SCHOOLNG TOO SHORT

Hokitika Guardian, 20 December 1929, Page 6

SCHOOLNG TOO SHORT

HEADMASTER’S ADVICE. (By Telegraph—Per Press Association.) AUCKLAND, December 19. Merely because a boy is going in for fanning or commercial life, that is no reason why his general schooling should be cut short, is the opinion of Rev. K. Arclulall, Headmaster of King’s College. In the course of bis annual report at the College Prize Day ceremony yesterday, be said lie thought that such boys should take the whole secondary course for four years. Too many left after two years “In the case of boys going on to the land,” said the Headmaster, “ it is fair to ask their parents to remember that school days provide the only broadening influence their sons will receive before they are limited and confined by the necessary persistent tasks of farming life. Because they are going on the land, they, possibly more than, others, need the training of mind and character which can help them to rise in spirit and ideals above the merely material side of fanning. I hope that parents whose sons wish to go on the land, and who can afford it, will he prepared to be guided for me, and leave their sons at school for at least f'dur years. Some day we shall have a large, agricultural side to our Sixth Form, and we will do so if the parents are prepared to he guided in matters they do not always understand. We want to send out into our country districts young men of intellectual culture and the power of moral and with social leadership, for it is such men who will help to raise the general level of country life, ’and help to stop the drift to the cities which, I think, assuming dangerous proportion in New Zealand. With regard to the boys who are destined for commercial pursuits, I notice that, on this side, also, there is a similar tendency on the part of parents to withdraw their sons from college life far too early, many of them leaving after two years of secondary school 1 iffe. The reason for this is partly, the failure of some parents to appreciate the value of education as distinct from information ; but there is also the undoubted fact that the banks insurance companies, and commercial houses are tending to ask for hoys to enter their employ at too early an age, before it is reasonable to say that either mind or character is adequately developed or stabilised. lam confident of the general truth of the statement that the longer the organised education of a hoy goes on at school, the fuitber he will eventually he able to go, both in intellectual grasp and in power of control in the business world. This is appreciated in England,, hut I am not sure that the head of business houses ill New Zealand, and other institutions, are equally clear on the point. 11 they were, I fancy that there would lie a more organised attempt to meet the difficulty created by the Arbitration laws of New Zealand. As they operate at present, these laws lay down a necessary wage to be paid at 21 years of age, and the banks, insurance offices and business houses seem to want to have hoys for as many years as possible before they turn twenty-one. I would venture to contend that (1) for the sake of educational advantage, the hanks, offices and business houses should he pro pared to meet any extra expenses involved in a longer term at school for hoys, or (2) the Arbitration laws should he altered in so far as they conflict with education progress; or best of all (3) a frank recognition should he made of the advisability of starting young men with varying educational advantages at different ages, and training them in specialised ways for special tasks.