HELP FROM THE SCHOOLS.

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXVII, Issue 19805, 22 May 1934, Page 8

HELP FROM THE SCHOOLS.

if we can take it for granted that the Canterbury Education Board did not, without mature consideration, reject the application to utilise the vigour and enthusiasm of thousands of school children of Canterbury, in the interests of the relief of distress, it is safe to say that the general public will find some difficulty in accepting the Board’s edict. It was rather ironic that the Education Board should consent to the Progress League addressing its appeal to the headmasters of the schools under its jurisdication and to the members of school committees. The plain fact is that the Board on its part lias no power to prevent such communications. The decision of the Board to refuse to give its blessing to any scheme that involves the school children has been received with regret by many who realise that the public schools should not be made a collecting agency for all and sundry; “Personally,” said Mr Allen, a former headmaster who associated himself with the request made to the Board, “I am amazed at the reply of the Board. It has been one of the fundamental principles of the education of the child to teach it to think of other people and to assist where it can. During the war period this was done frequently, and it was the opinion of all headmasters that the children were proud to assist the soldiers. “I feel that the Board has misunderstood the position altogether,” continued Mr Allen, “and the suggestion that the League is trying to put propaganda through the schools is entirely wrong.” The idea behind the letter had been to afford the children the opportunity of feeling the pleasure of assisting in relieving the position of distress, said Mr Allen. "As a former headmaster I feel confident that this scheme would be accepted in the spirit in which it was conceived by practically all the head masters in the district,” he continued. “It is most disappointing that the Board should feel so in a matter which has the Mayor at its head. Here was an opportunity for the Canterbury Education Board to display some measure of broadmindedness by relegating the question of enlisting the help of the children in the work of providing funds to relieve distress, to the good sense of individual headmasters.