“RIGHT FROM WRONG”

Waikato Times, Volume 125, Issue 20987, 14 December 1939, Page 8

“RIGHT FROM WRONG”

LIBERAL EDUCATION NEW TRENDS IN SCHOOLING PLEA FOR MAXIMUM TUITION HIGH SCHOOL HEAD SPEAKS “Above all, a liberal education should endeavour to give, by such methods and influences as it is free to use, a sure hold upon the principles of right and wrong. It should give experience in bearing responsibility, in organisation, and in working with others for public ends, whether in leadership or in submission to the common will. Such are the general aims of this school,” said Mr H. D. Tait, Principal of the Hamilton High School, in his annual report at the prize-giving ceremony today. A large number of parents and friends attended.

“A liberal education, it has been said, should be given under conditions favourable to health,” said Mr Tait. “The body should be developed and trained by systematic and vigorous exercise. The eyes should be trained to see, the ears to hear, with quick and sure discrimination. The sense of beauty should be awakened. The hands should be trained to skilful use. The will should be kindled by an ideal and hardened by discipline enjoining self-control. The pupil should learn to express himself accurately and simply in his mother tongue. Through mathematics he should learn the relations of forms and numbers. Through history and literature he should learn something of the records of the past; what the human race has achieved and how the great poets and sages have interpreted the experience of life. “His education should further demand from him some study of science, and should set him in the way of realising both the amount and quality of evidence which a valid induction requires. It should also, by the insistence upon accuiacy and steadiness in work, teach him by what toil and patience men have made their way along the road to truth. Increased Demands on Teachers “With the shift of emphasis from the subject to the pupil, education no longer means instilling facts into st/idents,” Mr Tait said. “The individual must be helped to a natural development of his own personality. This demands from the teacher much greater patience, concentration of effort, and enthusiasm than ever before. Under the heading of educational subjects there are now included matters which some years ago would have been dismissed as being completed irrelevant to education. “Organised games out of school hours, clubs covering many activities, interest in old pupils’ organisations, and help given to pupils in many directions all form part of the daily work in our schools,” he said. “It is the realisation of what the school has done for them that makes our ex-pupils so eager to help their Alma Mater.” “The record of successes of so many of our pupils in the higher examinations makes opportune a plea to parents to give their children the maximum time at school. Many offers of apparently attractive positions are being made to younger pupils, but it is wise to consider the ultimate prospects before prematurely terminating the school-days of a child,” concluded Mr Tait.