EDUCATE

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2874, 12 September 1916, Page 6

EDUCATE

REFORM OR RECONSTRUCTIONWHICH?

Sir,—We aro a privileged community! Every few years the voice of a groat educational reformer or educational reconstructionist, is heard in our midst! Yet we seem to sleep onsuffering, it is suggested, from an intellectual inertia characteristically English! A few years ago two .youthful university professors, a few months after their arrival in the Dominion, found that our entire system of higher education was a sham—and they inaugurated a "reform" movement, which had "made in Germany'' writ large on it. Our university staffs were to be "imported," and were to bo of the accredited type! The movement lias fizzled out—but has left, as aftermath, i factious intrigue in almost every administrative board or body connected with our university system. Now, our secondary school system, it is suggested, by- a recently' imported educationist, after a. few months' experience of our educational system and of our educationalists, is so much beyond repair or "reform" that "reconstruction" alone will suffice! It is the men that matter, it would seem! Poor Now Zealand has been importing, for nearly fifty years, men of the highest eduational attainments —nay more, it has been equipping .young New Zealanders for some fifty years for the learned professions—and the services of educational experts have been, and are, requisitioned by the State and the University—and yet it is suggested, in the plainest way possible, that so far as our educational system generajlj is concerned, wo have not got the right men in the teaching profession! , If that is so, it is time we "wad tak' a thocht and men' our ways!" But is it so? I confidently assert that it is not. The gravest defects in our educational, system are due almost entirely to the parents, who practically insist on having their children educated for the so-called professions or business, and who regard the manual, technical, agricultural, and industrial callings as of a humble if not degrading order. Our teacliers are probably as well equipped and of as high a type as is to be found in any part of the Empire; but the demands, mado upon tho State and on the teacher by tho people (or parents) determine tho character of the teaching. The teachers, individually or as a profession, are in no way responsible for the items on -tho educational menu card. It is essential, if things are to go satisfactorily with us as a community, that our educational system should be broad—based on our needs as a people. It is certainly desirable that (when a sound general basis of education is acquired) educational differentiation should bo encouraged. At the same time, if we' can induce our boys and lads to take to technical, industrial, or agricultural pursuits, can we really hold out [ any definite hope to them, that they are Jiot destined to be, virtually, bowers of wood and drawers of water'for the professional and commercial classes in the community? Every parent (in whom the parental instinct is, naturally developed) is anxious to see his (or her) offspring attaining to higher things than the parent. That is the chief reason why thsro is so much uniformity in the type of education demanded by the oommunity. All parents worthy the name are anxious to raise their boys and girls, educationally, to the status of "gentlemen" and "ladies." This fact, therefore, largely determines the educational demand.

At present tho State offers, I understand, generous facilities for technical and manual instruction, as also for training and specialising m science, and yet' the "demand", on tho part of our youth is very jimitcd, partly because of the idea so generally entertained by parents and by lads that the callings for which such instruction equips our youths are "no class"; partlj because tho population of the Dominion ,is so small, and most of the technical industries so undeveloped, _ that those specially trained on technical or scientific lines generally have to leave the Dominion to secure appointments of any account. No doubt the intellectual personnel of any profession con be improved, if the community duly recognises talent. It is a positive scandal that tho teaching profession, which is charged with the most important duties in the State, should be the most indifferently remunerated in the service of the State. Until the teaching profession is accorded the highest placo in tho service of the State, and is duly remunerated for ite service, neither reform nor reconstruction can achieve adequate restilts. At the same time to suggest, as some of your correspondents appear to do, that the personnel of the teaching profession, or its moral and spiritual atmosphere, accounts for our educational malady, is a positive libel.—l am, etc, AULD DOMINIE.