CONFLICT OF EDUCATIONAL IDEALS

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 2922, 7 November 1916, Page 4

CONFLICT OF EDUCATIONAL IDEALS

The attention which- the question of education reform is receiving may be taken as a hopeful, sign, but, it is about time that an attempt was made to sort out the various opinions and suggestions put forward into practical shape. The average man is quite bewildered by the existing conflict of educational ideas and ideals. He is waiting impatiently for some ■ consensus of opinion among the experts, but he can get very little enlightenment from the babel of voices crying for change. Those concerned with our education system are agreed that fundamental alterations are necessary. There agreement ceases. When they come to face the task of reconstruction they are almost hopelessly at variance. For a generation and more the authorities have been tinkering with 'our school system. Change after change has. been made. All sorts of fads and fancies have been tried, and now we are told that the whole thing is radically wrong and that a fresh start must be made. ' If the public 'do not take as much interest in education as its importance deserves, the experts must take their share of the blame. They have placed be : fore the country a chaos of incompatible educational aims and methods. Some of them place science in the front rank; others pin their faith to humanistic studies. Some contend that more attention must be paid to citizenship and character building;.still others hold that the one thing needful is technical and vocational instruction. One high authority has declared that our education system should be reorganised on the lines adopted by the Boy Scouts' movement. Before the war glorification of the German system was greatly in fashion. That fashion has now gone out—likft many others. Where experts change their opinions so quickly and frequently, and differ so widely and radically, how can the ordinary layman be expected to form a sound judgment? Ono of our local professors recently told us that in England the education question is likely to become a fight between science and literature, but he contends that what is wanted is scientific method. This sounds well enough, but it is not so helpful as it appears to bo. The advocates of nearly every type of instruction contend that their methods are scientific in the true sense of the word. _ Most people believe that our national school system should find room for both humanistic and scientific instruction. They think that a true balance should bo struck botwecn theso two branches of education, and the public have a right to oxpeet the experts to devise a scheme in which each shall bo given its propor place. Processor Hunter states that the money, spent on education will en-

sure national greatness and safety. But tho mere expenditure of money will not achieve this highly desirable result. Tho money must be spent on tho right kind of education. The present Minister of Education appears to be keenly interested on the subject. Let him then convene a conference of leading and representative members of the teaching profession, school inspectors, and university professorial staffs, and make a beginning towards something definite and practical.