Complaints On Discipline Of School Pupils

Press, Volume C, Issue 29511, 12 May 1961, Page 10

Complaints On Discipline Of School Pupils

(New Zealand Press Association)

WELLINGTON, May 11

There were organised gangs in schools who went around intimidating their fellow pupils, Mr N. Heyes (Tokoroa) said at the annual meeting of the New Zealand Educational Institute yesterday. The "chickening’’ that went on in schools was something that should be investigated, he believed?

Mr Heyes did not agree with a view expressed by Mr W. E. Familton (Cambridge) that the problem of misbehaviour was not general throughout New Zealand, but existed only in certain areas.

“The problem is found m every district except rural areas,” said Mr Heyes. Mr Heyes said he knew of some children who had deliberately taken action that would have them suspended. so that they could leave school. Another speaker said that the behaviour of the children not only affected the mental health of teachers but also affected the teachers’ security. A third speaker said’young people should not be encouraged to enter a teaching-ser-vice in which they were going to be abused by those they served.

“When young teachers enter the teaching profession, they know what salary they are to receive, but they don’t know what abuse they are to be subjected to by youngsters,” he said.

One speaker said it would be in the interest of teachers generally for some investigation to be carried out on discipline in the school room.

Times were changing and the principal difficulty confronting teachers was that the child today had two standards of conduct to observe—one in the home, one in the school. The school was suffering. At the end of the discussion the meeting voted in favour of a remit that read: “Believing that the development and maintenance of discipline in schools is one of the major strains connected with teaching, the institute considers that this question should be the subject of special investigation during 1961.”