TRULY ABSURD

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 76, Issue 298, 18 December 1933, Page 8

TRULY ABSURD

EXAMINATION SYSTEM PROFESSOR’S CRITICISM. WELLINGTON, Dee. 16. Some interesting observations on education, with particular reference to the examination system, were made by Professor W. H. Gould at the breaking-up ceremony of the Hutt Valley High School yesterday afternoon. Professor Gould said the assurance was made that the country had at last turned the corner, and the depression was rapidly becoming a matter of history. If that was so, there was a great deal of reconstruction work to be done, and he hoped education would be served along with other community services. To those who had any say in reconstruction, he would like to point out that the wisest economy was wise spending. A cessation of expenditure was not wise, but there was no doubt that in some quarters in the past there had been a. clamour for expenditure that was not justified. The future of the country, he said, was not so much in the hands of the young people. His own generation had made a considerable mess of affairs, and the young people would have to put right what the older people in their incompetence had muddled up. It was the part of the young people to help forward a policy of reconstruction that would make this country what it could easily be—i.e., the brightest jewel in the British Empire. While recognising tho importance of primary and secondary in/ustries, said Professor Gould, these industries were dependent on the manhood and womanhood of the country, so the most primary industry of all was the rearing, nursing, and education of the young people of this country. However, these returns were long-distance ones, but they were recognised by people of vision. If it was true that “where there is no vision the people perish,” they stood in jeopardy every hour, judging by some of the things that ’had happened recently. Economy in Education, He could not find acts of economy wisely and judiciously applied to education, said Professor Gould. It was am essential thing in education to have close, intimate, personal contact between the teacher and the taught. The position now was that there were fine school buildings, well equipped, and with magnificent grounds, but the schools were understaffed, and there was a large number of skilled teachers waiting to make contact with the pupils, but could not do so. There was a type of intelligence in the scholastic work!, stated the professor, that found itself best in the hand ling of abstract situations and putting it into words, and such pupils did well in examinations. Other types of intelligence were best in concrete situations, and handling people and events. He would not like to say which was the better type, but the world needed both types. The Hutt High School provided for both these types. What was needed in this country were people who were fully developed. The greatest incubus to true de velopment in the country was the truly absurd examination system. It seemed that about half of New Zealand was engaged examining the other half. Professor Gould- quoted the following extract from the principal’s report with strong approval, and said that, only a man of strong mind could have written it: — I hope that neither parents nor the board will expect us to become close crammers for examination. Some of the finest minds in this country, he said, had become narrow and warped by the fetish of examinations, and it was a sad thing to see the veneration in which examination results were held by the innocent public.