OTHER PEOPLE’S IDEAS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 14 December 1943, Page 4

OTHER PEOPLE’S IDEAS

EDUCATIONAL STANDARDS (To the Editor) Sir, —In your issue of Saturday, Mr Owen Jones is reported to have stated that “in the essentials of education the children of the primary schools today are not up to standard.” This is an arresting and challenging statement, made by the chairman of the Board of Governors, to a large audience of parents and children, and is bound to carry weight. On what is the statement based? Mr Owen Jones says that “I feel" that this is so. I submit that this is a very unsound basis for such a statement. “Feelings” or “instinct" are very liable to be misleading, as a certain individual in Europe has found, to his cost.

In the past I have prepared large numbers of* pupils for proficiency examination and with excellent results. Eighteen years ago, as an organising teachei* (assisted by another organising teacher) I conducted the proficiency exams, and marked the papers, in a number of centres from Manunui to Ashhurst, and saw a great variety of work presented. About fifteen years ago I assisted inspectors to make a survey of Standard 6 spelling and saw hundreds of these papers, and now I say that, as far as Masterton is concerned, there is no falling off in the standard of work presented in the so-called “essential” subjects. As a further proof of this I invite Mr Owen Jones to inspect some work I have in my possession, done by a large Standard 6 class about twelve years ago, and to compare it with work just completed - by present Standard 6 pupils. A few months ago statements were made in your paper by a correspondent, about the spelling of young people seeking positions and I showed that correspondent, and several other gentlemen, the work that had just been done at. the mid-year survey, by the pupils of Standard 6. He and they were agreeably surprised by the standard of attainment in both spelling and writing.

Not only is the standard of work well maintained in these “essential” subjects but in the cultural subjects the progress has been most marked. I could let Mr Owen Jones compare (or contrast) drawings of a frying-pan and a saucepan done in pencil by a Standard 6 class' about a dozen years ago with readly beautiful paintings in water colour, well fitted for framing and hanging in any home, done during the; last few weeks. The craft work, too, has advanced immensely and instead of the cutting out in cardboard of a cube, etc., they now make, well, an infinite variety of objects, as witness the display of model aeroplanes we had on display in the W.F.C.A. window during Aii* Force Week. Nowadays, too, these young people can get up and speak before a class and deliver most interesting lecturettes on subjects in which they have themselves become interested. Their desire for knowledge has grown and they are continuously questing for information from the fascinating reading matter which is now supplied in large quantities. They are. in general, much better informed about the world in which they live. It must be remembered, too, that in the “golden age” of the proficiency exam children could be poor spellers; 400 marks were allotted to the “essential” subjects and 240 was a pass, but a child could, and did, on occasions, secure a pass with 0 for spelling. Thus: 60 out of 100 for reading, 60 out of 100 for composition, 30 out of 50. for grammar, 10 out of 25 for writing,' 0 out of 25 for spelling and 90 out of 100 for arithmetic would give the child 250 or an easy pass. Education is passing through a time of change and progress. Times are changing. In the future there will be shorter working hours and more leisure' time so that these children must be prepared for the changes that lie ahead. They must not spend all their time swotting along narrow lines for a Specific examination to the exclusion of the development of the cultural side of their individualities. It is easy enough to criticise adversely but such criticism not only gets us nowhere but often tends to set back the clock and do much harm. We teachers have no desire to see lowered standards but we do desire that our children shall have the best we can give them. Meanwhile we tread very carefully, testing our ground as we proceed in case wp make a false step. Can we ask for sympathetic understanding?—l am, etc., E. G. CODDINGTON. Masterton, December 12. PERILS TO BE AVOIDED (To the Editor.) Sir, —Until Mr A. O. Jones, chairman of the Wairarapa College Board of Governors, states clearly what he means by the “essentials of education” it is difficult to- deal with his assertion, that the standard of education in the primary schools has suffered through the abolition of the proficiency examination. ,

The development of a sense, of cooperation, truth and beauty are essential to the continuance of society. It is the considered opinion of a large body of teachers that there has been no degeneration of these qualities since the introduction of accrediting, but on the contrary a most marked improvement is apparent. My personal opinion is that the standard attained by Form II pupils in the traditional “bread and butter subjects,” the three Rs, is quite as high now as it was in former years. Mr Jones becomes somewhat alarming when he advocates that our primary children’s education should be prescribed by the business man in terms of commercial requirements. God forbid that the young lives of the nation, so bubbling with the joy of life, should be sacrificed to a preparation for commerce.

The realisation that the merciless young barbarians . produced in Germany were educated to make profits for, and protect the property of, the big industrialists and the banker, should frighten anyone from suggesting, that the lives of our children, should be moulded to suit life requirements of the employer and the business man. —Yours, etc., J. P. FARRELL. Masterton, December 13.