SCHOOL METHODS & RESULTS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 22 June 1943, Page 4

SCHOOL METHODS & RESULTS

(To the Editor.) Sir,— May I ask for space to reply to the letters by “Employer” and Celia Briden respectively, deploring the standard of work and the methods used in some of our schools. It is a human characteristic to cling to old ideas, as “Employer” does when he advocates a return to brutal corporal punishment to ensure a high standard of work and discipline. Unfortunately, many, blind to the mess they have made of the world, would agree with him and proudly exclaim: “Look at us. We are the product of the old system. Take us as your pattern!” Thirty years ago the Prussian schools, in which mould the Nazi barbarians were fashioned, were much admired in England and New Zealand. By frequent punishments, New Zealand children were made to squeeze painfully through a similar mould. Then, with the abolition of the proficiency examination, bright prospects of a happier, freer and richer school life were opened up for our children. The emphasis has now been changed from the subjects taught to the general welfare of the pupil, who is often allowed a free choice in such subjects as geography, history and literature. Music, art and crafts —subjects so much enjoyed by the children—have now been given a much more prominent place in school activities. The morning talk period which Celia Briden, clinging so tenaciously to tradition, suggests should be discarded to allow time for seven and a half hours’ arithmetic a week, affords the children an opportunity of expressing themselves freely and discussing with their classmates matters in which they are keenly interested. True, the value of these discussions cannot be assessed in £ s d, but a primary school pupil today can make a clear, confident, thoughtful speech before an adult audience. When the pupils are questioned and criticised by their classmates, as they are every day, it teaches them to have the courage to express their opinions fearlessly, a courage which is lamentably lacking in many adults of the old school. I wonder if we have so many “yes men” among us because they were afraid of saying anything but “Yes, sir” or “Yes, miss,” when they attended school? Children on leaving School should not be regarded as the finished article, ready to be fitted nicely as a cog into the machinery of some business. A reasonable employer should find that the modern youth has a better undestanding of the wold around him and is more alert and adaptable than his counterpart of a generation ago.

“Employer” recommends the harsh discipline of the rod, but I am convinced the only discipline worth while is discipline founded on cheerful, in-

telligent co-operation.. The policy of the modern school is in accord with three freedoms of the Atlantic Charter —freedom of speech, freedom of thought, freedom from fear. —Yours, etc., J. P. FARRELL Masterton, June 21.