The Primary School Bulletin

The Primary School Bulletins were begun in order to fill a special need in the schools for source material on specifically New Zealand topics. The limiting of bulletins to New Zealand topics is a measure of necessity, for to produce bulletins that explore adequately social and historical situations beyond New Zealand would require organisation and labour far beyond the resources of School Publications – we would need to produce twenty, rather than five or six, bulletins each year; it is justified also by the rarity of books, suitable for social studies requirements in the primary schools, on the history, industries, agriculture, and social development of our country. We are obliged to make our own books to fill this gap. And as far as possible we try to make each bulletin a real book, a story meaningful and acceptable to primary school children, in which they can see social and historical themes in organic unity: not as an abstract pattern, but as a segment of the world seen through the eyes of fictional characters who are usually themselves children.

It is a possible criticism of the Primary Bulletins that they are rather too broad in scope and not sufficiently in alignment with the social studies syllabus requirements. There are two main considerations here – that the programme of Primary Bulletin production is in general experimental; and that the syllabus itself is a suggested guide for teachers, ‘not a minimumpage 313 prescription’. Hence the Primary Bulletin can legitimately range in scope beyond the syllabus and use whatever relevant New Zealand material comes to hand. We have, I feel, been fortunate in our writers and illustrators. Their work has made for richness and variety in the bulletins and prevented the rigidity of formal text-books. But the problems of planning and editing are always considerable. A writer who can deal suitably with a given aspect of the New Zealand environment may not be available when needed; an illustrator, say, of scenes in a Maori pa may be lacking. Writers and artists must be commissioned, often as long as two years before a bulletin finally appears. To use a natural analogy, one could compare the work of producing Primary Bulletins to the work of a gardener. Some plants wither; some grow too rankly. The work of an editor involves planting, watering, and pruning. The bulletins are subject to rigorous criticism both before and after publication. Our severest and most detailed criticism has come generally not from the schools but from our own staff and from within the Department itself. Since the planning of the bulletins is discussed with inspectors and finally approved by the Department, our choice of topics is usually governed in the main by syllabus requirements.

Bulletins published in 1956 included ‘Timber’, an experimental bulletin written and illustrated by the children of the Mangapehi and Whitiora schools. Without underestimating the good work done by these children, and its educational value for them personally, one could see that their approach was inevitably local, and lacked the broader scaffolding of an adult approach. In 1957 we will publish a companion bulletin, ‘Sawmilling Yesterday’, written by Ruth Dallas. Like ‘Timber’ it is intended for use by Standards Three and Four.

The bulletin ‘Timber’ was in a sense a highly developed piece of project work. The relation between bulletins and the projects of primary classes is very close. The bulletins, however, can never be a substitute for research work done by pupils or teacher; they exist rather as part of the material available for this kind of work. One would hope that each child would be stimulated in some degree by the story or illustrations, but the help and interpretation of the teacher are still necessary at every turn.

The first part of the bulletin ‘Kent to Wellington’, by Michael Turnbull, was published in 1956; the second part is scheduled for publication in 1957. This bulletin is an instance of a study of New Zealand history which does link up with social and historical situations beyond New Zealand. The writer tells the story of the colonisation of Wellington; and by doing this in some detail, conveys enough information about and understanding of the whole problem of colonisation to lay a groundwork for the study, in further bulletins, of other settlements, Nelson or Canterbury or Otago. This broadening of the subject makes the bulletin long, and multiplies the number of characters. The story begins where colonisation began, in England. It is, in the first half,page 314 a study of the conditions which led to emigration from England. It was not enough merely to deal with Wakefield, who inspired the movement, or a pioneer family who received a free passage through his system of colonisation. The New Zealand Company, which organised and financed the scheme, and the publicists who made the distant, savage country known in England had to find a place in the story. The purchasers of land, whose money assisted the Company, and who were the first employers of labour, were as important in the process of colonisation as the labourers, who tend to be over-represented in much New Zealand historical writing.

The writer of this double bulletin has built up his picture by a number of scenes, often involving fresh characters, but three people (or groups of people) link the scenes – Wakefield, Mr Hopper (a land-purchaser and future merchant of Wellington), and one of his workmen with his family. The first bulletin tells of the planning of the enterprise and the preparations of the emigrants for departure; the second will describe their departure from England and arrival in New Zealand, and will attempt to show how and explain why the colony they founded was vastly different from the colony of Wakefield’s dream.

Reasons for the discrepancy which teachers may find between the writer’s account of colonisation and that generally accepted will be stated in simple form in the Author’s Note at the end of Part Two. His conclusions are the result of original research into documents that were not accessible to earlier writers. All conversations or happenings which have any bearing on this interpretation of colonisation are taken from written records. The bulletin may help to fill the need for accurate historical information about the era of colonisation, in a form assimilable by children of Forms I and II.

Three bulletins, written by Roderick Finlayson, which trace the history of Maori-European relations from the coming of the first Europeans to the pre- sent day, were published in 1956: ‘The Coming of the Musket’, ‘The Coming of the Pakeha’, and ‘The Golden Years’. From recent correspondence I gather that these bulletins can be used effectively in Maori schools to supplement and extend the oral tradition which the Maori children receive from their parents. Each bulletin, naturally, has been checked for accuracy in matters of Maori custom and folklore (which is now called ‘Maoritanga’) as well as for accuracy in the sequence and details of events. These bulletins are designed for Forms I and II. Three further bulletins in the same series will be published in 1957: ‘The Return of the Fugitives, ‘The New Health and Learning’, and ‘Under Another Rooftree’. The last two titles are tentative only. It is perhaps relevant to say that Mr Finlayson’s experience as a novelist and short story writer has been of value in the making of these six bulletins.

Two other bulletins which will be distributed early in 1957 are ‘Change in the Valley’, by Geoffrey Nees, and ‘Making a Town, a bulletin on the topic of town planning, both designed for use by children from Standardpage 315 III to Form II. ‘Change in the Valley’ was made to give a broad survey of the geological history and Maori and European settlement of a particular New Zealand valley, and the growth of farm, township and city from the time of settlement to the present day. It is copiously and carefully illustrated. The children’s attention should be directed as much to the illustrations as to the text. The directions given in ‘Making a Town’ for the construction of model houses are intended to be of particular use for those children who most readily appreciate a practical approach to social studies.

‘Change in the Valley’ is part of a projected series of bulletins dealing with social change in New Zealand (including a bulletin on the changes which have occurred in housing in the past hundred years). No bulletin in this series, however, will be published in 1957.

‘The Rock Pool’ by Arthur Torrie, to be published in 1957, is one of a series of nature study bulletins which has already included ‘The Pool’ and ‘Jungle in the Backyard’. The preparation of a nature study bulletin, especially the collecting of suitable photographs, is necessarily a long and difficult process; but the demand in schools for these bulletins seems to be constant and considerable. ‘The Rock Pool’ will be followed by a bulletin on ‘Insects’, probably in 1958.

A bulletin on the oil industry is also being produced for publication in 1957. It will lay particular emphasis on the industrial uses of oil within New Zealand, and will be suitable for use by children from Standard III to Form II. Further bulletins beyond 1957, will include a whaling bulletin written by an American authority on whaling, including American social and historical background, and cast in the form of the story of a whaling voyage; a bulletin on West Coast mining, by P.R. Earle; a bulletin on the Treaty of Waitangi, by R.M. Ross; and a bulletin on the settlement of Stewart Island. We will endeavour to keep a balance between the emphasis on the development of New Zealand society in time – that is, a strictly historical approach – and on a regional approach to the pattern of living of people engaged in a particular industry or branch of agriculture.

1957 (155)