EDUCATION AND THE NATION

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 101, 22 January 1918, Page 6

EDUCATION AND THE NATION

THE CALL FOR EFFICIENT CITIZENS "TOO MUCH IDEALISM" Tlie question of increased efficiency in our education svsletn hiis been prominently before tlie public of this country rccentiy in the shape of reports and discussions by educationists. I'lieso discussions and reports have no doubt nwakened public interest in •" this allimportnnt problem —a problem the successful solution of which, according to many experts, is vital to the future of the Umpire. It is therefore, interesting to read what an English authority has to say about the educational needs of the Home Country.. The fcllowing article, written by I*. Itadtord Smith, A.R.1.8.A.. which is published in "The World's Work," contains much that hours directly on the problem in .Nov.- Zealand.

Education has to be reformed (writes Mr. Smith). It has to be reformed because the prosperity of such a country as ours depends chiefly upon the ratio of its trade to its population, because sweeping changes in the conduct of our industrial and commercial affairs .ire. essential to maintain that ratio at the level a satisfactory standard of prosperity demands, and because delects in the present method of training the youth of the country lie at the root of the defects in our industrial and commercial methods. The increase of our commercial prosperity is tfye avowed purpose of educational reform, yet the criticisms and suggestions to which most publicity has been given have been those made, not by business men, but by professional educationists. None of the recent proposals of the British Minister of Education (Mr. Fisher) received anything approaching so much comment and approval as his determination to increase the remuneration of the professional educationists. If the matter be left ill the hands of the professional educationists exclusively. there is a danger of too much at>t'eiition being given to the reform or the position of the educationists ana too little to the reform of education. We are told that the present rate ot remuneration is not high enough to attract a sufficiently capable class to the profession. This is true, but the business man will have difficulty 111 realising how increasing the salary ot teachers already engaged is to alter tt:e calibre of those teachers. The remuneration of teachers generally has uot been increased in proportion to the use in the cost of living. There should therefore be some increase, but 110 case has been made for doubling the salaries of the teachers at present engaged, as has been suggested. If the desired class cannot be attracted to the teaching profession without the doubling of the existing rates, this should be done at the, time the standard is raised, for aclitiissmn to the profession, which .is a very difteient matter from an increase of 100 <.r cent, to those teachers whom the pio fes s ion a 1 educationists themselves tell us cannot be of the calibre desired.

Unpractical professional Educationist.

Educational reforrn is unlikely to lia c the desired result in mdustual and commercial success, if its nature is t he decided solely W the professional educationists, uninfluenced by tiie views of business men who have f practical knowledge of the defects i our industrial and commercial are consequently in a position to P° out what was lacking m the educational system responsible lor these « et '® ts ; ' The Minister of Education in Ins iecent speeches laid much stress upon the broadening of the avenue from tic council school to the university; a desirable move indeed, but having less bearing oil our national efficiency than an improvement in the training of -he overwhelming mass ct the receive no more education than the la.v compels, and no more than an improvement the education of the vast numbers of the/middle class who attend secondary schools, not as a preparation for tho university, but as a grounding on which to base their commercial or technical training. The local education authorities bearing the responsibility include generally a quite disproportionate percentage of ministers of religion, small tradesmen, and labour ■ delegates. The trade unions have been fully represented on these bodies, but who ever heard of a Chamber of Commerce having a member 011 tho local Eduoation Committee, whose duty was avowedly to represent its views? At present, it is not usual to and a retired small trader, or the secretary of the local branch of the Miners' Federation, as chairman of flic Higher Education Committee, which controls secondary schools and technical insti-. tutes and the award of scholarships to» tho universities, but for the head of a great business undertaking to hold such a position is almost unheard of, and it is only occasionally that such a man himself had any "higher" education. Constructive Suggestion Wanted, The Minister of Education has, it is true, received one deputation representing our leading chambers of commerce, but even this was headed by a gentleman who is a professional educationist —of the best kind —and not, strictly speaking, a business mail (the Principal of Armstrong College, chief speaker of the deputation received on 31 ay 0). A single deputation cannot possibly have as much influence as continual representation on the local committees. There has been ample criticism of the existing system, but little constructive .suggestion. To indicate the sort of help that may bo expected from business men, it will suffice to mention some of the principal faults underlying our commercial position ami tho in school curricula or methods which would commend themselves to business men as liltelv to eradicate these faults. It will be assumed that tho Parliamentary Committee's recommendation to raise the age-limit for compulsory wholetime attendance to fifteen, and to make attendance at some form of coi'tinuation classes compulsory, will be adopted. This much seemed almost certain from the reception accorded to Mr. Fisher's maiden sneecli.

Of late years we, have not been nfi successful in international fcrado as wo ought to have been. Probably 110 individual factor has Noil so detrimental as the idea so prevalent among tha artisan olass that any labour-saving device or any attempt to increase ner-s-onal production is likely to injure tlioir interests.

This belief has led to the refusal of trade unions -to countenance the introduction of labour-saving machinery ?nd the fonnuliU-ion of rules rcstrictinsi the output of tho individual artisan, with the result that in most of our great industries tho outnut nor person engaged is less than half +hat same industries in the United States. It is not surprising that tlio United States is obtaining "it ever-increasing share of the world's markets, and that an American artisan receives a much liiHier wage—a higher "real" wage, as well as a higher nominal wage —tliin b 1 ' 1 Kngb'ib cousin. Tito erroneous idea that the less wealth a group of n'len produce the more wealth they will be able to enjoy has tragically retarded progress and prosperity, yet no attempt has boon mad° to rectify it by educating tho youth of the country in tho fundamental elements of economics. Economics and ceography. Economics, it will bo argued, is not

a suitable subject for the pupils of elementary schools. There is, indeed, lio room for such an advanced science in tho curriculum, but the writer knows of schools—outside Great Britain— where history and geography arc taught in such a way as to inculcate some of tho essential facts.

Tho method of instruction in tho elementary schools in such subjects as arithmetic lias shown immense improvement .of recent years, but history and geography are not yet usually taught upon useful lines. The economic value of the feudal system to society in William the Conqueror's time, and tho reasons why that system would not be of tho same valuo nowadays, are of infinitely greater importance than the dates of all tho kings that were—or oven tho knowledge which king died of an overdose of lampreys.

In the geography lesson pupils—in most schools—learn that wheat comes from Canada, and that steel goods are made in Sheffield, and other simple truths of like nature, and that is about all.

It should not be beyond the power of a boy of fourteen to understand that Britain used to produce more jron than any other country because the iron oro and the coal to smelt it were found close together. He could also be told that the "United States now produce a great deal more than we do, although most of their iron ore has to be taken long distances to the coalfields. He could be told that although we still have iron ore of our own, we generally find it better to import foreign ore, because, even after paying tho cost of bringing tho oro to Britain, it is cheaper than ours. He will want to know wliy it is cheaper and l/o will find out that it is because the Norwegian and the Spaniard are each willing to do more work for a pound than an Englishman.

The Boy Should Want to Know Why,

It should not bo beyond tho power of a boy of fourteen to understand'? that in a country subjected to mouths of severe frost and snow and months of great heat the construction of railways and buildings, and consequently the production of iron and steel, are rendered more difficult than in Britain. If that boy be then told that in spite of all this the United States is able to pay the cost of sending finished iron and steel goods to Britain and successfully compete with the some-made article, he will want to know why.

As business men know, there is not the same opposition in the United States to labour-saving devices, a new railway does not have to pay such exaggerated sums as compensation to vested interests, and, last but not least, the American artisan is not afraid of increasing his output.

If every Education Committee included representatives of the business world, appointed for the purpose of securing such reforms as these, the new generation would have nothing to do with such pernicious,_ ill-founded doctrines as that of restriction of output. The happy man is the man who loves his work and enjovs progress and excellence therein. Such n man is also the most useful member of the community, because he alone helps the community to improve in any way. That he is so rarely found outside the literary and artistic professions is laigely attributable to the fact that so few boys select their life-work, or, when they make some sort of selection, do so other than blindly. Taking up an occupation of which they know nothing, in a few years they wake up to find themselves square pegs in round holes, and then they are liable to cry out that all work is a cruel evil, and imagine that the right way to lighten the curse of Adam is not by making work always pleasanter and more interesting, but bv devoting as little time, trouble, and thought as possible to the hated thing.

The Headmaster's Ambition. This is the ease alike with elementary and secondary schoolboys. Schoolmasters generally are interested in one kind of ambition only; the ambition to climb the educational ladder to a university degree; and some secondary and public schoolmasters take a still more "limited view, like the one who told me, "When I say 'university,' 1 mean, of course, Oxford or Cambridge. I am not including such places as Armstrong College or Manchester, to both of which many of our boys go." Headmasters too often regard as "waste product" those of their pupils who do not go to the university, even though these pupils are in the majority.

One of the best means of correcting the tendency to walk blindfold into a trade or profession was adopted in a large secondary school in Canada, where it was the principal's custom to invite every fortnight some eminent man, usually a business man, to address the upper classes. As a rule, these men explained the kind of ability that was needed in their particular business, and so :nuch interest did these addresses arouse, that I have known pupils obtain permission to slightly vary their participation in the curriculum in-order the better to fit themselves for the calling they had decided on.

During the several years the writer was in touch with this school, he docs not think any youth left without having not only selected his calling, hut selected it for very definite and adequate reasons. I'rofessional educationists may object that the school is not the place for outsiders, hut -this scheme has been tried and found good, and there is every reason to believe* that it might bo extended until it became general, not only in secondary schools, but in elementary schools as woll, with beneficial results to the happiness and usefulness of the newer citizens.

Business Men and Education. Business men are too ready to cry out against the defects in our technical education, while they decline to occupy the positions in which they would have the power of remedying these defects. The control of technical education is so obviously the proper affair of business men, that this article has emphasised rather the need of their influence on general education. The professional educationists threaten to bo obsessed by their desire to "coordinate" the work of K-.ci:mcal classes. In accordance with this idea, shortly before the war a certain i'Mueatioii Committee adopted a. "co-ordination" scheme (or their Art School and Technical Institute by which .ill students in the building trades had to take other classes whose bearing on their own work was very remote, and all art students (for instance, girls going in for dressdesigning) had to study architecture. As all great employers of labour know, perfection in any branch requires so much of a human being's capacity, that a certain amount of specialisation is necessary for individual and national efficiency, and such schemes as this are doomed to the fate which befell this one—the students declined to attend at all.

The war luvs demonstrated the value of eminent commerci'il experts in matters formerly in tin; hands of politicians, and when the war is won—if tliey are too busy winning it at present—the men of the business world must insist upon their views being considered in educational reform. It will not suffice for them to sneer at the defects in the present methods, they must see that they are adequately represented on the local authorities which shave the power with the bureaucracy. A few successful business men, of whom Lord Lcverhulme (Sir \V. H. Lever) is a conspicuous example, have been actively engaged ill educational.

reform, hut tliev are exceptional. is 110 £oo(I imping to the !mreai»» racv nd the ret-irorl small tradesman, aiui complaining afterwards. Those who profess and call themselves idealists will object to the iufluenco of business men, claiming that) commercial success is a vey low object# for educational reformers to have in view. It is, indeed, not the only object, but it is by no means an unimportant or unworthy one. There are times when one is tempted to define the idealist as tho man who would be glad to seo poverty and toil abolished, but who is too _ refined to concern himself with anything so sordid as the practical measures necessary for the prosperity and happiness of tho community.