson said that both from the point of view of the University and of the pupils' later life, it was desirable that these years should be spent at school. "1 notice from the report that the average stay of a pupil at the girls' high school is two years and a-half," Professor Thompson said "1 suppose it is the same in most schools, but to me it is disastrous that this very expensive part of Jthe New Zealand education system should be availed of only to that very small extent. 1 think the years spent at school, particularly the third and fourth years, are productive of development and change in the life of a girl or boy that no other year will produce. No matter what walk of life may be entered, it is difficult to find any }-ear that will make up for those." On the University side, Professor Thompson added, it was well known that the time boys or girls spent in post-matriculation classes at a secondary school improved them much more than similar time as a University student, and those who went to the University after two years postmatriculation were kings and queens among their fellows. Perhaps it coflld not be helped, but it would be desirable if the post-matriculation period could be extended, so that the young people of New Zealand could grow up to be an educated democracy.