MORAL, MENTAL AND PHYSICAL

Waikato Times, Volume 90, Issue 14049, 30 April 1919, Page 3

MORAL, MENTAL AND PHYSICAL

CLAIMS OF EDUCATION. A HEADMASTER'S VIEWS. Mr F. H. Brown, the headmaster of the Hamilton East School, in a short address to the householders in meeting assembled on Monday, evening, stated that he was much impressed by the development of the pupils attending the school. They were exceptionally fine children physically, and their physical development had not been attained at the expense of their _ brain power. His staff was an exceptionally good one—there was not a weak spot in it—and he was confident that with the material offering, the school would achieve good results. Referring to modern education, he stated that there was a vast difference in methods now to those of a comparatively few years ago, when the chief aim was to knock into, the pupil a smattering of the rudiments, leaving the moral and the physical training largely to take care of * themselves. Modern education strove to develop the physical, the mental, and'the moral, to build character, and to that end he was a great believer in sports. He did not like to see the pupils in knots throughout the school grounds; they were then possibly talking and thinking of things that they should not. The remedy was to give l them some healthy form of recreation, and to keep them busy at it. They might at times think that he was devoting too much energy to the children’s sports and recreations, but he wanted to impress upon the parents that that was part of their moral training. He asked the hearty cooperation of the parents in the education of the children. The parents had the children completely under their control for the first few years of their lives, during which they did much towards moulding and training their characters. When they, were sent on to the schools, it became the teachers’ duty to do their best to develop the r good and eradicate the had, and it was the duty of the parents to see that the teachers had a fair opportunity, and carried out their work under the best possible conditions. They must remember that money spent on education was not wasted—it made for the efficiency of the nation, and it was for the parents of the children to insist that the necessary money was found for this all-important work. Our lads had proved themselves second to none; they had not been trained as soldiers, hut had proved to he amongst the best. Given first-class conditions, what could we not have? , Mr Brown then went on to refer to some of the outstanding defects in the present system, and the improvements which had recently been effected in regard to the salaries of juniors and in other directions. The good effects of the increase of salaries was already apparent by the better type of teacher coming forward, and this would become more pronounced in the immediate future. The speaker concluded with an earnest appeal to the householders to bring pressure to hear uuon the Government through their Parliamentary representatives to increase tile annual grants for education.