BALANCED EDUCATION

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26770, 13 May 1948, Page 4

BALANCED EDUCATION

POSi-HUMAkY PUPILS LAitiiL CLASSES CKiTICISEU Now tnai many pupiis weie sciioui aner omy unfae yeats secondary education mcauau or na. ycaio, water, wouiu ue mote aesuaoie, tne po&tprimary syuaous woum nave to be teorgamseu so mat every pupa had tne ueneut or a naiaacod euucadon before ne rert, said rnr a. c. rinoiaiev ir,evini, in nib presidential auaress at the opening session or tne annual conrereuoe or the r\ew z,eaianu iecmucat School Teachers' Association yesterday. Over UO delegates from all pa.ts of New Zealand are attending the conference, which is being held in the King Eoward Technical College. Mass-proauction Methods There was a time, ivrr nnuiater said, when New Zealand claimed to lead the world in euucationai methods aim was aDie to produce a sianaara oi iiteracy to back tne ciairn. coma that be said to-uay? conditions naucnangeu, it was true, ana on the whole it could be said that tne average rot of the senool child to-day was much happier than that of earlier generations. There had been, nevertheless, a tendency to mould education according to the spirit of the times, ana this haa meant recourse to mass-produciion metnoas. In the process, individuality had suffered, and our democracy was the poorer for it.

“No two persons are alike,” the president said. “As children, their problems are different. As teachers we are expected to know each temperament, with its good and baa reatures, its special interests and aptitudes. All the delicate, intimate, personal things that require individual treatment cannot be handled in the conditions and under the methods that must consequently be adopted in overlarge classes in some schools.” “ Keeping in mind that the important fact is to give children a balanced education by the time they leave school, we must determine when they wiLi leave. In our post-primary schools it may be reasonable to assume that the bulk of the pupils will leave by the end of their third year, so that, for practical purposes, we must organise our courses up to the third year so that when they go out they will have at least a balanced education as far as they have gone. Much as we would like their studies continue over a longer period, we must accept the practical fact that only a small proportion remain for the fourth year. It follows, then, that- the teacher’s ideal of giving sufficient education in all aspects is not completely achieved.” Moral Conviction Needed Many schools had junior branches of organisations which had as their aim a better world for the citizen of to-morrow, Mr Findlater said. There had been several warnings, in the uncertain period since its inception, that the tests to which it had been subjected might be too much for the youn£ United Nations Organisation. A wave of moral conviction in the efficacy of religion was the only way in which war could be prevented, the speaker added. If people rejected theocracy they would get .in its place autocracy. Education had its value, but if people were unconscious of their allegiance to the unseen, strong wills would conscript them to work for the seen, he concluded. 1