MODERN EDUCATION

Wairarapa Times-Age, 6 August 1942, Page 2

MODERN EDUCATION

WHOLE CONCEPT CHANGED STEPS TO HELP HANDICAPPED CHILDREN. ADDRESS AT ROTARY CLUB. An informative address on education, with particular reference to handicapped children, was given at today’s luncheon of the Masterton Rotary Club by Mr A. F. McMurtrie, Assistant Director of Education. Mi’ McMurtrie said he had found that people who did not have the privilege of visiting schools, had entirely wrong ideas about them and what was done in them. They tended to interpret schools in the light of their own experiences in schools, they forgot that educational philosophy and educational practice had altered as materially as had business methods or housekeeping. Corporal punishment was at one time widely used and probably a highly regarded method of instruction. He had no doubt whatever that that method of instruction was definitely unsound and at times it was inhuman. At no time did it produce worthwhile results —in fact he had always believed that it did very definite harm to children. School conditions and even school architecture reflected the attitude towards children, said Mr McMurtrie, who proceeded to draw a contrast between the old conditions and those of today. Formerly there was little regard for the individual or for his comfort or his health . There was regimentation and instruction but not education. Now, teachers were better trained and more understanding and the whole concept of education had changed. Modern school buildings were bright and cheerful, well lighted and ventilated. There was a much better feeling; between children and teacher and between teacher and parent. In many places strong parentteacher organisations worked for the advancement of children. Education was a powerful formative force. Anyone who disbelieved that needed only to consider Germany, where education, prostituted to base purposes, had changed the outlook of a whole nation .

Mr McMurtrie proceeded to refer to what was being done for children who were handicapped in various ways. An astonishing large number of children suffered from handicaps. The education of blind children was carried out by the Institute for the Blind, Auckland, and that of deaf children by the School for the Deaf in Christchurch. At those places modern miracles could be seen. Children at the School for the Deaf were taught to speak. There were classes in various centres for children who were hard of hearing and it was hoped some day to install as an experiment group hearing aids and to collect these children from neighbouring schools into their own classes. Defective speech was apparently common in New Zealand and some teachers had been given special training in speech therapy and clinics established in several centres. A remarkable organisation had been developed to help children handicapped by distance from school, or children who were ill or crippled —the Education Department s Correspondence School, where no less than 92 teachers catered for the educational needs of over 3000 pupils, some of whom were adults. These pupils could receive education from the primary stage to post matriculation, without ever seeing the inside of a school. Specially selected teachers visited children in hospital to give such teaching and occupational work as the doctors deemed advisable. For children who suffered from malnutrition there were health camps, where suitable types of educational activitieswere provided by specially selected teachers. Some children were not as well endowed intellectually as their fellows and special classes to meet theii' particular needs had been established in many centres. The formation of these classes in which pupils were not in competition with their betterendowed fellows had undouotedly brought happiness into the school lives of those children. Mr McMurtrie also referred to the work of the Child Welfare Branch, whose particular job was to prevent girls and boys from falling by the wayside and to measures to ensure physical welfare and health, so that children might grow up strong, vigorous and healthy. But they must never be satisfied. To be satisfied was to die educationally and nationally. There was still much to do for the greatest asset the country possessed—its boys and girls.