DISCIPLINE

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 72, 18 December 1920, Page 7

DISCIPLINE

AN 'EVEH-PEESENT (NEED. / At tho annual prize-giving at Banks College, held-yesterday, the headmaster (Mr. VVY'-T. Foster, 1 M.A., B.Litt,), in. his report, referred to the proposed new system of education. He'stated: "Prophets have arisen in our midst itho would givo'the boy practically complete charge of his own time and inclination*. That boys can manage their own "external discipline when' they- reach tlio e|ccondary age, 1 quiito. agree, but 1 deny that they are the best judges of what is good for them in the schoolroom, lately a schoolmaster, has been, dubbed'a cross between an encyclopedia nnd a policeman.' That ho is no encyclopedia he is even himself only too conscious; that he is anything in the nature of a noliceriian, if it is true at all, is truo to this extent, that those who -cherish the notion were "urnly at school, ana really required the baton to bring them to their senses. AVhat the world laclt3 to-day is discipline. By that I do not mean intimidation, but tho control that springs from a respect foT law and order. All good government is, of necessity, a wise curtailment of liberty, and surely no one is in greater need of tt"B whole; some restraint tliao ths child of to-da). ,