THE SUMMER SCHOOL.

Taranaki Daily News, 14 January 1935, Page 4

THE SUMMER SCHOOL.

The life of a schoolteacher, whose mind is necessarily occupied to a large extent with specialised lines of study and with matters of routine and pettifogging detail, is particularly prone to become a narrow one. Even the long holidays which might be counted an opportunity to develop a wider scope are to some extent robbed of their value because during their course teachers usually seek the society of one another rather than that of new companions. At school there is the constant need to explain to younger minds the more elementary stages of circumscribed subjects: there is no urgent competition compelling teachers to keep abreast of movements in the broader aspects of their work. The institution of summer schools has therefore met with whole-hearted approval from those who take a wide view of the meaning of education. They open a road which if it is followed may lead from monotony to fascinating fields. The teacher in history, for example, is given the opportunity of a closer appreciation of the significance and the actions of modern makers of nations. The aims of the summer school are purely cultural and social, encouraging those who attend to think rather than to study, to view the whole rather than the part. For the school that opens at New Plymouth today there has been chosen a panel of lecturers who have made their mark in the Dominion and have proved themselves men of eager mind, with the gift of putting their frequently provocative theories into cogent form. Both the teachers themselves and the public, to whom many of the lectures are open, should benefit . from the opportunity given them.