EFFORTS FOR DEGREES

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 617, 20 March 1929, Page 1

EFFORTS FOR DEGREES

IS ART OF TEACHING NEGLECTED?

HOW TRAINEES CAN ERR

Are young teachers paying too much attention to the gaining of university degrees at the expense of learning the art of teaching?

Mr. A. Burns, chairman of the Auckland Education Board, thinks there are signs of this tendency in New Zealand at the present time. He says that the position needs close watching. In a statement this morning Mr. Burns gave it as his opinion that many young teachers were obsessed with getting degrees. In this way they were losing what Mr. Burns called the “art for teaching needs development, and ofr teaching needs development and complete occupation in study was narrowing the scope for personal development. . .. Many young women, especially, strove for their degrees. When many of them passed their examinations, they were married perhaps within a year. “Too much study may spoil know - ledge of the methods of teaching, stated Mr. Burns. “I am not decrying university education by any means. “Young people entering teaching I fre •- fluently take more courses than the> can absorb correctly at universitj. Tilts is to the detriment of their college St Mr e ßurns made it clear that he was not discounting higher education, but ho thought it was neecssar^that pTep" ring S for TeachlnTand not for degrees.