GIVE YOUTH THE TOOLS

Cue (NZERS), Issue 8, 30 September 1944, Page 5

GIVE YOUTH THE TOOLS

(By

/CHILDREN in New Zealand will now be educated until they reach the age of 16 years. Legislation lias raised the school leaving age by two years. Immediately, one is prompted to give the decision open-hearted blessing, appreciating only too vividly * after service experiences abroad how valuable education can be. —

Education is the golden key to success in every walk of life. ,NZ prides itself on -a system which has long won the plaudits of eminent educationists the world over. Yet the individual Zealander realises the limitations of the present system in fitting him fully for the trade or profession which becomes his life’s work. The system adheres to a defined plan. Each and every student is taught a host of subjects never likely to benefit all. Specialisation along the line that would endow untold profit in post-school enterprise is largely ignored. This ¥* true in particular of the high

school system, but not of the technical college. Greater application of psychology must eventually come into practice. Children cannot make up their tender minds what job they will fill after school. Boys all want to be engine or tractor drivers, firemen., or Spitfire pilots. Girls dream of becoming Florence -Nightingales, smart secretariesalways mothers. ? ‘ Trained observers can judge the natural bent of any child. Shrewd acceptance of such findings in the course of education is surely a logical corollary in patterning a system to produce a nation of

skilled—and incidentally . more —workers. , A tremendous cross-cut in deadwood teachings would effect countless savings from school desk to work bench, financially and physically, if in no other way. Painful hours of disinterested study would be turned over to a

condition approximating the pleasure of practising hobbies, Why should precious school days be wasted •• on wholly academic topics? . , .' The generation of men who comprise.' the 2 NZEF know how much they, learned at school, and how little of it in most cases was of practical use when they entered the world to earn. They know, too, which subjects that in more precise detail and bulk would have, been of immense aid if they could have been developed at the expense of subjects which became a closed book even .before the school bell rang for the last time. These men know the truth of. their own cases, and it is within their power to ,pass on the benefit of their experiences as a guide for more practical education.

Here is the , story of a Kiwi, one of thousands in the same position in and out of the services: « When I think of what I might have learned and reckon up what I did not learn between the ages of 14 and 16, P am amazed and somewhat disturbed about this last piece of national coercion. The broad outline of the curricu-

lum of ‘ those days seemed much the same as it is today—academic, unpractical, and lacking in creative outlet. ' ■ ' • ' « Algebra, geometry, trigonometry all passed in tongue-protrud-ing effort, but the commercial convenience of the slide rule and the Ready Reckoner found no

place in the lesson. Perhaps the old method developed the reasoning powers, but then so does chess, and in doing so it carries a much greater appeal. We totted upjournals and ledgers and found our way round the entries in a cash book. The, practical difficulties of vouchers, invoices and bills of lading in their multiplicity: were to come later. "«/No demonstration was ever given of the organisation -arid: workings of a modern office, and: so this part of the curriculum, simply became a dreary procession of L s. d. The J cabalistic appeal of shorthand was dismissed hastily as this was not a subject for one striving to matriculate. Likewise, the mechanical appeal of the typewriter was something: to ‘be acquired out of school hours. 1 « Something of -mechanics arid physics was taught, just a trifle of each, vastly interesting, particularly during the school period where one was able to take part in a laboratory experiment orwatch' a demonstration. It took domestic life, however, to teach me that I did not know how to put a washer in a water tap, or calculate the amount of chemical manure necessary to keep the back garden cabbage patch in good order. The car is still sent to a garage for adjustment. , «It took the hard, cold world to teach the bread-and-butter subjects which were wanted there, and boredom in the .early twenties;

to point to the necessity for a really creative hobby. v -« We did learn French from one who had never been in France and his ability to teach was discounted by . a lack of ability to pronounce. I did not find this out, however, until overseas service gave me an opportunity of attempting to use my schoolboy qualifications. / ' « Culture and art were stifled by'/ convention and lack of imag-

ination. One spent hours sketching such uninteresting objects as pots and pans . when the class was full of interesting human subjects simply begging to be recorded. We sang with broken voices songs which I have since learned to love but which in those days were completely meaningless in word .and ’ consistently murdered in tune. Musical appreciation was unknown..

« Sport was a fetish and produced the right reaction in most of us. It taught control and perseverance and showed the desirability for a certain amount of physical fitness. The wretchedly equipped gymnasium, however, gave little encouragement to the desirable study of physiology and fitness •so necessary and so well catered for by private gymnasiums one joined later in life. « I . learned nothing of sex, except from the inaccurate and morbid mutterings of the older students which bore no relation whatsoever,. to the true facts of life. Some would say it was the parents’ place to give the necessary instruction. So they/ did in due course, but fascinating though the subject was, it could hardly be dealt with as efficiently by a fatherly talk as it could have been in a series of carefully-planned classroom lectures. . - « Will today's curriculum cater for the boy in a more practical manner, or is the new legislation just another ineffectual example of State parental doting based on a wrong appreciation of what a. young man is interested in and needs to know ? »