BATTLE OF LIFE

Evening Post, Volume CXVI, Issue 49, 26 August 1933, Page 15

BATTLE OF LIFE

QUESTION OF TRAINING

Many "persons who profess to be '"practical educationists" never tire of declaring that school pupils should be under ceaseless supervision for the detection oi a bent towards a particular trade or profession, so that "vocational training" may be begun with the least possible- delay. Parents and teachers .-.re urged to be keenly alert for evidence o£ plumbing proclivities, a carpentry complex, or a literary leaning. This stern practical view of life denounces, as' waste any time spent on a cultural course. This old controversial subject _ had another airing yesterday at a meetiug of the council of the New .Zealand Society of. Accountants. A Chamber of Commerce had submitted a suggestion "that the subject of bookkeeping be included as one of the optional subjects for both the university entrance and university scholarship examinations." : The president (Mr. G. W. .Reid) paid that the suggestion had been discussed by the society's education committee, ■which.was not in favour of the proposal. It was felt that education in the primary and secondary schools should be cultural rather than vocational. With such a subject as bookkeeping in the secondary schools the matter, of teaching was commonly a, real difficulty. Mr. James Hogg (Dunediu), in moving that no action should be tnken, strongly supported the president's opinion that the secondary schools should concentrate on cultural courses. In the case of the professions, the special teaching should be left for the university colleges. Another delegate remarked that the Education Department, which had forced bookkeeping on the schools, should have this subject removed from the curriculum. "In the secondary schools some 'duds' are put on the commercial course," he said. The motion was carried. ..