A NEW EDUCATIONAL POLICY.

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2820, 11 July 1916, Page 6

A NEW EDUCATIONAL POLICY.

Sir,—ln yoUr issue of Wednesday ,'a new educational policy is foreshadowed in the published memorandum of tho Minister of Education, which JlO is promulgating 011 the gnund "that'the education arid training of the present and immediately following generations constitute the greatest reconstructive.-.agencies at our disposal'for-the repair and reorganisation- of national life after the present destructive upheaval." - . ' Though I am only a recent arrival in the country, and therefore diffident of expressing my views thus enrly, tho paramount importance of the matter urges me to offer a few remarks. Wo are usually wise after the event. A ferry steamer founders, with the loss of hundreds of lives, and the companies thereafter are; compelled to provide floating accommodation for every soul on board- their ships. A disastrous conflagration in a theatre results in escape' doors being provided. 011 every public building. Tho most appalling war in history has ,bcen -neco«ary to show us that there, is a good ( deal generally that is rotten in tho State of Denmark. Educational . reconstruction is going to be forced oil many another country than New .Zealand, as a sequel to this cataclysm , and burniug problems of social regeneration which have long been literally howling for a solution may gft. something more like offective attention: Tliaj: such a conflict has been possible may. wclhraiso doubts ancnt the claim of education, ns hitherto understood, to bo regarded as a satisfactory constructive agency. Clearly, then, its task as a reconstructive agency is one to be approached with an adequate conception of its immensity. • ' . Reconstruction as interpreted in the Ministerial memorandum appeal's to have in view what tho man in the street delights to term practical aims, and it is a little disappointing to ,find material aspects are so largely stressed, unless we may assumo by implication that matorial efficiency and the satisfaction of materia! needs being guaranteed first, the., basic conditions for living on ■ a higlicr intellectual, moral, and spiritual plane are thereby assured. This has no. indirect bearing 011 what seems to be the test of the Minister's remarks, namely, increased individual efficiency, for the first condition of increased individual efficiency is a higher morale. This individual efficiency that is so desirable will fie tho subject of my remain, ing observations. Most people will bo thoroughly in accord with your leader of Thursday, that the means to the Minister's aims are very 'dimly hinted at. and also that flio present is not tho time to embark 011 any large scheme of reform. The maxim as lo the unwisdom of changing horses whilst crossing a stream w tno well known. Any change at all except in tho direction of justifiable economies is to >* diw.ecated. The education svstems

of some of the Australian States, at any rate, bear too closo a resomblancn lo the settler's homestead, with its periodio lean-to accretions aud th« "linkerine" metaphor bo often used is apt .enough. War figures are in favour just now. When wo aro ready, whon wo liavn the money, the men and women, and the munitions, let us begin our educational offensive. Then we can deal with tho individual and make Jiim efficient.. Inhere one teacher is grappling with; Jifty, sixty, seventy children, there can be no individual efficiency. That is not produced by "en bloc" methods. Wh«ro oncteaehoi; is handling several standards i one school, there cannot be individual I efficiency. Where wihoois undergo freourat changes of staff, there cannot bo individual efficiency. To remedy those evils men and women and money aro needed, especially money, it is the silver bullet that wins this war. Individual efficiency demands that within tho school the hoy should find the course along which his native strength lies, and after the school period that he should find the occupation for which lie is particularly fitted. » This cannot be properly effected unless careful records of every pupil are kept during the whole school course by people who are competent to keep them. T. mean people -who are trained observers, and who can discern and assess personal qualities. Records of reproductive capacity r as tesfed by examinations' aro hopelessly inadequate as a valuation of efficiency. This brings rae to the factor on which hang all the law and the •prophets, namely, tho teacher. Personality is tho greatest power in education: Scheme may be perfect; buildings, grounds, equipment all that can bo desired;-but, unless the right people aro doing the work, efficiency mil not' re* suit. It is too often forgotten that the materials on which a teacher's craft is exercised are mind and soul, the. most subtle things of which wo know. Ihe mis-shapen piece of pottery may fin aside or sold at half-price, lhe human vessel that is botched cannot be' flung aside, and may ultimately bo sold to the devil. When the peoole who are doing what Thring rightly called .'the nation's highest work," receive the years of highly specialised training deemedi necessary for the-physician, when -they arc naid the emoluments commensurate with the arduousness and importance of their yrork, "when they are accorded. the same social recognition as is extended to the members of the other learned professions—but not more learned—then may individual efficiency bp. looked for. For then the conditions of their work "will be such as to attract into the ranks'of the'profession a better proportion of tho 'brightest intellects atid characters of the nation. Con* sideriiis: the miserable remuneration paid all the world over to the rank and file of teachers, the public is served a great deal better than it deserves to be. Again, compulsory attendance having been adopted .for the primary stage, compulsion must T>e carried to' ito logical issue un to such time as the individual ,<5 made efficient. • Compulsion up to half-way is sheer waste, and as a matter of fact the education reform nroblem mny be.very shortly stated: "Eiiminate the -waste."

One point more. In several recent public pronouncements on education the saving power of science has been supremely exalted. I deny "in toto" the efficacy of any one particular branch of knowledge "ner so" to secure individual efficiency. ! If we want to see the kind of efficiency . attained by' the adoration of pure and applied science, let us look at Germany, where the _jult of science lias begotten an increasing faith in material force. _ I am not out to decry science, but scientific -knowledge gives us merelv a better grip of <«iir physical envi <nnient, undoubtedly a very' necessary thing, but one that does not exnniist the "whole of life's posrfbilitie?. There is a bijger environment than tills. Has Juiman life been flnmr awa-f fo prodigally on the 'battlefields 'of Europe to ensure the mere physical survival of this and succeeding generations? Ten thousand times, no! In concluding, I would like to say that I do not wish any of my remarks to be taken as specially critical of any part of the New Zealand system, about winch I am not yet competent to spenk. They apnly generally to systems of education iu Tmirlish-speaking. coiui'tries. Starvation of the most important oublic service is almost universal. If half the amount of money that has been expended in the .last fiuarter of a centnrr on the agencies of destruction had ben spent on . education, there would have been no wjir.—l am, etc..

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