OUR READERS’ VIEWPOINT

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 68, Issue 5942, 12 May 1944, Page 4

OUR READERS’ VIEWPOINT

THE HIGH SCHOOL Sir,—I wish to correct an error in my previous letter; it should read School Cert, instead of Art; my writing is to blame. Replying to Mr Smith’s gentlemanly letter, he knows from my first letter that I knew agriculture could be taken for School Cert., but what the public does not know is that parents and children are discouraged in the idea. I want every boy and girl to have the highest education the High School can provide. Mr Smith cannot foretell the future, and, pro--viding the child can stay the time at school, he or she may want that extra education in four years’ time. Numerous parents in the past few years have v wished their boy had taken his while at school; that extra learning for the services has been so much harder.

Obviously, I cannot answer the second paragraph; another member of the Committee will have to supply the proof. The statement on agriculture did not condemn but asked for a wider vision in agriculture, and, amongst other things, an agricultural farm for the school. I notice in the new curriculum, page 36, it states: “It is assumed that in all cases the school will have a farm or will have easy access to farming operations and live stock.” So other educationists are thinking along these lines, and only last week the Auckland Herald, under a “ Recruits for Farming ” editorial, drew attention to the necessity for an “agricultural bias.” Mr Smith said the school farm was not a success in places. I agree: it all depends on the teacher and headmaster controlling it. My recollection seems to be that Mr Smith had quite a lot to say on the subject in committee. Re woodwork, Mr Smith as usual is voluble, but I am asking for the “results.’’ Mr Gittos did show’ me some plans sixteen months ago, but he and the boys were then busy on toys for the creche, a war-time job, and, I presume, acting on instructions. Except for the fowl-house, I have yet to learn of the changed policy. I will not criticise Mr Gittos, but suggest he visit Tauranga District High School in the holidays, and there see for himself what even the eleven-year-olds can do in practical woodwork. Mr Smith hides behind the “ wire ” smoke-screen. Dozens of rolls of all sizes of wire-netting have passed through the auction mart, and in the past eighteen months the Seddon Technical College, Auckland, advertised, selling all stocks of its poultryhouses, brooders, etc., and members of the Committee have even offered to supply wire. Mr Smith talks with his tongue in his cheek when he says he has done all possible. For Miss Lehndorf I have the highest respect both as a teacher and a disciplinarian. But for her the tone of the school would be much lower. If children and parents are discouraged at the outset the best of teachers cannot get results. The secondary department has almost doubled in the past five years, and the passes the same. This is partly due to wai conditions and children leaving earlier, but there is room for improvement. The brilliant scholar mentioned I have the honour of knowing. 1 would point out that New Zealand ’ produced only one Lord Rutherford. Mr Smith has given one picture of his school. Here is another, seen through jaundiced eyes: Two boy prefects playing billiards at 1.30 p.m. on a Thursday; little Johnny, not too bright on maths., teaching arithmetic to his class for fifty minutes in the avoidable absence of the headmaster; children attending music lessons in town for thirty minutes or an hour, and .then “wagging it” for the rest of the morning or afternoon. This, and the harm it creates, all comes from this “too happy” school. Sometimes I wish we had a Woods or a Shepherd to straighten things up—l am, etc., G. DONALDSON, High School Committee. [Several paragraphs have been deletfrom this letter. —Ed.]