SOME CHARACTERISTICS OF THE BRITISH SECONDARY SCHOOL.

Hutt News, Volume 2, Issue 8, 18 July 1929, Page 7

SOME CHARACTERISTICS OF THE BRITISH SECONDARY SCHOOL.

Presidential address given tiy Mr. H. P. KMson, M.A., B.Sc., Principal of the Hutt Valley High School, at the last Annual Meeting af_ the New Zealand Secondary Schools Association.

At a time w>hen changes in bur system of education are imminent it is well to determine what the qualities ate in the traditional British secondary •school that are worth preserving. Our anxiety for reform must not make us lose sight of certain. clear excellencies that these schools have. Of the conventional - academic programme of the British secondary school I do not intend to speak, The subjects of intsruetion are coming-un-

der a fire of critical examinations, which they will.doubtless for the most part survive. For want; of authority I I'efra-in, - -too,, from including girls' schools in my remarkSj. though, I bedieve that the same'aims and ideals as are mentioned later actuate ; _ the staffs of those schools.' .

From these schools throughout the Empire have emerged most of our administrations anA> so-called professional men. Among the alumni of the New Zealand school that I know best Of all there are Judges^ Magistrates., Bishops (I use the plural correctly throughout), heads of State -Departments,' Scientists (including probably the greatest among our contemporaries),.generals, doctors, lawyers, university professors, and plenty of headmasters. These men are

scattered all over the world. . .'-'... What is the character of the product of the British school? At its best its representatives are men who are clear f not brilliant thinkers, moderate, tol•erant, just, and independent. . They handle men well. They have a purpose in life, and are not afraid of responsibility!

Wititfew exceptions these men love the school they come from intensely (even though it has always, "gone to the .dogs'' somewhat since their day), and it. is-worth while to examine briefs ly what it is in the British secondary school winch above all others seems to instil this loyal devotion into its

alumni

How has this tradition arisen? Its roots probably go deep down into certain racial characteristics, It has much to do with the attitude, of some of the, great headmasters of x the last* century, who placed .trust in 'the .boy, gave him responsibility' and freedom from undue - restraint, but were firm against misdemeanour. Tihey nurtured a school-boy honour, they encourage*! games that brought out qualities of courage, decision • and. chivalry. Theyplaced some _in authority cyex others, and these learned'to nandle" their fellows justly and courageously, in the school, in the -house, and on the play-ing-field. These things and others made a deep impression on the iboys. Their minds and spirits were touched to (finer issues by sMlful interpretation of the classics, and to unselfish enthusiasms by exhortation in chapel and harangue in hall. They felt, too,- the deep satisfaction - of comradeship in study and, above all, on the playingfield, sharing elation in success and grim determination in defeat. And with the busiest of them there lingers the "memory, of ,nbble. buildings ~«,nd stately trees with sKadows slanting athwart spacious fields, . , r.

In this tradition we-in New Zealand —sometimes succeeding; sometimes failing—have endeavoured to follow.

T-hose of us who have seen something of a foreign secondary school can claim that this British school tradition, this spirit, is a very real- and charac-

teristie thing. The hard insistence in foreign schools on the intellectual side of human endeavour, and the aloofness of most of the teac&ers from those extra-class-room activities • that we believe in so earnestly, is most marked, We feel that the pupils leave these institutions well equipped intellectually to fight for a livelihood in a crowded world, but revering little the school that sent them forth. The foreigner does not proclaim his school of origin, but t>he Briton speaks with pride of his alma niater. When biographies of prominent men are published in a British. country their school is always mention? cd. This is not so on the Continent, and foreign educationists have not failed to note this contrast, ..

The point I wish to stress is this:, "We are seeking a re-organizatftin of our schools and .a revision of our syllal)i of instruction. In the process we must see t-hat.we do not lose sight of what has made the British seeondaFy school a power in the community and an asjset to the nation. .• In' our endeavour to gain efficiency in technique we must not forget what makes a school "the

best. s.eaoi-1 of all."