Learning Media - Te Pou Taki Kõrero

The School Journal

The School Journal, particularly since the mid-twentieth century, has played an integral part in the growth of the local imagination and of the artistic consciousness of New Zealand.

The stories of Maurice Duggan and Witi Ihimaera tell us a lot about how the School Journal was positioned during the 1950s and 1970s respectively; the artworks of Russell Clark, Jill McDonald, and Dick Frizzell speak of the period they were created, as do the poems of William Pember Reeves and James K. Baxter. The layout and page design of the Journal also tell the story of the publication, from the conformist appearance of the early years, seen in the idealistic, refined designs of Russell Clark and E. Mervyn Taylor, to the unfettered graphics of Vanya Lowry in the 1970s – and onwards towards the computer-generated designs of the present.

Over a century of dizzying change, there is one aspect of the Journal that has not altered – its preoccupation with literacy. Excellent writing, good artwork, and high production standards have long been considered a crucial part in achieving this. For a great number of New Zealanders, the School Journal was the beginning of a lifetime of reading. Relatively early in its history, it came to occupy a central place in classrooms and homes. 

Art historian Athol McCredie writes:

For generations of New Zealanders, the stories and appearance of the School Journal have been an element of their cultural consciousness – remembered as evocatively as the smell of stale school milk, the feel of chalk and finger paint, and the steamy atmosphere of a classroom of wet bodies on a rainy day. 

from A Nest of Singing Birds