FETISH OF EXAMINATIONS

Waikato Times, Volume 104, Issue 17589, 19 December 1928, Page 8

FETISH OF EXAMINATIONS

HINDRANCE TO EDUCATION.

"It is still a commonly-accepted belief." said Mr F. M. Renner, headmaster, in his report at the prize-giving ceremony of the Rongotai Boys College "that you must send a boy to a secondary school if you want him to be a professional man; it is still customary to make invidious comparisons between the examination results of one school and those of another; and it is still a widespread idea that postprimary education should consist of instruction in such subjects as will be useful to a boy when he leaves his school to enter a particular trade or profession. The desire of parents that their children shall excel in examinations and the generally accepted view of education are two factors that hinder a secondary school teacher in bending all bis energy to a task that is of infinitely greater importance to the State —to train a boy in readiness for the time when he becomes a responsible entity of the community. If the boy can be trained to absorb into his very being that he has just two things to learn —his duty to his neighbours and his duty to himself—then nothing else matters very much. In fact, the boy's success in life is assured, not in so much £ s d, but in something infinitely better for himself and for his country."