MR. COMBS AND EDUCATION

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 117, 11 February 1919, Page 6

MR. COMBS AND EDUCATION

a . ■ A 11EPLY TO MR. PARKINSON, r Sir -Mr. Parkinson's letter (February 8), while avoiding refutation, is liberal ot b (l) Detraction; 12) Misconstruction. (1) A delude of unsubstantiated epiii thets is poured in hot wrath over my article on February 3. . (See 'undigested n i reading," Vfalso reasoning," e c.) Iheoe would"not>. quote Mr. f I "question-begging epithet*. Hatter one has to regard them as Olyniinau I bolts hurled by a controversialist too y divine in his rage, to put on mere moi--1 tality and argue his case. . 4 ! The fact that I-was in a small minor- '" i ity at the Teachers'. Conference, that 1 8 was overthrown by much silent thiuk ng : - and voting, is also adduced to belittlo v my humble effort. I was in an equally s small minority five years ago over im--0 portant proposals that now; receive the ■ bland approval of more venerable peda- > gogic senators. Nor. Mr. Parkinson will '- concede, ifaced by the dictum that i- "there's nothing like leather, would it ;1 be easy to prove to an assembly ot •- tanners that baro feet were a very good. - substitute. ~, .. , e (ay Misconstruction.-I neither attempto ed to disguise nor to justify the slavo g. economv of the Athenians. Why does, t i Mr. Parkinson, so noble in his angers, i ■■ ' at the outset descend to an eftort to ti tickle the ears of'the groundlings by iv i suggesting that I did?. I claimed foi •- I the Athenian a. liberal education with k i a vital purport. If Mr. Parkinson will I, -I dispute this his reading is much worse e digested than mine. If, he does not i- dispute this, how, save by (.useful phrase) if begging the question, does ho find anya thing to dispute over? .. . I- As, however, Mr. Parkinson, in sided stepping the main issue (vital educa- >• Hon), raises that of slavery, permit me it to sav that I, and far greater thinkers, ie see the danger of a servile democracy y emerging from our instructed (not edu'o catcd) masses and classes. If .in this >. country, on the contrary, we aim at o something too lofty and freo to bear i'. mention m tho same breath with slavery b it is time that we pursued our aim is elsewhere than in an overcrowded, underi, manned barrack like Newtown District it High School. • is Mr. Parkinson's second paragraph pud lories many of my phrases between conie temptuous double commas, and at tne >t same time qualifies, but neither contras. diets nor disproves, my assertions. is Liberal tjf tho somewhat time-worn h patter of the correspondence column w rhetorician, he accuses me of "dyspeptic d whining and hysterical shrieking -both it discourteous terms which I cheerfully ie challenge him to vindicate by quotai- lions. , , :- Mr. Parkinson's most important parav graph is his last. In this, he seven several is times flatly negatives my mam thesis, d but rofuses "In seriously discuss sucli h foolishness." Mr. Parkinson, as a conn trovorsialist is generous to a tnuir. e Catching an opponent making an ass ot i- liimself, ho refuses to tako advantage ot 1. the opportunity. Though, I think, hon'e est in mv opinions and intentions, i t>. niako no pretence to emulate such magd Aanimity. , . . . ~ , To revert to tho main issue, vital » education increases pedantia instruction, which Mr. Parkinson in his zeal for my

scalp hardly bothers beyond conventional assertion to allude to.. I will undertake, if you con afford space, to/prove that instruction in the chief pass subject-arithmetic-is pedantic. I will undertalco still further to show that the vital solution of the problems the school - handles so artificially is to be found without its walls. Mr. Parkinson, outviemg himself, in tho. amenities of debate, refuses to'believe that I am iseriously attached to 'mv own views. I can only rejoin that so seriously do I hold these views that they are governing my attitude to the. education of my own children. Finally, I intended no discourtesy to. !mv fellow-teachers. My strictures on ! the system and its habits certainly in- ! eluded my own school and myself. If I "shrieked," my wail at least went up from that prison house, of tradition wherein education is shut. On the other hand, having now been subject to the onslaught of two or three teacher antagonists, let me remove any misconception that my espousal of educational reconstruction is going to be restricted to leads of disoussion that also coincide with the "brief for teachers" with which Mr. Parkinson is now oificiallv entrusted. I say emphatically, as I have said before, proving it to the satisfaction of representative lay audiences, that even more than we need new schools we need new teachers. I am prepared also to prove this. I havo not, it is admitted by many of my .fellow-teachers, bsen the least effec-tual-in contending for tho right of our common profession, but .the role of 'barrncker" for the old brigade, or anything save primarily the interests of the school child and our schooled democracy, 1 most unequivocally reject.-*I am. etc.. JL. CUAlijo* Masterton, February 8.