THE MODERN BOY.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXIX, Issue 5232, 27 January 1928, Page 4

THE MODERN BOY.

WHERE DOES HE FAIL t VARYING OPINIONS. What is wrong with, the modem boy ? Is the product of our secondary school system all that he should be ? These Questions, important when the future of the nation* is considered, have been engaging the; attention of commercial men in New Zealand recently, and varying opinions, as wide apart as the poles in s°me cases, have been expressed. In the main; the criticism has been levelled at the hand-writing of tihe boys,’but some business men have gone much further and have even accused the secondary school boy of inability to write. —and talk—gooid English.

Bank managers and commercial men; in various parts, of. New Zealand have been very emphatic on the subject of hand-writing, and oa this score it would seem that the secondary school boy must stand convicted, although possibly the verd’ct would not be unanimous (says the Evening Post). One bank manager in Christchurch has expressed his views in no uncertain manner. “If only they would take some trouble in writing the r application, both as regards composition and style, and realise that flie impression given by the letter maymake or mar their chances,” he, said. “As it is, they jumble a lot of words together,’ write them anyhow—sometimes even in pencil—arid post them, usually to the, wrong address. The public and school teachers don’t seem to realise what utter tosh these boys realise are capable of writing. They seem to contract these bad habits at the secondary schools. At any rate, on the average, boys coming direct from the primary schools show a better hand. But those from the * high ’ schools come with np> idea of neat writing, and in its place a smattering of book-keeping that is nb use to anybody.

“ Good ihand-writing is thq basis of good book-keeping. You can never make a good book-keeper of a boy who writes all over the place. Yet the schools seem to concentrate; on teaching him the art of keeping books, and leave the question of hand-writ-ing to his own sweet easy will. The result is that whqn he comes here we have to begin from Primer II and teach .him how to write. We don’t m'nd teaching him tihe art of keeping books, but it is an unfair waste of time to teach him to write. If. only boys realised what great store is set on a good ‘hand’ these days I am sure they would try to better their writing. Why, often we engage a boy solely on ihis qualification- as a good writer.”

That bank manager must have been unfortunate in his applications for positions, for in the; light of experiences in Wellington his re--marks appear to be somewhat extreme. One Wellington bank official, with considerable experience in the employment of juniors, agreed that, in the main the handwriting of applicants for positions was not all that was to be desired by commercial men. There, were, however, notable exceptions. “They are by no means all as bad as they have been painted in Christchurch,” he said.

SPEED A BIG FACTOR. ' . There is another important point which must not be overlooked in the consideration of-handwriting. It is a well-known fact that when-speed is essential good handwriting almost invariably goes by the board ; it is, in fact, almost impossible. There are many examples of this, some of them classical. It has to be remembered that the secondary school curriculum is of necessity a very crowded one, and that it is not possible to devote more than a small fraction of the daily work to instruction in handwriting. While the education system remains as it is the secondary schools must be regarded, to a very considerable extent as being the, training ground for entrance into the universities, and that being so it is necessary to deal more or less exhaustively with • a great variety of subjects—

English, mathematics in its various branches, science, history, geography, Frenleh, Latin, book-keeping, and so on. With so many subjects to teach it would be a very difficult matter to fit in a special, course in handwritingin the primary schools, of, cpiurse, it is a different matter. There handwriting is regarded as an important part of the daily work, and the average boy or girl on leaving-the primary school is able to write a, fair hand. The change comes in the secondary schools, where the student becomes acquainted with new subjects, and where the work is necessarily speeded up. It is regrettable that such a change takes place, for good handwriting is always an asset, but it appears to be unavoidable. THE KING’S ENGLISH. , Hdwever, the complaints have not been confined to the handwriting of secondary school boys. If they had the position would not have been sq serious. A bookseller, again from Christchurch, has gone a little further, and has complained rather bitterly of the manner of speech' adopted by the products of the secondary school system- Here is what 'he says : “If the secondary schools can’t or won’t teach them how to Write,, they might at least' try to improve their talk. We, employ here only boys who have had so,me secondary education, yet such expressions as ‘you didn’t ought,’ ‘we was,’ ‘what was ypiu looking at ?’ apart from the ordinary slang, are always floating round the place. When I was at school we didn’t learn so many knick-knacks of French and Latin and trigonometry, but we did learn how to write and to say what we wanted to say clearly and well. But nowadays the deaa- things just hop off to-the pictures of . a night to learn the latest slang and fog tilieyr minds with a mess of cowboys and sickly love. What we business men do want is the boy who can write well, think clearly, and talk fair English. If the, schools only turn him out like this we’ll be pleased to supply the

bookkeeping and commercial training. But we must have good writing. ■ AVERAGE BOY SPEAKS WELL. On this occasion Wellington opinion, so. far as it was possible to judge it, was directly opposed to that of the Christchurch bookseller. “'He appears to have been particularly unfortunate,” said one business ,man. “While tlie handwriting, as a rule, is far from good, there has been little cause for complaint on any other score. The boy from college is, almost without exception, well-spoken and polite. Of course ‘slang’ is common, but that is a failing with most of us, I am afraid. But the use of ‘slang’ does not necessarily mean the use of such expressions as ‘we was’ and ‘you didn’t aught.’ ” These views are supported by business men in Dunedin, four of whom in recent interviews expressed themselves as being well satisfied with boys turned out from secondary schools. It is understood that the syllabus committee, set up some little time ago, devoted some attention to the question of handwriting, and it is probable that the report, which so far has not been presented to the Government, ■will make some interesting observations on. the subject. No doubt business men and others will await the report with interest.