MR MORRELL'S CONTINUATION SCHOOL.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 14156, 7 March 1908, Page 14

MR MORRELL'S CONTINUATION SCHOOL.

Sin,—lt is quite clear from Mr Morrell's letters that what ruffled him most of all in this controversy was. the "insinuation"

that the system of free places "has to 6ome extent spoiled Ihe • character of the High Schools, by making them practically State continuation schools," a phrase which first occurred in tho Otago Daily Times leader on the subject apropos of Mr Cameron's articles, That the phrase i 3 not inapt as a description of Mr Morrell's sohool has been made perfectly clear by Mr Morrell himself, and yet he seizes upon it as if it had been coined by me, and that for the express purpose of disparaging his sohool. I am quite sure that neither the editor nor

I had any desire either to disparage tho

school or to blame Mr Morrell for tho change, My attitude was made .perfectly clear by a single (Sentence in inv first letter: i" Either we must have special

schools provided for the class of pupils referred to (two or three year pupils), or seeing thai' such pupils constitute a majority of the pupils of our High Schools, it must be. franklv acknowledged that the unain business of audi tchools ought to be

the equipment of the scholars for active

life; and that, if tho schools do undertake to prepare .for tho University, this should

be regarded as a wholly subsidiary thing." That this is coming to be regarded as

subsidiary the results of fie junior scholarship examinations seem to show, and it would ill become mo to find fault, so long as the present absurd system of frpe places continues, and the majority of the boys are of the class whose cause I am advocating. But, instead of frankly acknowledging this, Mr Morrell deludes himself into the belief that he can accomplish what experience has heretofore shown'to bo impossible. And what is tho result?—a hobbledehoy school,

say I; a kind of a sort of real-gynihasium,

says Mr Morrell, forgetting," apparently, that the students of .-v real-gvmnnsiuin begin whore Mr Jlorrell's pupils leave off.

Mr Morrell's attempt to 6lur over the "not"very brilliant year," by the suggestion that " the taunt comes ill' from one

who so deprecates tho turning of examina tion success into a standard," is characteris-

tic of his methods of controversy. If Mr Morrell were not destitute of logical perception he could not fail to sec that one

whoso attitudo was that indicated in the sentence I have quoted could n<. '■sibly have intended any "taunt" by ... reference to tho results of tho sjuolarship examinations. My contention has been

that such a result is inevitable under the present system, however regrettable it may be.

Equally incorrect is Mr Morrell's implied statement that I have, in the couiso ot this discission, "deprecated the turning of examination success into a standard" in the case of secondary schools. What I deprecated -was something quite different—the making of the -matriculation examination an end in itself. But I can tell Mr Morrell what a former chairman of the High School Board of Governors (Dr Brown) said on the subject: "No school in Now Zealand could show hotter results with regard to University scholarships than the Duuedin High School. That was the only lost by which the schools of this Dominion could bo judged." It is not foa mo to quarrel with the result, and I' have not done so.

In his last letter Mr Morrell refers to Irofe3sor Sadler us "one of the best living authorities on education," and I am glad to find that he has such a hi R h opinion of the professor, because in advocating 'some years ago what I am now advocating I relied largely upon those invaluable reports compiled by him when he was director of special inquiries and reports in the English Board of Education. But, as usual, Mr Morrell jumps at a. conclusion and arrives at the wrong one, and the consequence is that his reference to Sadler is irrelevant. Ihe class of school advocated by mc would not be open to the objection suggested on Itie authority of Sadler, and that for the simple reason that the course of study would not be one of "a narrow form of commercial education," or of mere technical education ' either. My knowledge of "one of the greatest authorities on education " was sufficient to save me from that danger, and to load me to take care that the courses of study proposed should bo not only of considerable variety and comprehensiveness, but of genuine educational value, whilst lending to give the pupils a bias towards manual occupations, instead of putting into their heads tho idea that they are too good for such occupations, and giving them a bias against them. That this is the tendency of the High School seems to be shown (unconsciously) by Mr Morrell himsolf when he tries to turn the edge of one of my arguments by the statement that none'of the boys at present attending his school intend to follow "a skilled liandicraft. or any similar occupation." lo which I reply that there could be no stronger argument for the necessity for a- school that will not give our boys a bias against " skilled handicrafts or similar occupations " Now that he " has done with Mr MacGregor," Mr Morrell "may perhaps find time to resume that course of instruction which he commenced in his "Open Letter " for tho edification of Mr Cameron on the

Gernia:i system. I would suggest, however, that as Mr Cameron has enjoyed the advantage of studying that system at first hand in Germany, it mjght, bo as well if Mr Morrell wore to lay aside, if he can,

his yory superior de-haut-en-bas manner in dealing with Mr Cameron, and reserve it for feilows like myself, who have never been either to Berlin or lo Oxford, and consequently can know nothing about .secondary education. If ho cannot find lime for the completion of Mr Cameron's education, he might, perhaps, lend him Sadler's ninth volume, the one on Germany, and so save himself the troublo of preparing a dilute solution suitable for vicople of only moderate eaoacilv.—l am, etc.. ,7. MAoCiiKCon. March 5.