The Dominion. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 10, 1915. EDUCATION AND LIFE

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2405, 10 March 1915, Page 4

The Dominion. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 10, 1915. EDUCATION AND LIFE

The establishment of the Workers' Educational Association in- New Zealand promises to do something to broaden the popular conception of the functions of a University, and to bring our highest educational institution into closer touch with the life of the people. The prevailing idea, of a'University is undoubtedly a narrow and unsatisfactory one. The average man takes it for granted that every civilised country must have a University, but his ideas' about its va,lue and the part it should play in the national life are exceedingly vague. He looks upon it as a piece of the national furniture, and he regards a professor with a sort of rather dubious awa. He is awed by the massive learning which he associates with the occupants of our University chairs, but he is somewhat doubtful about the practical utility of their work. To the majority of people the University is more ornamental than useful, though the value of a diploma^to those .who desire to enter certain professions is generally recognised. - _ There can be' no doubt that there is a marked tendency to look upon the University as a degree factory, and if tho Workers' Educational Association succeeds in removing this misconception it will have served a useful purpose; Mr. Meeedith Atkinson, in. the course of an address to teachers at Ohristohureb, remarked that the usefulness of the University might bo extended almost without limit in the direction of spreading higher education among all, classes. The ideal of a mentally-educated democraoy is an attractive one. The only sure way of getting rid of fgnOranco and superstition and quackery of all sorts is by spreading knowledge as widely as possible. The object of the Workers' Educational Association is to bring the results of the best scholarship of the day within the reach of tho industrial classes. Enlightenment should not be the exclusive possession of any class, and the more common it becomes the better for tho nation. Mr. Atkinson states that in England the Association has secured tho service;; of the finest teaching staff that has pvrr been gathered together iri cue movement. Special attention

is paid to snbjects which closely affcct daily life, such as history, economics, ancl sociology. Men who have made tho subjects dealt with their special life study are brought into direct contact with the workers, and tho gain is not all on ono Bide. ' The student' is compelled to bring, his problems, out into the open, and face the ordeal of criticism. Ho thus obtains the great advantage of examining his theories from the point of .view of the ordinary man and woman, His own process of thought is enriched and in grappling with the task of convincing practical peoplo that he is concerned with matters of real value, and that he is not wasting his time with mere mental playthings. The Workers' Educational Association seems to have made more progress in Christchurch than in Wellington, though the Victoria College Council is in full sympathy with the movement. The main difficulty is the lack of funds. In Christchurch a hundred students have been enrolled for the tutorial classes. The most popular subjects appear to be psychology, literature, and history in that, order, but of course students are naturally somewhat disinclined to tie themselves down to any particular subject until they know more about it, and in order to assist them in coming to a decision sample lectured are to be given. The first and most important thing is to develop a real desire for. knowledge among the people. If there is a widespread demand for education of the kind which the Association proposes to provide, it is certainly, in the interests of the community that it should be supplied, ana no doubt the Government and the University authorities would be able to surmount the financial difficulties. Indeed, Mr. Atkinson states that the funds for the first year's working are now in sight. The University Senate has given him a very sympathetic hearing and the Government haß favourably received his proposals. All the Universities and University Colleges of England and Wales are now associated with the movement, which seems to have become a permanent factor, in the British educational system. The Association has already done something to bridge over the gulf which divides the Universities from the wage-earning classes. Such a movement makes for good-will and a better understanding between all sections of the community. It is a great gain to get the wage-earner to see things from the scholar's point of view, and to get 'the scholar to know what is passing i through the '■ mind of the worker. Here we got an alliance of labour and learning which, as He. Atkinson says, is new in the history of the world. Such an alliance of the practical and the theoretical mind can hardly fail to produce good results. A movement which "seizes on the adult worker _ and makes him a clear-thinking citizen, capable of addressing himself to the solution of citizen problems," has ample scope for its activities in New Zealand as in every other civillised country. The present genera* tion seems to live in a welter of confused ideas, and clear thinking based on sound knowledge is one-of i the most urgent ...needs of the time.