School Goes To The Children

New Zealand Listener, Volume 6, Issue 148, 24 April 1942, Page 9

School Goes To The Children

HOUSANDS of children. throughout New Zealand never go to school; their school comes to them. From one year’s end to the other, they may never see the inside of a classroom, but _ thanks to the Correspondence School, they can progress right through their primary and secondary education, win their matriculation (and even a University Scholarship or a bursary), and go on to take an extra-mural University course. There are several possible reasons why pupils of the Correspondence School cannot attend classes in the ordinary way. Their homes may lie in backblocks districts, many miles from a school; or they may be invalided, or crippled, or suffering from some other disability. For them — there are over 400 of them-lessons by correspondence

demand all the more perseverance and attention, and their progress is watched the more keenly. In a recent Correspondence School broadcast, the headmaster, Dr. A. G. Butchers, paid a tribute to one of his most successful pupils, Donald Anderson, ‘of Balclutha, who, in spite of serious physical handicap, passed his University Entrance with an average of 79 per cent for the whole examination, including 98 per cent in French and 92 per cent in Latin. Donald is unable to use a pen or pencil, and freely types all his work, including arithmetic and algebraic equations. He has been using a typewriter since the age of six years. An old boy of the school who overcame a disability and turned his correspondence schooling to good account is Des. Leith, of Auckland, who is a member of the staff of Station 1ZB.