POPULAR EDUCATION.

Press, Volume LVII, Issue 17121, 16 April 1921, Page 11

POPULAR EDUCATION.

STUDY OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. (Fito3l OL'lt OWN COIUtESPOXDENTj) LONDON, February 24. Mr J. R. Clyues, who has Ixmhx elected Leader of tlie Labour Party in the •House of Commons, recently stated that in this country tho educational system had not yet reached tho .point of teaching tho mass of the communitysome of tlioso. simple and cl?me«ttr.\ iacta in political economy which it would be well for ©very nwn nnd woman »» tho country to know. This is nn omission which tlie-Central Council for Jftrtnomic Information is now attempting to remedv, for nioney • prises to tliO l total value of £I2BO aro being offiixd teachers in public elementary school* who undertake a special course of study—that is, in tho laws which govern the winning of our daily broad. ~ , , . Although tho funds are provided by tlie Government Department, the study nc'heiim has been prepared by tho journal "Industrial I'cacc," with the ohjecit of inducing as rimny teachers us -lKiSsiblo to take up. tho 3flenfco of economies. The perpetual miccctsiou ov troubles in the industrial world to-day has empliasised very pointedly tho need for a mom widespread knowledge of tho subject. **But political economy, ita taught in tho test-books, is recogfiinad to bo a siiifF and ydry" subject, and It is considered that the best way - of adcuring tluii; tho simple principles on which it is based shall reach tho nund* of the coming generation, is to , them first through the minds of tfeho who have the duty of toachiug. If tho teachers can bo persuaded to take .1 living interest in tho subject, tho knowled<je will- filter, iJhroUffh to tltcif pupil*. For the purposes of study, A list of books that will bo specially required by candidates lias been drawn up,- and those'who aro unablo to purenkso thtt necessary volumes for thomselvea wilt bo able to borrow them from a oostfal library. ' . i It is proposed to form eight group of ' students, for tho purposes of cxamtnittion, eacli comprising e bundled teachers—men and womon—in cletnemwfc schools. Tho examination pa pen a*o to bo. published in ''lndustrial Peace," and the examiners' will bo Sir Henry Pennon, Lecturer in Modern History and bionomics at Pembroke College, Oxford 1 , Professor H. Jones, of tho University ot Leeds, and Mr John Murray, M.A., M.P., editor of tho "Oxford Tracts on Economic Subjects." , >