CHILD EDUCATION

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22933, 11 January 1938, Page 3

CHILD EDUCATION

KINDERGARTEN TRAINING HIGHLY IMPORTANT FACTOR RESPONSIBILITY OF PARENTS The importance of kindergartens as a factor in education to-day was referred to by Miss G. Pendred, principal of the kindergarten training college of Perth, Western Australia, who passed through Auckland yesterday by the Mariposa en route to San Francisco, where she will further her studies of child welfare at Columbia University. "I remember once seeing an eight-monthfi-old baby fed on a~green banana and beer,'' Miss Pendred said. "Although this was not the general standard 12 years ago, when the incident occurred, it made me realise ho.w littla people knew of food values then. I am glad to say that we have advanced a long way in the interval." Parent Education At Columbia University Miss Pendred will study particularly the aspects of parent education and nutrition. She said that most people were beginning to realise that kindergartens were no longer just places where laay mothers could send their children to get rid of them for a few hours, or where poor children could be washed and fed. Today the kindergartens had a definite work to do in bridging the gap between babyhood and the school age.

"We could revolutionise the future generations if we could give very child the right mental and physical start in life," said Miss Pendred. "So much depends on this, and on the child starting life with a sense of security. Many a child pays all its life for ignorance on the part of its parents—ignorance with regard to feeding or any other physical need. Later the child's attitude to life may be attributed to some psychological maladjustment when all it needs is to get more sleep or an improved digestion. Use of Psychological Terms

The "bright and intelligent mothers who showed their great wisdom in trying to explain their children's behaviour in psychological terms" were criticised by Miss Pendred. who said such parents would be better if they took the simple physical fundamentals into consideration. As far as nutrition was concerned she considered the subject had hardly been touched at all and stressed its vital importance to the world at large. The responsibility of people in the democratic countries toward the education of their children was also stressed by Miss Pendred, who pointed out how well organised were the methods of the Fascist and Nazi countries. "We are apt to muddle along, leaving important work to those with a sense of obligation, but the responsibility really belongs to everyone," she said.