TOPICS OF THE DAY

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 40, 17 February 1930, Page 8

TOPICS OF THE DAY

Without questioning the desire of the Government to give New Zealand "the finest education system in the world," one may doubt whether this aim will be attained if progress is to be at the rate of the past year. After many mdnthsof consultation, consideration, and investigation, the outline of projected reforms is still vague and indefinite. The Minister of Education speaks of a primary course which should end at eleven years or thereabouts. This has been discussed for years. As to the postprimary course: "There should be Ino hard-and-fast syllabus, but education should proceed along lines of discovered aptitudes." It would be more satisfying if there were some explanation of the methods to be applied in discovering aptitudes. Freedom from the restrictions of a hard-and-fast syllabus is good, but it can be carried too far. No one denies the harm caused by hard-and-fast methods of mass production. All children cannot be put through the same process. But if the loosening of syllabus restrictions goes too far and allows every teacher to 'be a director of education on. his own little plot, we run the risk of exchanging an undesirable uniformity for an even less desirable diversity closely approaching chaos. In a national system of education there must be national leadership.

What is the religious value of broadcast services? The Lower House of Convocation is doubtful, and has appointed a committee to make inquiries. Canon Selwyn, who moved for the committee, considered that the broadcast effect would be superficial and ephemeral, and that it was already creating a type of passive worshipper. Probably this is all true. Yet there is another side to the question. Some people will take their religion over the air where formerly they assembled in churches for that purpose; but others will hear a service which otherwise would not have come to their ears. If some active worshippers become passive, it is probable that many who were not worshippers at all will reach the passive stage, and of these some will go on to be active. That will depend upon the way in which the Church appeal is made. If the preachers.realise that they have a new congregation and one that is little interested in dogma, there may be great gains; but if there are "vain babblings" of nice points in theology it is more than probable that the radio will be turned off while the sermon is on. Broadcast offers a splendid opportunity to the churches. It is a new way of going out into the highways and hedges; but the opportunity is not enough unless it is wisely used.

It is proposed to transfer the public reading-room of the Central Library to the Education Board building next door when the City Council takes possession of that building. This will be much appreciated by library-users. Al present the reading-room is so croAvded with papers, magazines, and readers that many persons who'would use it are deterred by the delay and discomfort

which result from ihc overcrowding. The usefulness of the library is greatly impaired by the lack of space. The removal will prove beneficial also by permitting the extension and better arrangement —it is to be hoped—of the reference rooms. The reference department of the library is one which every citizen should be encouraged to use;- but there is little encouragement under present conditions. There is no space for new volumes, and when these are added old volumes, many of them still required, must go out into stack rooms. With more wall space an arrangement more convenient for die casual student should .become possible. ** * / There is a battle raging in the world of fashion. Paris has declared for a reversion to longer skirts and all the frills and trimmings of a Victorian period. London and New York are resisting the decree. Now new Papal instructions have been issued regarding women's dress, and bishops have been ordered to insist with the utmost rigour on women observing greater decency and modesty. This does not mean, however, that Paris will have support from so influential a quarter. The Vatican has always protested against the ex-, tremes to which the scant fashions were carried, but it has not condemned the good sense and simplicity of those fashions if they had stopped short of immodesty. The trouble arises not so much from the adoption of sensible modes, but from the tendency to go to extremes in following even a sensible fashion. It is to be hoped that the Vatican instructions will help to check freakish scantiness of attire without encouraging a reversion to the excessive adornment which made earlier fashions both unsightly and unhealthy.