A Plea for the Parents.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLV, Issue 16, 19 October 1910, Page 53

A Plea for the Parents.

In New Zealand headmasters and headmistresses are not quite so intolerant of parents as are those mighty beings in the Old Country. But, if other parents are like the compiler of these paragraphs, they will have a very decided feeling of sympathy with Sir J. J. Thompson, F.R.S., who has been pleading in England that headmasters and headmistresses should be a little less frigidly antagonistic to parents. It was at a great public school, and in presenting the prizes the eminent knight made an amusing speech, which the writer commends to the attention of both sides mentioned. He observed: 'Heredity had come very much to the front, and he thought they all now felt that about nine-tenths of the business was done when a boy was born. Parents were responsible for the much larger fraction, and it was really only a small part that was under the control of the master. (Laughter.) He would like to plead A little more for parents being allowed t<> take an interest in their boys without being exposed to all kinds of opprobrium at the hands of headmasters. (Laughter.) ■He thought it was known to some headmasters that there was no such thing as an Intelligent parent. (Laughter.) He really believed that if there were such a thing as an intelligent parent the masters would be guided in the best way of.treating t’heir boys to some kind of intercourse with their parents, because, in his 'opinion, this would be the best way of directing boys’ education. He believed boys learned a great deal more from their habits than from their school work, and in this important matter parents and headmasters could accomplish the best results by acting together. Referring to the increase in the number of pupils, Sir Joseph said ho hoped that their growth would not go on, because he was strongly of opinion that the only good schools were the comparatively small ones. Education could not be dealt out in a wholesale way. The remarks in the last paragraph »eeui to apply with a good deal of force to a well-known Auckland school for girls.