At School and After

New Zealand Listener, Volume 9, Issue 233, 10 December 1943, Page 3

At School and After

ITH health and a little luck most boys and girls come through secondary school without injury. Most succeed also in escaping knowledge. If we except those with special interests and special powers-a few in languages, a few more in mathematics or in science-there is not much in their heads when they leave that was not there when they started. They have grown older of course by three, four, or five years. They have learnt from life and from one another. But if you meet them again ten or even five years later it is exceptional to find one still burdened by the knowledge he acquired in the classroom: unless he has had it replanted at @ university. We have raised the school age in New Zealand, and shall raise it further: but as Dr. J. H. Murdoch points out in a shrewd and sensible survey of the High School system sent to us last week for review, "there arises this queer result": "When few primary pupils were destined to attend high schools, all the primary effort was concentrated on fundamental operations, laying foundations for a house that would probably never be built; now, when most pupils will attend some form of post-primary school, the basic work is neglected." Nature fortunately adjusts the balance by shaking off the superstructure before it becomes a menace. If our boys and girls pass out of their teens without much knowledge, they also pass out without much conceit. There are not many "smart Alecs" among them, hardly any "arty" people, and no snobs; though Dr. Murdoch has discovered something in our boarding schools that could develop into snobbery if our social climate were not so unfavourable. His real criticism of our secondary schools is, however, that they do not draw a sharp enough distinction between worthy and unworthy living. Though he nowhere says so explicitly, he is troubled by the thought that our schools are "failing to stress the inwardness of life" and therefore building on sand. Big, therefore, though this book is, parents as well as teachers should try to read it. . THE HIGH SCHOOLS OF NEW ZEALAND: A CRITICAL SURVEY. By J. H. Murdoch, N.Z Council for Educational Research, Printed by Whitcombe & Tombs.