HIGH SCHOOL

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 126, 14 February 1918, Page 9

HIGH SCHOOL

THE BEST TYPE DISCUSSION AT COUNCIL OP EDUCATION Tli« Council of Education had before it yesterday tho question of the type of high school most suited to such .1 district as Stratford, whether a secondary school controlled by an independent board or a technical high school under a hoard of managers, with tho Education Board as controlling authority. It was recognised that either type of school could under present conditions provide all the courses of study likely to be required by 'the pupils in the district, except that no capitation is payable for instruction in Latin in tho caso of a technical high school, and Latin is at presont an essential subject for pupils preparing for ( such professional careers as '.aw, inedi- j cine, and tho Church. It was argued, however, that very few pupils wouid require Latin in a place liko Stratford, and that in these cases some special provision could be made for tuition of those pupils in that subject. One reason urged in favour of the technical high school was that the very name of the school served to emphasiso the importance of technical or vocational instruction, rather than the geueral secondary or grammar school instruction, which is talten by most of the pupils of tho ordinary secondary schools, and that under present conditions it is in the interests of tho great majority of pupils that they should take agricultural, domestic, or commercial courses, as long as they include officient instruction in Euglish, arithmetic, and general culture, rather than a course including Latin. Some parents, it was pointed out, were under the mistaken apprehension that if their children did not receivo instruction in Latin the>. wore being rohbed of some of their rights. It has been found in the past that some secondary schools established under Section 88 of the Act, instead of making a special feature of courses of instruction of a vocational character and fostering technical instruction in their district, as expected when they were established, have directed the attention of their pupils along traditional lines and encouraged the so-called grammar school courses. It was also contended by some members that the commilsory study of Latin for both law" and medicine was not justified, and that the sooner the requirements in this respect are amended the better it will bo for our edu- , cation system. . . Stratford is the centre of a dairying, district; the people are enthusiastic about dairying, and about the courses of instruction at present carried on at tho District High School, where there are some 170 pupils in the secondary department. ' Circumstances are such that' the intensive study of dairying, including suitable scientific laboratory work,- should bo provided in the high school to be established. Further, the people are anxious that the-control of the school should remain in the hands of the Education Board, which ' would not be the caso if a secondary school were established, and strong; ysupported requests wore made that the council should reconsider, the question of tho type of school to ho establish, ed, "and 'should .recommend a technical hiih school. On the whole, after the matter was fully discussed, cue council agreed to grant the request or the Stratford people.