SCHOOL CAMPS

Taranaki Daily News, 17 January 1931, Page 5

SCHOOL CAMPS

THE PRINCIPLE SUPPORTED. “A noble ideal which might very well be put into practice if difficulties of organisation and expense can be overcome,” remarked Professor L. J. Wrigley, «f the University of Melbourne, when asked at Christchurch to assess the value of school camps as a recognised part of the school curriculum. He knew of no country, he added, where the scheme was put into universal practice, but in Europe and America such camps were a recognised feature of progressive education. There, however, only part of the school was taken; they had not been able to give the regular benefits of such outings to every child. Much of the good of such camps lay in every child being able to take part in them; indeed, it was not the boy oi girl going to a good school who would benefit so much as the slum child who could not pay for such things. He was, he said, in favour of official recognition being given these camps, when much would depend on the zeal of teachers and local enthusiasm. The “school journey” was a movement which had developed in this way. Though of a different character they had a scheme of afforestation in \ ictoria designed to teach the child valuable lessons which he could not be taught in the schoolroom. During school hours children went perhaps as much as 20 miles into the country and planted pines or other trees, each school being allotted about two acres a year. There was much more to be learned from this than a lesson in forestry.