MODERN EDUCATION

Waikato Independent, Volume XLIV, Issue 6101, 12 September 1947, Page 5

MODERN EDUCATION

VIEWS OF HAMILTON TEfCHERS

The need for a separate Waikato Education Board, the physical standard of children of to-day, and the most desirable size of a modern classroom were some of the aspects of education traversed by the Discussion Group of the Hamilton branch of the National/ Party when the monthly meeting took the unusual form of a “brains trust.” Mr A. J. Yendell presided, and the club rooms were crowded. A panel of speakers supplied by the Hamilton Headmasters’ Association answered a questionnaire that had been prepared, and then replied to questions from the body of the hall. The speakers included Messrs E. Riley and S. Kettlewell and Miss G. Atkinson (Whitiora, Mesßrs R. Grono and W. Berresford (Hamilton West), Mr D. Gower (Ngaruawahia), and Mr H. D. Tait (Hamilton High School). Replying to a question regarding the necessity for the establishment of a Waikato Education Board, Mr Berresford said at the present time the Auckland Education Board had about 78,000 children under its control, and that was nearly one third of the school population of New Zealand. The area controlled by the Auckland Education Board was nearly half the North Island. There were nine education boards in New Zealand, the largest being Auckland and the smallest Wanganui which had about 6000 pupils under its control. Mr Berresford ,added that in the smaller boards there was much more personal contact with the problems of individual schools.

Mr Gower said that the Auckland Education Board had 2000 teachers attached to its staff, .and it was only natural that the Board was out of touch with them personally. Answering a question concerning the physical standards of children to-day, Mr Gower contended that the fact that athletic records were still being bettered was proof that the standards were improving. Statistics showed that there were many more young people taking part in a very much greater range of sports. Reforms n diet had done a great deal to bring about a general improvement in physical fitness, but there were certain things which tended to reduce the

standard. The speaker mentioned night programmes of pictures and radio, which received the patronage of children, interfering with their rest. Mr Berresford thought the machine age had had an adverse effect on physical endurance as distinct from the physical fitness of children. Mr Tait considered the children of to-day were generally fitter than in his own day. He stressed the need 1 of rest.

Asked if the standard of fundamentals in the schools had deteriorated, Mr Grono said that many felt that there was a slipping, but it was po use comparing conditions of the present day with those of thirty years ago. The standards of to-day were not so hard and fast as they were, as education was designed to give pupils a wider general knowledge and more confidence in themselves. He thought the children of to-day were better citizens than those of thirty years ago. The two wars had had a good deal of effect on the standard of fundamentals, for they had cheated an acute shortage of teachers and educational facilities. Mr Gower was of the opinion that thirty years ago only the brightest pupils went on to secondary schools, whereas to-day nearly all children up to the age of fifteen years went to secondary schools, and the brightest ultimately to the university.