Bulletin Spring 1977

of it will produce the results we require of the schools, and no method will work automatically. Education in fact depends both on the school environment and on the response of the children to the teaching as well as on the subject and the teacher. Importance of developing certain general attributes To my mind, the wider ends before us cannot be reached without developing in the children certain general attributes. These are: (a) Basic skills — such as the skills of com munication, manipulation, calculation, reasoning, effective work-study, personal and group relationships which are funda mental to personal and social competence. Without them children would lack the essential foundations for their further education and the minimum requirements for effective and responsible participation in life. (b) Knowledge - such as the child's under standing of himself, his human relation ships and the importance of sound physi cal and mental health; the child's environ ment, natural and social, extending to the wider bounds of Hong Kong and the world; the child's cultural, moral and spiritual heritage. With and through this body of knowledge children will be able to reach decisions and solve problems. (c) Attitudes and Habits —such as an under standing and appreciation of the duties of citizenship; respect for the rights, beliefs and customs of others; the ability to appraise old and new ideas and to work cooperatively and constructively with others; pride in good workmanship; re spect for law, order and social institutions ； wise use of time, including the growth of constructive, creative and satisfying leisure pursuits. It is generally agreed that these attributes are essential to a preparation for living a full and useful life. Function of the primary school Let me now go deeper into the subject and say what I consider to be the function of the primary school. It should be noted that when the child comes to school at the age of six or thereabouts, he has already made a start in learning and in acquiring skills as a result of his previous experiences in the home, the neighbourhood and, in many cases, the kinder garten. The pattern of his growth, behaviour and attitudes is fairly well established and cannot easily be altered. The school takes each child at the stage of development which he has reached and leads him on from there, bearing in mind that much of his edu cation will still be gained in the home and neighbour hood where he will spend most of his life during the school years. As the purpose of the school is consciously edu cational it will be concerned with the whole child, gathering up his outside experiences and supple menting them in such a way that full, balanced de velopment may be achieved. This is no easy task and can be successful only where the teachers are genu inely concerned for the welfare of the children and have a real understanding of their nature and needs. Part of their task will be to discover, as far as possible, what experiences the children have had in the pre- school years and what is the nature of their experi ences in out-of-school hours. They will seek to provide within the school environment a way of living that will supplement these experiences and will ensure full development of potential capacity, the acquisition of skill and knowledge the children find necessary at the stage to which they have developed, and social adjust ment as members of a growing community.