Schools' Responsibility Is Much Greater Now

Chronicle (Levin), 2 September 1948, Page 8

Schools' Responsibility Is Much Greater Now

Today 's^teaeher has a responsibility to ttiould tbe charaetei4 of the pupil, Today's educationists emphasise the child rdther thaii the pupil, biit more is needed than mere reiation of learning to earning. A parent, a headihistress, a former'senior school inspector and a well-known manufacturer drew these main conclusions ih Auckland recently, when, as members of a panel iii a discussiori spOiisored bythe Associated Normal Sehools' Community Centre, they aired their views on "What I Should Expect of the School of Today,"

The panel co.nsisted of Mrs. K. M. Griftin, president of the Family Gujdance Centre; Miss M. G. Johnston, M.A., headmistress of Epsom Giris' Grammar School; Mr. A. F. D. East, former assistant-senior inspector of primary sehools; and Mr. Howard Hunter, president of the New Zealand Manufacturers' AssQciation. The chairman was Mr. C. L. Gillies. "In the min'dS of sorne people1 there is a feeling that, becausd' of the waning influence of home and church, a new responsibility has come tipon the shbulders of the teachers to deepen the charactef of the child," Mr. Hunter said. In providing that moral training, the school of toddy had to perform a function that was not expected of it 30 years ago. Today's sehools were fast becoming the residuary legatees of the neglect of parental and social obligations, conten'ded Mr. East. Sehools used to be eoricerned chiefly with curf kapuni; today the child was the focal poipt, and he, rather than the subject matter, was being studied, Mr. East Said. The point that, with today's trend to Socialism, it shoul'd not be forgotten that the child belonged to the parent and not to the State, was rnade by Mr. Hunter. "The child who really needs cooperation is the child of a parent who won't come an'd see the teacher," Miss Johnstone decilared.j An intelligent parent will do it, j but what are yoti going to do with the child whose parent won't? Mr. Hunter: That's over to you. Teachers were trained' and chosen carefully, but there was no such qualification for parenthood, said Mrs. Gl'ifOn. The functiOn of education today seemed to be td relate learning to earnings, to make a pupil merely competent for everyday living, contended Mr. Hunter. There was a large section of pupils - who did not choose a ischolastie or aca'demic career, but J sought early employment, and this ! section was being largely neglect'ed from a cultural point of Aiew, 'he added. The numbers attepd- | ing adult education classes was surely an in'dication of the need for something more than mere technical education. The need for Care in selection and training of teachers, and, collaterally, for a greater evaluation of the teaching profession, were ppints made by members of the audience.