Educating Youth

Sir,—I have read the recent discussion in your columns about the problems facing the educationalist today and am filled to the back teeth with the constant re-iteration of their problems. I have read of the danger of crushing the blossoming personalities of the children, of allowing them to express themselves, of the object being to mould their behaviour rather than to restrain it, of restraint in the formative years causing character flaws in later years, and I am sick of it all.

When I was at school there was no tommy rot like that. If one of us didn't feel like doing arithmetic he did arithmetic. There was respect for the teacher and no doubt about who was boss in the classroom. Of my former class mates there is not one who looks back on his school days with anything but pleasure.

Furthermore, if we worked hard enough we went up a class at the end of the year, if we hadn't worked, we didn't. Life was simple and in black and white.

What New Zealand needs is a bit more definiteness a bit less sparing the child. Let's give tomorrow a chance.