Are YOU on the School Committee?

New Zealand Listener, Volume 14, Issue 353, 29 March 1946, Page 16

Are YOU on the School Committee?

(Written for "The Listener" by

ELIZABETH ANN

MILES

HIS article is addressed pri4 marily to people in the backblocks. All people, of course, cannot be on a school committee, but there ought to be, in any progressive community, enough people willing to give up one night a month, the occasional Saturday afternoon, and the odd five minutes or so between

times to the job of seeing that the school is kept in repair, that any amenity offered by the government is taken advantage of, and that the relationship between pupils, teachers and parents is a good one. There aren’t always enough of such people. The above, of course, is only the barest outline of the duties of a school committee. A member may find himself confronted with any of-a multiplicity of duties ranging from the putting in of missing panes of glass to dressing up in red flannel and cotton-wool and playing Santa Claus to a hundred eager five-to- _ ten-year-olds. But it’s a lot of fun. And there’s a feeling of satisfaction in being able to point to a new milk-room or a dental clinic or a swimming-pool, and say, "Yes, we had that installed the year I was on the Committee." Your term of office is actually two years. Round about the end of April, if you notice these things, you will see pasted up in the vicinity of the local school, a printed announcement to the effect that on a certain date a meeting will be held to nominate and eiect members of the local school committee. At that meeting the chairman of the retiring committee will give a report of his stewardship over the previous two year period, a financial report will be presented and matters of general interest concerning the school will be discussed. A Time to Speak If you have been nursing a grievance about the administration of the school, ‘or if something concerning the manner of your child’s education has been puzzling you, now is the time to bring your complaint or inquiry forward. Of course, you may find yourself elected to

the school committee for your pains, because the electors have a way of nominating and voting for a person with gumption enough to get up and say something, but that is all to the good. A two-year term on the school committee will give you an insight into a great many things. You will probably learn, if you don’t already know it, how many fence posts. are required to go round — se

your school property, how many battens between each two posts, the price of fencing wire, and how difficult it is to get both materials and labour in these postwar days. You will also learn just what the school committee is expected to do with the rather meagre grant allowed for general upkeep, how much money it is necessary to raise locally if you want a film projector, a swimming pool, a schoo! library, sports equipment, and a hundred and one other things that make up the difference between just a school and a good school. How to Run a Picnic You will learn how to run a school picnic. If you are a woman you will make gallons of fruit drink on that occasion, together with sandwiches and buns. If the picnic is held just before the Christmas holidays, as it often is, you will want to have a Christmas-tree for the tiny tots and the youngsters up to Standard Two. Then for a month or so before-hand you will be writing to town for toys and decorations for the tree. You will petition the local store for donations of sweets and prizes for the races, and on the fateful day you will stand for hours ladling out cool drinks and ice-cream until your arm aches and you are sticky from head to foot. If you are a man you will organise a gang of helpers and go out to the picnic ground with spades and scythes levelling and cutting the grass so that barefooted youngsters can run races and scramble for sweets without untoward casualties. You will measure and mark off distances for running and jumping. You will cart water and milk to the (continued on next page)

(continued from previous page) picnic grounds, and on the day in question you will gather firewood and kindle fires and put up the Christmas-tree and tie gifts thereon and catch the winners of races as they come panting in, and do a thousand and one other jobs that go towards the running of a successful picnic, And when the picnic is over you will go home hot and tired but very satisfied and a little proud of yourself for having done a geod day’s work for the community. Meeting the Teachers Apart from all these minor activities you will come into closer contact than you have ever been before with the men and women who, in the final analysis, play the most important part in your child’s education, the teachers. If you are an average individual you will probably have wondered, at some time or other, what the teacher did with all his or her spare time. After you have been to a few school-committee meetings and listened to the plans of the head

teacher for the sporting activities of the children, the school concert, the visits to other schools, and the hundred and one extras that occupy the time and thoughts of the average school teacher you won’t wonder any more what he does with his spare time; you will wonder how he manages to squeeze it all in every day and still remain as fresh and enthusiastic about education as he so evidently is. And best of all, you will find your own interest in education reviving. You will forget how long ago it is since you went to school yourself and in learning of the new methods of education you will find added interest and a new bond developing between yourself and the younger generation in your household. Yes, it’s worth’ while serving on the school committee, First because it’s your duty to give something in the way of service to the community in which you live, and secondly because you yourself will benefit by a fuller understanding of your children and their educational problems.