Salient: Victoria University of Wellington Students' Newspaper. Vol. 32, No. 1. 1969.
Pupils Cool On Army
Pupils Cool On Army
A representative survey of New Zealand's sixth forms show that only 24 per [unclear: cent] of sixth formers are prepared to support a national army for New Zealand.
The survey also indicated that the conformist image of New Zealand youth is true, but that youth tends also to be anti-authoritarian.
A final result from the survey has yet to be correlated, but senior lecturer in education at Victoria University — Mr Jack Shallcrass—gave a preliminary glimpse of the result to students at Curious Cove.
The survey is an international one called "Mankind 2000" and is designed to establish the likely attitudes of people in the future.
It was implemented in New Zealand by Mr Shallcrass, who decided sixth form opinion would be among the more useful in presenting what attitudes might prevail in the future.
The results of the survey, which is being carried out throughout Europe and Britain among the 15-40 age-group, are due to be published at the end of this year.
"The general reaction to the question of a national army was: "Well, who does it frighten?'" Mr Shallcrass said.
On social questions sixth-formers generally held fast to established values they seemed to think were slipping. They believed values they seemed to think were slipping. They believed that more permissiveness would prevail in the future, the church would break down further, and that more women would achieve positions of responsibility. They were against much change.
"Our youngsters were shown to be a nice, cautious, fairly middle-aged group of people," Mr Shallcrass said.
He did not consider that the future would see the breakdown of the family and the church, and increases in sexual permissiveness which the survey subjects were wary of.
Compared to Europeans who had undergone the same survey, the image of New Zealand youth as conformists as "largely true".
The survey showed also that over 70 per cent, of sixth form students came from professional, skilled and white-collar homes.
"This shows that the education system reinforces the basic class structure of the economy," Mr Shallcrass said.
"It reveals a cultural shutting out of a very high order. Is it because the other students are unintelligent or because there are other cultural reasons? I think the reason is cultural, and the education system allows this to happen."