AUROA DISTRICT NEWS

Taranaki Daily News, 31 March 1934, Page 17 (Supplement)

AUROA DISTRICT NEWS

SCHOOL WORK INSPECTED. The monthly visit of a committee member was paid to the Auroa school last Friday afternoon. A number of the senior pupils were attending a class in cooking at the Manaia Technical School, while the remainder of the senior pupils were busily compiling large books and filling them with pictures of notable and historical events. As time goes on, these books will increase in interest and in value. . . /. In another class-room an interesting experiment was seen' in the sprouting of gladioli and /other bulbs in water alone, and then in earth, showing the greater rapidity, of the former method, and how essential water is to growth of plant life. . ,7 The infant pupils were busy with all kinds of hand-work, with wools, raffia, and sticks. Several of the little tots had cleverly illustrated the story of the “Three Little Pigs,” using different coloured pieces of cardboard. Apple trees were formed from sticks, and pieces of green paper, while beads, ■ representing the fruit, hung from each branch. 'The whole story was realistically portrayed. The children compose their own words to a suitable song for each story, a little Maori boy showing marked aptitude for correct metre and rhythm. . i / Another class was doing, hand-work in the open air and sunshine, the boys working at French knitting to be made up into different articles, and the 1 girls doing all kinds of fancy-work. One young boy, Tommy Day, had constructed what he calls a “shack,” complete even with little seats and forms that would do credit to a carpenter. The visitor was more than ever convinced of the need for encouraging the development of vocational callings among children, and that it seems futile making a child’s school life, unhappy because for the sake of the examination he must be crammed, or attempted to be, with some subject which he cannot master.