PARENTS’ DUTY.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 3542, 25 September 1926, Page 3

PARENTS’ DUTY.

THE CHOICE* OF VOCATIONS

“It is vitally necessary for parents to go carefully into the» matter and to arrive at a conclusion as to what their sons will do when their schools days are ended,” said Mr J. A. Colquhoun, of Palmerston North, in the course of an address on educcation at this week’s meeting of the Palmerston North Lunch Club. He said that teachers were willing to adopt various reforms proposed, yet, after all, if a parent wished his son to take up any position'he desired after leaving school, what was required was a general certificate, and if the education required by that cetrificatfl were covered by a boy then he could cope with any profession or trade offering in the country.

In making a comparison of educational systems, the speaker said that New Zealand secondary schools were to a large extent based on the English public schools, and our universities with regard to degrees, were up to the standard of Oxford and Cambridge, while New Zealand’s standards of intellectual thoroughness compared favourably with the standards of other countries.

With regard to farming problems, Mr Colquhoun said that teachers were the last people in the world able to solve them. He did not think they would be solved by introducing’agricultural education, and said that with every scientific discovery fewer people would be needed on the land. No advantage of civilisation or of education could obviate the inevitable drift to the cities.