What Are Carpentry Schools?

Te Ao Hou, March 1962, Page 30

What Are Carpentry Schools? by E. G. Schwimmer The carpentry training scheme is a bold new departure which has many advantages not only for Maori apprentices but also for European apprentices. It is not only a special measure for Maori acculturation but also an experiment in changing the whole basis of apprenticeships in New Zealand. The Maori youth leaving secondary school in rural districts and then moving into the city is faced with an unusual degree of insecurity. He is, first of all, unaccustomed to the modern money economy; even today most country Maoris have no experience of any form of budgeting, so that great trouble is experienced in keeping alive on even a reasonable city income. He will have a strong pressure to get as much money as possible, as he does not know how to keep alive on less. The second source of insecurity is the well-known chaotic accommodation position, with its humiliations, its constant upsets and the influence of the poor environment into which many have to move. The third source of insecurity arises from the strong need for companionship built up in the young Maori through his experience of closely knit village life. Even if he gets a job that satisfies him, and even if he is able to budget quite well, the Maori youth gets discouraged by the loneliness of a job or a location where companionship is lacking; this is not just a case of boredom but of quite unbearable suffering. Against this background it is easy to see why only a small minority are able to carry through an apprenticeship. Apprenticeship sharpens the financial problem, as well as cutting the young Maori off from the rest of his companions because of their different occupations and greater earnings. Also, the accommodation may often make evening and home work very difficult except for the strongest characters. We should also remember that in many cases the Maori country apprentice is not sufficiently familiar with mathematics, and mechanical drawing, to enable him to get through the theoretical work without special guidance. The Maori carpentry training scheme copes with Left to right: Lorris Whenuaroa, Mr Thomas, the Supervisor, Jim Andrews, and Isaac Hemopo in the Wellington Carpentry School.

Left to right: Colin Broughton, Jeff Taha, Dennis Matoe, Lorris Whenuaroa and Don Lawton. all these difficulties in the most admirable way. It provides companionship, accommodation, and educational guidance. It provides the sort of social control which will usually help to keep the financial difficulties within bounds. Most important of all, the supervisor, or teacher, in the scheme is the sort of man who would be a natural leader to the boys and who will give them a sense of security in the city. During the day, the programme provides for a good training in all the subjects in the theoretical trade examinations. Yet the boys do not spend whole days in the classroom. Part of their time is given over practical building. This practical work is carefully chosen by the teachers so it covers all the jobs a trained carpenter must be able to do. Every kind of weather-board and roofing is taught systematically on the different building jobs the schools take on. There are evening classes too—the Wellington school has two a week, one in mathematics and the other in social studies and English, for it is essential that future tradesmen should have a good general education and understand the world around them. In 1962 three schools will be running (Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch), with a total of 108 pupils, and in 1963 this number will be increased 144. It is essential for the boys to be carefully selected. They must have the intelligence and the energy to face the hard work demanded by these courses. Those who graduate will not only be tradesmen—they will be among the best tradesmen in the country. The scheme does more than just raising the number of trained Maori carpenters, for it also raises the whole standard of trade training in the country.