THE YOUNG MIND.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXVII, Issue 4984, 7 June 1926, Page 3

THE YOUNG MIND.

BEST METHOD OF TRAINING. “ ACCORDING TO NATURAL BENT.” While heartily in favour every boy and girl in the Dominion obtaining the best education possibly, the Minister of Education (Hon. R. A. Wright), according to a. statement he made, is firmly convinced that the training should be along the right lines, so that the intelligence of the young people will be cultivated iu accordance with their natural bent. The Minister referred to the subject in the course, of his reply to a. deputation at Wellington in or deft' to clarify an impression which appeared to have been created by some remarks he ma.de. a week or so ago to a s conference of secondary school teachers. “My remarks seem to have been somewhat misunderstood,” said the Minister. “Probably it was my own fault. The opinion has b&en expressed by some of the newspapers that 1 am evidently opposed jbo children gaining free places and passing on to the secondary schools. That was not in my mind at all. I endeavoured to show' that our problems were greater to-day than formerly, because of the large number who gain free place® and go to the secondary schools.. I want to make it clear that I have no idea; of preventing any boy or girl from obtaining the best education he on she can. We want to see, though, that we are training them, along the. right lines, and as far as possible along the line df their natural bent. I believe that should be our object. We all have heat'd of the round peg in a square hole. Our education system should bear this in mind and endeavour to see that as far as possible .the cultivation of the intelligence of our young people is according to their natural bent. Apart from any question of politics, I think the majority will a.gree that we are not all born equal. Some children have natural advantages that are denied others, and if it is possible to educate their intelligence along the right lines—the. lines upon which they should naturally go—it will benefit the children and the country as well.”