MR MACDONALD ON EDUCATION.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 20104, 6 December 1930, Page 5

MR MACDONALD ON EDUCATION.

I oF SELF-RELIANCE. Minister spoke on cduca- * at the North School, Sandall road, ToWB (Frances Mary Buss > last month, and the prizes OTL by Miss Ishbel Mac Don (Miss I. M. stated that the Prime Mmhad been pupils at the said that he was very jto come back to see them, alr fcr the-fc- st time since he had atia visits there was no represen£bia family among the pupils, fen the platform whowero superli. parents looked down on the Med pnpii® with a S reat deal of . great deal of hope. The time Twoe when the pupils would have 7 tie same stage in their lives as Mients had reached, and they aba faced/with the same question L could "they best live a life that A to of M 0 to other people and themselves satisfaction and That really was what edulnt intended to help them to do. Jh would like to say to them ' KDo lemember you are mdividu- } oaly» *» knew aB

individuals low to control their own lives, to work their own way through life, would they come to feel the glorious joy of being not servants', but masters. The purpose of education was to take each one of them separately and individually and enable them to become masters of themselves in their own way through life, instead of being merely echoes or reflections of somebody else outside themselves. They must avoid finding satisfaction only in crowds. He believed that it wa.3 absolutely impossible for mankind finally to go backwards. But sometimes ho felt a little doubt about the way in which recreation was now being found. There was a disposition against being alone. Stimulus was sought for in crowds. There was not only mass production of chairs and tables; we appeared to be going in for mass production, also in enjoyment. That was false and wrong. The great test of education was whether it enabled them to sit down by their own fireside by themselves for a couple of hours and then rise up with a sense of the companionship each had found in himself or herself. The strength to face the difficulties and conquer them, the spirit of adventure, and the pursuit of knowledge in new fields could only bo nourished in men and women who were capable of retiring within themselves and communing with the great ones of the past and ready to go out into tho world, prepared to fight their battles alone if need be.