COUNTING OF HEADS

Evening Post, Volume CXVII, Issue 106, 7 May 1934, Page 10

COUNTING OF HEADS

DANGER" EMPHASISED

ADDRESS TO TEACHERS

THE DEMOCRATIC TOTI

Crisp observations -bearing on teachers and their work- were made by Professor T. A. Hunter, Vice-chancellor of the TJ:iiversiry of New Zealand, when addressing the New Zealand Educational Institute Conference today. ' .

Professor Hunter said! that, there: was a tendency iv modern democratic institutions for the counting of heads, and a great tendency to pay respect to the payers of dues. Counting had serious dangers . for democratic institutions, and there was a tendency for the tail of numbers to wag the head of ability. In .the-'.teachers' organisation, as ia. others, there were influences continually working in that;direction;.the need of finance, and the ;endeavour to obtain, as. many members as far as possible; ; the fear of competing organisations; and .there was a danger in the popular election of officers, because those j officers, being the permanent 'officials and being elected on. a democratic vote, were liable to pay too much attention, to the authority of numbers;. Consequently, the democratic institution, tended to mediocrity. The institution: should sot up the stand that people had to qualify before they Could become members. '' We should go back to the principle that made the medieval guilds so. very important," he j said. The idea that people had to qualify implied discipline-in. the organisation,' and a member should be. made to feel that he could be supported only if his cause was just. "Surely a body! of this nature should have the poiver to expel members who don't live up to the standard that the organisation feels is fitting to a professional body- of this kind," he said. " " ■;•

PEOFESSIONAB CODE.

Referring to a remit to be consideredby the ' conference,: relative to • the setting up of a professional code, Professor Hunter urged the conference to be careful. "Remember, '.'the.■ Wid' killcth: it is the spirit that = keepeth. alive,'" he remarked. ,A danger ih. democratic institutions, was to. believe that it did not matter whowas a member because inembers:cbuldalways be kept right by regulation.^ "Nothing i 3 niore, futile, "he said; "1 feel there is a real danger in trying to formalise codes of this type unless you keep them on very general and fundamental lines, and unless you are prepared to exclude people from the organisation who don't live upto it.": ; '•.-•■.-■■■.

Another danger of popular institutions was inbreeding. In modern times teachers, above all, should be cautious of the influence of habit and regression. If teachers mixed only* with teachers there would be a tendency for the ■development of a stereotyped, pattern.

I say quite seriously that teachers should not spend their holidays with other. teachers. Develop other interests in life: in sport, in hobbies,, in art, and in public -life. We may take our job too seriously, so seriously that we forget what the job is really for.

Although there was a great value in them, there was a danger in summer schools. All organisations suffered from thisj -danger, but there .; was , special ■ danger for teachers. ; ' -'. When" we ara continuously dealing with . immature minds,'- there is a tendency to get back ;to thCj immaturity iii pur own ininds,? * ho .remarked. "We, as teachers/ are very prone to it. - What is required in the teaching organisations is fighting men^and-women. (Hear, hear.) If we believej in- education, we wi.ll continue to see-that we are not lefj put of tho process.":.■•"'. '•.•■•'. ■-...;-*•-.■>

f■' AIM OF EDUCATION.

. A)l-cdiicationists~ had topght against the ide.a> tfiat education, was" restricted to the,training that would enable people to earn a living/ in /the narrow sense of. thcytcrm. He did not. deny that education ought to fit a man to earn his living; by' methods that were .socially good; .^but to make that the measuring rod of education was fatal both to education and life. It "as putting the cart before the horse to'suggest that all wo were here for was to struggle for the mere means of subsistence." That idea was common in all industrial communities, and especially strong in times of depression. People wanted a scapegoat, and they found, it in education.

People were very anxious about the amount spent on education. In answer to the' question of expenditure on education, Professor Hunter quoted R. "H. Tawney:—"The answer to the'question whether expenditure is or is hot a burden j depends on the relative in\port- ! ancc of the object to which'it is assigned. A nation whose income is barely sufficient to maintain its population may plausibly argue that it must live from hand to'mouth, and have n» surplus to spend on the special eultiva* tion of the. power of the rising genera/ tion. A nation which can spend 10? millions in expeditions against KussMf and 14 millions on a. dock at Sin{tiv pore, and 400 millions on drink, and-2<J millions on the owners of land in Jondon, and six millions on the owne/s. of royalties, and a large, though uncertain sum, on the recipients of monopolf^profits of various kinds, may prefer not to attend to the welfare of itv cMldren, but it is estopped from-arguinj that it cannot afford to do si., :