The Sun 42 WYNDHAM STREET, AUCKLAND TUESDAY, OCTOBER 1, 1929 THE BLIND LEADING THE BLIND

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 782, 1 October 1929, Page 8

The Sun 42 WYNDHAM STREET, AUCKLAND TUESDAY, OCTOBER 1, 1929 THE BLIND LEADING THE BLIND

DEFECTIVE eyesight lias become so widespread among schoolchildren that the Director of Education has been compelled at last to issue a circular about it to the principals of secondary schools. Mr. T. B. Strong holds the opinion that the secondary curriculum proves too great a tax upon pupils, and also that too much time is given to ho/nevvork. There would he general satisfaction if there could be found even one good reason for congratulating the Director of Education on his discovery that far too many children have to look at life and lessons through spectacles. For many years the State Education Department itself has been more shortsighted than the children for whom it provides blinding tasks in the form of educational homework. Not only has it kept on tinkering with school curricula until all the authorities from successive inexperienced and experimental Ministers of Education down to sole teachers in backblocks schools have reached their wits’ end in the muddle of system and organisation, but it consistently has kept both primary and secondary schools understaffed and underpaid. Moreover, too much money has been spent on the trappings of education instead of spending more on training children without impairing their health and their youthful vision. Now, it is at least something to the good, though unpardonably belated, that the supreme departmental authority outside politics has become perturbed at the results of the department’s myopic system. As usual, however, the department disperses its perturbation by the simple process of passing it on to the principals of secondary schools, together with an opinion, rather than an instruction, that two hours of homework should be given to pupils. And, in turn, several headmasters, as reported from Wellington, are willing to support the director’s opinion, but maintain that it should be passed on to parents. This is merely an inexcusable shirking of responsibility. .One headmaster even goes so far as to assert that too many children are allowed to do their homework under no sort of supervision whatever, and that no attempt is made by parents to give their children proper or adequate light and good working conditions. Tlas that clear-visioned or shortsighted master seen the number of parents throughout the Dominion who consistently sacrifice the greater paid of their hard-earned evening rest to the endless task of helping their overburdened children to deal with a disgraceful mass of homework while teachers are either playing bridge or enjoying themselves in more recuperative pleasure ? And doe. 4he know how much parents spend annually on providing adequate light and comfortable conditions for their children, so that their health and eyesight may not be ruined by liuneli-backed performance of tasks that should bo performed in daylight at school? Here and there, it is true, many parents, probably with more wisdom than witlessness, refuse to permit their children to impair their health and future by interminable study of home lessons. Then, many parents, with quite as much enthusiasm as the Director of Education possesses for giving hildren the best possible opportunity for acquiring knowledge, simply cannot afford to provide ideal conditions for their children to learn lessons at home instead of at school. And is it reasonable to suppose that every parent is competent to supervise adequately the homework education of secondary school pupils? Other teachers, who have been interviewed on Mr. Strong’s laggard discovery and restrained opinions, blame parents for having become victims to the New Zealand mania for certificates and that distinction by examination which is believed to be a passport into easy and highly respected billets. Again, who has been responsible for the development of that mania? There need be no hesitation about saying plainly that the rpsponsibility primarily lies with the education authorities. The best prizes in the teaching profession are to be won only among those who feed the esummation mania among the people. What is the use of a matriculation certificate or even a university degree if the winner of either distinction, which too often proves to be a spurious test of fitness for the battle of life, lias to sacrifice health and eyesight ? Another teaeher admits that under the present examining system teaching has to give way to cramming. And parents are expected to supervise the stupid operation at home! It is about time the country realised its plight and blight of education, and secured a Ministerial administrator with enough courage and common sense to eliminate muddle and snobbish mania. PUBLICITY AND POLICY 'I'HE death of Mr. B. M. Wilson leaves open a very important i departmental post, and projects the proposed amalgamation of the Publicity Office with the Tourist Department once more into public discussion. If this merger is to be contemplated at all seriously, it should be considered now before a new tourist manager is appointed. Adoption of the suggestion would demand of the next office-holdei' a rather wider knowledge and experience than appointment to the Tourist Department alone would require. In Mr. Wilson’s time the Publicity Office developed from being the mere handmaiden of the Tourist Department into the position of a most important ally. It is just questionable, though, whether the interests and purposes of the two departments will continue to lie as closely together. Hitherto, the primary aim of all publicity has been to attract tourists to the Dominion. Elaborate pamphlets and posters have been prepared, and the more recent productions have achieved high artistic standards. Staffs of cameramen have been kept constantly engaged, and their enterprise has embraced motion pictures as well as still photography. The directors of this alert service have even undertaken to produce sound-films, and in their efforts generally have shown full appreciation of the trend of progress. Most of their productions continue to be designed principally for the benefit of the Tourist Department, but there is no guarantee that, as the work of the Publicity Office grows, there will not be calls upon its resources from almost every other department. Already it lias assisted the Railway Department, and in future it may be required to deal with immigration, health, land settlement—in fact, with any one of the major departments that may be in need of publicity for some purpose or another.

Because of this possibility it seems unwise to link the two departments. Necessarily, the Publicity Office must continue to work side by side with the Tourist Department, which has no doubt been substantially assisted by the admirable quality of the publicity material lately issued. Sometimes there may be room for the complaint that what the Publicity Office promises and what the Tourist Department has to offer are two entirely different things; but little disparities like that can always be corrected by more careful checking. An amalgamation suggests the serious danger that the Publicity Office would in time become a mere subsidiary of the Tourist Department, by which it would be dominated and con+robed. This seems undesirable, for the Publicity Office is giving quite satisfactory results under the iwesent arrangement.