SCHOOL PRIZES.

Wairarapa Age, 18 December 1924, Page 6

SCHOOL PRIZES.

PRO. AND CON. Whether or not school prizes should be abolished was considered at a meeting of the Taranaki School -Commit tees' Association. The Headmasters’ Association contended that tjiey should. The remittee representatives decided to ask the Education Board to circularise all school committees requesting them to consider the question at the annual meeting of householders next April. One headmaster said that the practice of giving prizes was wrong because the more diligent children were often not placed as high as better intellectually endowed children, who did not try as hard. The pleasures of obtaining prizes were shared by only 1 per cent, of the children, while the other 90 per cent., bore the disappointment. Children should not work for the regards they might obtain, but for the sake of their work. The good schoolmaster was considered to be the one who made least use of bribery and punishement. Another point was that teachers especially in country schools, were open to putside influence in making their prize awards. Another speaker contended that prizes were an- inducement to immediate effort, but did not help to prepare children for the life of service which good citizenship called for. It appeared to another that the advocates of abolition of prizes were aiming at a very high ideal. Did teachers all work for the love of their work? He did not agree with the principle of giving prizes, but on the other hand 'diligence would not be encouraged without prizes. If the new idea was the correct one, parents must bo made to realise that.