An important inspiration was N. R. McKenzie, a Wellington Education Board inspector who had studied under the progressive American educationalist John Dewey.
Ball described McKenzie's visits as always exciting, with the inspector carrying a suitcase of the latest publications on modern educational philosophy.
In 1926 he was appointed an organising teacher to the Taranaki Education Board, visiting isolated one-teacher rural schools accessible only on horseback. Three years later Ball was appointed inspector of native schools.
Influenced by Dewey's ideas, Ball believed strongly in "learning by doing" and "child activity", and this profoundly influenced his work in native schools.
Finding the teaching methods over-formal, he set about improving the confidence and competence of the teachers.
They were encouraged to replace stereotyped classroom teaching with a more child-centred approach, aimed at stimulating activity and developing responsibility.
The morale of the teachers had been waning and the Native School Teachers' Association losing membership. The remoteness of the schools meant teachers had little opportunity to meet and share ideas.
Ball organised regular meetings of teachers on the East Coast and in Northland and provided them with educational literature. He emphasised links between schools and communities, including visits by teachers to marae and parents to schools.
Ball's most important contribution to Maori education was to reverse the policy of Europeanisation of native schools.
He was responding to concerns among prominent Maori such as Apirana Ngata that aspects of Maori culture were under threat, and to anthropological theories about the intrinsic value of all cultures.
Ball introduced taniko (embroidery), carving, poi dances and Maori games, used Maori stories in history lessons and encouraged teachers to study Maori culture.
Ball was also responsible for the inspection of the Maori denominational boarding colleges. In 1937 he advised the principals of the boys' colleges that too much time was being spent on practical outdoor work and too little on classroom studies.
In a comprehensive report he showed that pupils leaving the more remote native schools lacked the opportunity to receive a secondary education. This accelerated recognition of the need to build district high schools in remote areas.
Looking back on his years in Maori education, Ball wrote that he had come to recognise how "the school had been in the pa, but not of the pa. In all respects it had been an English school…and it had failed the Maori in his critical period of adjustment".
The atmosphere and environment of many classrooms became more humane and happier for Maori children during Ball's term.
During World War 2 Ball was appointed first director of the Army Education and Welfare Service; a daunting task as NZ had no system of army education.
By early 1943 the army began to provide educational facilities for the troops.
After the war he returned to the Department of Education in 1947 as chief inspector of primary schools. Shortly before his retirement in 1955 he was appointed to chair a committee set up to review Maori education policy.
He died at his home in Eastbourne, Wellington, in February 1986. He was survived by three sons and a daughter; his wife Isabel Ball had died in 1978.
Source – Dictionary of NZ Biography
