Educreation

Press, Issue 31095, 25 June 1966, Page 4

Educreation

Educreation: Education for Creation, Growth and Change. By Paul Ritter. Pergamon Press. 380 pp.

Either you educreate or you edukill. This is the contention of Paul Ritter, City Planning Officer and City Architect of Perth, Western Australia. Educreation differs from traditional education, he

declares. In that self-regula-tion replaces compulsion, cooperation replaces competition and a therapeutic attitude replaces moralistic judgments. Each of these ideas, selfregulation, co-operation and therapy (love in education) is admittedly old. Their failure so far lies in their individual weakness. It is the destiny of educreation to combine these three powerful factors which reinforce each other mutually. Mr Ritter sees little or nothing in the present education system which meets with his approval. The primary schools are riddled with fear and authoritarianism, and no architectural school provides its students with telephones as a normal part of their [course equipment. The author is not the person to confine himself to criticism of teaching, administration and research but bubbles over with ideas for improving al! aspects of University life and professional training.

A staunch believer in initiation ceremonies, the author outlines an educreative initiation ceremony fo>- architectural students. When he describes these ceremonies 'as “an ostentatious, deliberate attraction-fusion-liberation rhythm” he is not being intentionally funny. At the end of each chapter, several pages are left blank. This is designed to allow the reader to make his own comments and to give him a sense of belonging and participation. This makes “Educreation” what the author calls a “Co-bo” or contribution book. Much of what Mr Ritter has to say is worth while; some of it is important Unfortunately, what is useful is inextricably mixed with the most extraordinary naivete a mass of ill-digested quotations and some popular psychology of about 1930 vintage. The author has any amount of enthusiasm but very little discrimination. A little of Paul Ritter being educreative could be quite entertaining but 380 pages is an imposition.