District Teachers' Meeting

Chronicle (Levin), 13 July 1948, Page 2

District Teachers' Meeting

The July meeting of the New Zealand Educational Institute was heid in the Levin School on Thursday last, when there was an exceilent attendance of 48 Horowhenua primary scnool teachers, presrded over by Mr. F,' O. Burtt, of Shannon. • •• Tlie question of whether a branch secretaries' conference should be heid or not was fuhy discussed by members-. It was finally decide'd that the Horowhenua 'oianch would not support the proposal on the grounds that such a iarge expenditure was not justifled because the hea-d office was extremely efficient and tne branch secretaries' work was routine. The Shannon staff was asked to deal with the questionnaire on 'musxc in schoois ana forward its decisions to the committee set up for the revision of the school music syllabus. Unjustified absence from schoois was reported by several teachers. It was felt that as the position in country schoois was unsatisfactory, the areas for visiting teaqhers, whose duty it was to investigate the reason for absence from schoois, be extended to cover country schoois. Mr. Burtt welcomed Messrs. Stubbs and Robinson, inspeotors, to the meeting. . Mr. G. H. Stubbs, senior inspector, thanke'd the branch for the opportunity of making contact with the teachers of the district. On this occasion, he said, he would iike to devote his time to talking about books and libraries in the primary schoois. The ihspector was quite jubilant about the grants the Wellington Education Board had reeeived from the department for school libraries. Although the matter of selecting books A was rather difficult, a method was evolved whereby a committee of teachers aird the inspectorate fully discussed the suitable books, and' recommended them for distribution. The books were chosen from the books themselves, and not from catalogues. Booksellers, the training college and the public iibrary whole-heartedly co-operated with the committee in its work. It was necessary to have the widest selection of opinion posSible, because it was hoped to provide the schoois with nothing but the best. The first schoois to be considered were those that did not participate in the country Iibrary seheme, or were not able to' use the city Iibrary facilities, but all schoois in the board's area had already reeeived an advance supply of social studies 'text books. More were to come, and it was hoped to have complete libraries for every .class. A very liberal grant had also been reeeived for maps, which would be placed in the schoois as soon as possible. Each room would receive its maps and a map rack. Mr. Stubbs asked all teachers to show how they proposed to use the text books placed in their hands. He asked for the integration of subjects throughout the school, with- a free interchange of work and ideas among all ciasses. "We sufter from rectangular thinking and finish up in a matchbox if not careful." Jealousies among teachers are on the wane. If books are to be read | it was very important that the coviers and illustrations attracted the jchild. He could remember being shown beautifully bound volumes of books that were the pride of a [school. The teacher remarked how useful they were in that they could be twisted and knocked about generally without injuring the binding. Mr. Stubbs remarks were that books were to be read and not twisted, and for that reason attractive cov-j ers were very important to children. It was natural that books that appealed to children would show signs of wear, but it was cgnsidered that the life of text books would on the average be about six years. Pupil responsibility would be of greater benefit than restrictions, in the use of books. Mr. Stubbs asked all teachers to display their books in an accessible place, and whenever possible to provide reading tables. In conclusion, he said books had to be visible, acceptable and usable. After Mr, Stubbs - had answered questions placed before him, Mr. J. E. James, of Otaki, moved a vote of thanks to him for his helpful address. Mr. Burtt announced that endeavours would be made to have Mr. Anderson, of the National Film Library, present at the August meeting.