OTHER PEOPLE’S IDEAS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 24 May 1943, Page 4

OTHER PEOPLE’S IDEAS

EDUCATIONAL WEAKNESSES (To the Editor) Sir —while agreeing with your correspondent that accurate spelling is an accomplishment we may rightly expect from children w|io have attended our State schools (though it is probably not the children nor the teachers who are to blame, but an oveiloaded curriculum), yet I cannot refrain from commenting on one of the most amazing weaknesses in our State educational system today, compared with which inaccurate spelling is of minor importance. As we allj know, the State educational system of this country is still officially secular. This means (except for the unofficial Bible instruction given in some schools for half an hour a week) that the children attending our State schools arc being denied their birthright, which is a Christian, spiritual and moral education as the basis of all their ordinary school subjects. Even though we claim to be fighting this war to preserve Christian civilisation, we are still denying our children in the schools a knowledge of Christianity itself! Even though their fathers and brothers bleed and die on the battlefield we still deny to the children a knowledge of those values which they are fighting to preserve! This surely is one of the greatest crimes perpetrated against the young today and a devastating indictment on the boasted efficiency of our educational system. We call this “Gods Own Country,” but we officially prohibit any teaching about God in our State schools! Admitted that every child should be taught to spell, but who will dare to challenge me when I affirm that every child should also be taught, by precept and practice, the great spiritual and moral Christian virtues, which alone can produce real character in the younger generation, guarantee the excellence of our democracy, and lay sure and solid foundations for that new and better world we hope will arise after the war? ~ Your correspondent does well to draw attention to inaccurate spelling. I. though, have ventured io draw your attention to what T consider a much more serious deficiency in our educational system—Yours, etc., J. R. HIGGS. Featherston, May 21. WAR OBLIGATIONS

(To the Editor) Sir—What I am sore about is that my neighbour’s husband worked for the Electric Power Board and mine for a private firm. My neighbour has more money now to spend on her house-keeping than she had formerly, while I receive exactly half of what was my husband’s salary for myself and family to live on. Do all the public bodies make up their employees’ salaries and wages when they are called up? There are a good many power boards, borough councils, hospital boards' county councils, borough councils, hospital boards, river boards, etc. If they do, private employers ought to do the same and if they are not financially able to do so, the Government ought to do it. We ought all to.be treated the same. Or is it because the Electric Power Board is a very rich board and its members “wish to be pretty good fellows at the expense of the consumers?”—l am, etc., ALSO A SOLDIER'S WIFE. Masterton, May 5.

ANSWER TO CORRESPONDENTS

“NOT A SHIRKER" & “WAITING & WATCHING’’—You make particularised charges against more or less identifiable individuals of shirking their war obligations. If these charges can be substantiated, your proper course is to submit them to the authorities administering the laws relating to military service.—Ed.