EDUCATION TRENDS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 16 May 1939, Page 6

EDUCATION TRENDS

POST-PRIMARY PROBLEMS - ADDRESS BY MR G. G. HANCOX. MASTERTON ROTARY CLUB VISITS WELLINGTON. (Special to the “Wairarapa Times-Age ) WELLINGTON, This Day. “Some Problems of Post-Primary Education” was the subject of an informative address by Mr G. G. Hancox. Principal of Wairarapa College, when speaking today at the luncheon of the Wellington Rotary Club on the occasion of an official visit to that club by members of the Masterton Rotary Club. Mr H. H. Daniell, president of the Masterton Club, presided. Following the luncheon, the visitors were to inspect the Ford Motors plant and the factory of the British-Australian Lead Manufacturing Co Ltd. both in the Petone industrial area. Parents of pupils about to leave the primary school were often very con ■ cerned as to the type of school to which to send their son or daughter, said Mr Hancox. Should it be a secondary school of the academic type, a technical high school, a one sex school, mixed school or some other kind? During the last ten to fifteen years, owing partly to the competition of the technical high schools and party to a broader conception of the purposes of education, the tendency had been for the secondary schools to increase the number of courses in their curriculum. Outside the main centres of population the tendency had been to establish technical high schools and partly to a broader that approximated very closely to them. According to competent observers who had been abroad the technical high school as they knew it was not found in other countries but had been evolved in our education system to suit the peculiar needs of this Dominion. According to latest advices, England had decided to establish schools similar to our technical high schools.

Having decided on the school, Mr Hancox said, parents were required to decide what course their son should take. In some cases this was easy to decide, in others it was very difficult. In recent years post-primary teachers, had gone to increasing trouble to try to see that a boy got into the correct course. His record card from the primary school was consulted, parents and sometimes his primary school teacher were interviewed and intelligence and other tests were sometimes applied. In spite of that, wrong classifications were sometimes made for no test yet devised could tell how a boy would develop, how he would react to the new ’ environment and stimulus that a good post-primary school offered to him. In drawing up the courses for his school the principal had much discretionary power concerning the subjects to be "taught and the time to be given to them. The tendency was for the courses to have some bearing on the life that the pupil was likely to lead after leaving school —to be prevocational. There must, however, in all courses be given a good general education, with not too much specialisation. When the boy went to work, he could continue his vocational training at the university, evening technical classes or by other means. APTITUDES & ATTITUDES. During recent years, said Mr Hancox, considerable effort had been made, partly by intellectual and practical tests "and partly by observation, to find the aptitudes of the pupils, to ascertain the special individual ability and to give him a course suited to his potentialities. But in spite of all this, they found that boys often did not make the progress expected of them. Many left school through disinterestedness or disappointment. The boy did not have the right attitude to his work and how to correct this was a problem to which the modern’ teacher was giving more and more attention. The problem required that the master should, have the greatest possible knowledge of the individual boy—his past school record, his home circumstances, how he spent his time before and after school, whether he worked long hours to supplement the family income, what were his aspirations and ideals. This more detailed information might show that the boy was in an unsuitable course. If he was in the correct course, he might not realise its bearing on the occupation or calling he had in view. The teacher made the necessary adjustments, roused the interest of the boy and the once diffident pupil, tackled his work with new vigour and showed the will to succeed. In this connection the vocational guidance officer had a most important field of activity, not only for the pupils at school but for those who had left as well. Although some specialised, the tendency was for every post-primary teacher to do vocational guidance work. Finding the right boy for the job. was important but finding the right job for the boy and guiding him so that he might succeed in his calling was much more important. One of the greatest reforms in the service of youth introduced by the present Government was that enabling almost every boy and girl to receive free education at either day or night school till the age of nineteen was reached. THE LEAVING AGE. Mr Hancox stated that during the last ten years the tendency had been for children to pass through the primary school and enter the post-prim-ary school at a younger age. Recent in - quiries, however, indicated that the children did not stay longer at the post-primary school in consequence, so that it appeared that the main effect of the quicker passage through the primary school was to allow children to commence work at an earlier age. From the national standpoint this was surely a matter to be deplored. Figure;? for the Dominion were not available but in about two months recently 310 under-age permits to work in factories were applied for in Christchurch alone. This did not include the number going into shops and offices for which permits were not required. Official figures showed that during or at the end of 1937, 7,541 pupils left the primary schools without proceeding to post-primary schools. Of this number 1733 boys went to agricultural and pastoral work and 2278 girls to home duties. In this field there was scope for evening classes or for taking tuition to the country. RAISING THE SCHOOL AGE. The raising of the school age to 15 years had been advocated by many in recent years as a temporary measure for relieving unemployment, said Mr Hancox. With this point of view, Mr Hancox said he did not agree, for they did not want the schools filled with

pupils who were not interested in their work and did not want to be theie. Raising the- school age was justified, however, if it assisted in the forming and strengthening of character, the training of the tastes which would fill and dignify leisure (for example, work in music and art, in wood and metals, or in literature and the record of human history), and the awakening and guiding of the practical intelligence for the better and more skilled service of the community. The question should be decided on educational and social grounds and not by economic conditions. One question that would have to be decided was, what was io be done for boys and girls whose parents could not afford to keep them at school till they were 15 and could not do without their contribution to the family income? If those children were given exemption, then there would be a national loss through their not ben ■ eflting from the educational facilities available. The alternative appeared to be to make an educational allowance in cases of hardship. In the long run this would be more in the national interest than giving relief work later on. WORLD CONDITIONS. One of the hard facts of the world today, said Mr Hancox, was the reassertion of nationhood. New conceptions of the nature and purpose of the State were developing along widely divergent lines and racial prejudices were an obstacle to the comity of nations. Unless existing conditions could be modified and a more universal sense of goodwill and mutual trust developed throughout the /world, no machinery, such as the League of Nations, could offer a promise of permanent security. Nations must be ready to relinquish ancient prejudices in favour of a world outlook. Education could play an important part in developing. this new spirit among the nations but mere idealism would not take them very far. The practical problem of peace was the problem of adjusting conflicting outlooks and interests among differing nations. Its solution called for understanding, a sense of justice, toleration and sympathy, all of which could be developed in some measure through education. The challenge of how to fit the new generation for life in a world society was a very real and urgent one. EDUCATING FOR LEISURE. Mr Hancox said that with the shorter working day, the problem arose as to what they were to do with their leisure time. Mere idleness would result in mental misery and moral degradation. Some would have them curb invention so as to make more manual jobs, but surely man’s inventiveness and development of machinery should be a boon to them. It was rather that they must expand fruitful living to keep pace with the new freedom brought by the machine. They must educate not for life but for a fuller life. In their schools they must try to raise to the highest pitch of harmonious development all the general powers and specific aptitudes of the individual. They must introduce the children of the race into their social inheritance—that rich endowment of culture and tradition, of ideals of life and citizenship—which counted more than hereditry of the physical kind as a factor in civilisation. The school could help the boy to form the conception of a world rich beyond his dreaming with a wealth of worthy experience awaiting his discovery and with an endless store of opportunities to be found for playing a manly part in it.

Mr Hancox was thanked heartily for his interesting and instructive address on the motion of Rotarian F. C. Spratt, president of the Wellington club.