TEACHER AND CHILD

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21983, 19 June 1933, Page 8

TEACHER AND CHILD

CONTACT IN LATER LIFE SOME THOUGHTFUL SUGGESTIONS. "As a member of Parliament I have come into Contact a good deal with your institute, and one of the things about it that has always pleased me has been that, while one of its chief tasks is to see that its members get a fair deal from the authorities, it has also taken a great part in forming public opinion on educational questions, has made pronouncements on important points, and has earned for itself recognition as an expert body on such subjects," said the Mayor of Christchureh (Mr D. G. Sullivan, M.P.) in an address to the North Canterbury branch of the New Zealand Educational Institute at its jubilee social on Friday evening. At times the authorities, might find it impossible to give effect to the institute's opinions, he remarked, but nevertheless those opinions were held in very high regard, and had, unquestionably, been of the greatest value in giving the country a lead on all important educational matters. . "I sometimes wonder whether there 13 not something wrong with our educational system," said Mr Sullivan. " The teachers, despite the great „ interest they show in their work, deal, nevertheless, only with the children as they actually pass through their hands. The man who makes a machine in a factory has the inestimable benefit of seeing that machine when completed and working, and thus his experience and knowledge are greatly widened and he has the opportunity of making better machines. But I wonder to what extent interest is maintained by teachers in the children after they grow up and enter the world. "I have the feeling that perhaps teachers do not have the opportunity of really coming into contact with the finished product, of seeing how the finished product is working. Personally, I have seen many examples of lack of education among persons who are supposed to have passed through the primary schools. I get thousands of letters every week and a substantial number of them always show signs that there is something lacking in our educational system. "I would like you to think of this matter and consider whether it would not be possible for teachers to have greater contact with their pupils in their after life. The formation of the old pupils' associations in direct contact with the schools might help—l do not know, but I leave the thought with you." Mr Sullivan expressed the opinion that in the future they must aim at the extension of the secondary school system. It had been widely extended in the last few years, but he was convinced that it was one of the great necessities of the country that every nerve should be strained to see that every child who was likely to benefit by it should have an opportunity, to receive secondary education. "We cannot perhaps do it to-day in these times of limited finance, but we must aim at it for the future," Mr Sullivan concluded.