No Publication Tomorrow.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 24 December 1942, Page 2

No Publication Tomorrow.

The “Times-Age” will not be published tomorrow, Christmas Day. Two Problems of Education. Two problems of education, that of the slowly developing child and that of the very bright child, were discussed by Mr R. R. Hunter, senior inspector for Taranaki, at an end-of-year ceremony at New Plymouth. It was not good for the too clever pupil, he said, that he should be allowed to go too easily through school. He should be made to strive It was a fact of life, Mr Hunter continued, that the child who did not do well at school was generally the most successful afterwards. The mediocre child got on through plodding and application, whereas the bright child who should become leader did nothing in particular with his talents. It was because he had never been stretched with his school work. Enemy Mines. A few weeks ago an enemy mine was washed up on the west coast of the North Island, near Ruapuke, south of Raglan, and since then three more enemy mines have been similarly washed ashore within five days, one at Bell Block (North Taranaki), a second near Mokau Heads, and a third near Albatross Point, on the south side of Kawhia Harbour, Naval parties were quickly on the scene, and the task of disconnecting the explosive from the detonating charges was safely accomplished, though with considerable risk and difficulty. When one of the mines was exploded the men engaged took cover about 500 yards away, yet such was the force of the explosion that they felt a very severe concussion, which was also felt at Te Maika and Taharoa, several miles away. Vocational Guidance. “I feel that in New Zealand we have never given our boys and girls a chance. Some do not go to secondary schools and others enter industry without knowing the conditions prevailing, and without proper guidance,” said the president, Mr A. Gilbert, at the quarterly meeting of the Auckland School Committees’ Association. The executive of the association had prepared a plan for rebuilding education, under which a boy or girl leaving a primary school would be interviewed by a special committee set up to give advice in the choice of a career. Two years should be spent at a secondary school, followed by one year in a Government vocational centre. A boy or girl who showed promise at the vocational centre would be sent to the university. The meeting approved the executive’s proposal, and it was decided to seek the co-operdtion of the Auckland Headmasters’ Association in putting the plan into force. •