AN EDUCATIONAL PROBLEM

Waipa Post, Volume XX, Issue 1244, 18 May 1922, Page 7

AN EDUCATIONAL PROBLEM

THE INTELLIGENT BUT NON-IN-

TELLECTUAL CHILD. Speaking at the conference of women teachers at Wellington on Wednesday with reference to the proposal that the interests of the intelligent but non-intellectual type of children in primary schools should receive special - consideration, four or five speakers stressed the point that these children--quite intelligent, but with no interest or aptitude for the normal ;course of study—were not catered for, and they simply went to swell the mass of easiily-swayed people who were carried away by .street orators and demagogic speakers, if they were specially taught and treated, the speakers felt convinced much could be done with them, and especially if their natural bent were studied and encouraged. '

Miss Chaplin told the meeting that

a school nurse had given her figures and facts concerning 14 of these children, whose careers after leaving school she had followed up. Of these children, half (50 per cent) afterwards fell into the hands of the police. Another speaker, Miss Andrews, said that an experiment with regard to the children of this type was being made in Dunedin, when a number of them were being taught in a special class in the Normal School there. It was too soon to. speak concerning results, she added.