SCIENTIFIC TEMPERANCE INSTRUCTION, 1920.

White Ribbon, Volume 26, Issue 310, 18 April 1921, Page 13

SCIENTIFIC TEMPERANCE INSTRUCTION, 1920.

(Supt.: Miss Helyer.) In the Department of Scientific Temperance Instruction the year 1920 marks an epoch. During the year the Minister of Education issued a revised syllabus for the guidance of teac-neo, and in the future the subject is to receive the attention which its importance demands. The new syllabus is most up-to-date and contains all the latest scientific truths about the acton of alcohol in the human body. A report of a deputation which waited on the Minister of Education requesting this important change will be found in the “Vanguard" of June 26, 1920. The reply given by the Minister was most satisfactory and in proof of the sincerity of his attitude the revised syllabus has been prepared. A copy of the headings under which the instruction Is to be given was published in the “Vanguard” of December 18, 1920. The Minister of Education, the Hon. C. J. Parr, is to be congratulated on the forward move in ids department. It is significant that the only report of work done in this department was sent from Ashburton, where the benefits of Prohibition are well known. Ashburton reports; “During the last term of the year, prizes were offered to the High and Borough Schools and to the Hampstead School for essay writing. The Masters of the Borough and Hampstead Schools willingly undertook to supervise the w’riting of essays, and the scholars of Standards V. and VI. competed for prizes, which were awarded at the annual break-up. At the Borough Schools, Mrs (1. Miller, Vice-President of the local W.C.T.U., by request, presented the prizes, and at Hampstead Mrs J. W. Baker was similarly Honoured. A sum of £1 was collected and 10 prizes donated, one exceptionally good essay being awarded a special prize. The Master of the High School is willing to supervise the essay writing in the flrM term of the New Year." Now that the Science of Alcohol is to rank as a compulsory class subject in the curriculum of the schools of the Dominion and will receive as much attention from teachers and inspectors

as geography, head teachers may be more willing to supervise essay writing on the subject than in the past.