FIRST THINGS FIRST

Taranaki Daily News, 13 December 1932, Page 3

FIRST THINGS FIRST

AIM OF TRUE EDUCATION. EXAMINATION DANGER. The much-debated question of when a girl should enter a secondary ■ school and how long she should stay there was referred to recently by the principal of the Wellington Girls’ College, Miss V. M. Greig. She said that it would be well to take thought and not let the urge of external examination dominate our education system and decide the syllabus of work in the school. “Let us put ‘the first things first’ and not sacrifice all that is best in a girl’s school life by attempting to push her through college at too early an age,” Miss Greig said! “It is impossible in one or. two years to do the ; work of three or four, and the sooner a child enters the high, school after gaining her standard VI. qualification, the happier she is and the better the chance of developing her on right lines and bringing her to a really high standing. “How long a girl ought to remain at school depends largely upon her age, her previous education, and the future for .which she is training. A girl defeats her own ends if she attempts too much, in one year; she simply gets .a confused idea of many subjects and efficiency in none, and this generally leads.to a distaste for study, and sometimes, I am to an inferior complex. There is no greater mistake’, than an attempt to ‘rush a girl through a school.’ And yet this is just what some parents are trying to do. “On the professional and on the commercial side of. our school there is a fairly heavy syllabus of work, and parents often wish their children .to do too much. This is especially evident after the child has been with us for two years. Parents, request for her matriculation in the third year and seem to think that to secure a pass for her at a minimum age, no matter how poor a pass, is the ideal at which to aim. They ask that the child should drop this subject and that, generally music or drawing, because ‘it is .ofj no immediate use.’ Time is grudged for home reading, for games, for various school activities—for all that' makes for • true. education; and all' be-. cause the child is. being asked to carry a greater burden than is reasonable. “Why do so many people think in terms of a matriculation pass and' put an undue value on the gaining of it? We do not under-estimate it for those who require it, but with'syllabuses as full as they are and with children entering the, high school at a so much younger age, is it fair, to ask that a girl of 14 or 15 years of age should sit for so exacting an examination, after only three, years of secondary school work?

“A normally healthy girl,. with four years of good all-round education, such as the average high school affords, should take matriculation in her stride and should regard the examination as merely an incident of the work of the whole year, “Our experience, during .the past few. years,” Miss Greig continued, .“inclines us to think that the time has come to discourage third-vear matriculation, and under existing conditions, unless a child is going to take at least two years of post-matriculation work, we doubt, the advisability of allowing even the very, brightest to sit before the fourth year.. Children as yoimg as 14 or 15 are still; very, immature .and not fit for the responsibility which a sixth.form imposes upon them, and in our opinion it would be in the interests of all concerned were the average girl .to take four years to reach, matriculation, then one year in Foriri' VI. to specialise; arid another still, if possible, if she wishes to excel at the university.” • ... . ,