AWARDING OF PRIZES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22064, 21 September 1933, Page 5

AWARDING OF PRIZES

A TEACHER’S INDICTMENT SUPPORTED BY HOUSEHOLDERS. The question whether prizes should be awarded at the Tainui School this year was before householders of the district at a meeting held last night. The chairman of the committee (Mr W. F. Mills) presided. The headmaster (Mr A. Hanna) Informed the meeting that it was the practice in many schools in the north not to give prizes, and added that similai action in Dunedin would faring it into line with more progressive centres. In Otago there were only one or two schools in which awards were not made. The people of Otago were the victims of a tradition from which they could not break away. They were in a groove, and a groove differed from a grave only in depth. Recently the opinions of northern headmasters on the system had been sought. One had described prize-giving as “a pernicious system from every point of view,” and another had stated that after prize-giving had been abolished in his school the standard of work and behaviour of the pupils had improved considerably. In his opinion, Mr Hanna added, prize giving was conducive to egotism, vanity, jealousy and dishonesty. The teachers themselves were dishonest. “ What would you say if one child went away with all of the prizes under his arm?” he asked. “You tell us to distribute them, and we do.” The child who won the prize often did not woik as hard as others who were not rewarded. An accident of birth was in most cases responsible for a pupil’s success, and tne child was rewarded not for excellence but for excelling. It was usually found, also, that the child in the best circumstances had the best chance. The justice of grading animals in a horse raCe was recognised, but children were not graded. Prize giving was a form of bribery. The child who at the very beginning of the year knew that he would not receive a prize developed an inferiority complex, but on the other hand they had seen many prize-winners develop into snobs. After brief discussion Mr Hanna stated that he felt that any action that was taken in respect of the abolition of prizes should be concerted. Teachers and committees in some cases thought that, if prizes were not given, support would be withdrawn from their school. There was no seconder for a motion recommending the committee not to give prizes this year, but a further motion recommending to the School Committees’ Association that prizes should be abolished in all schools was carried unanimously. The meeting, however, in spite of its opposition to the system, declined to give the committee any specific direction, and the question whether prizes are to be awarded in the school this years remains undecided.