W.E.A. ACTIVITIES

Evening Star, Issue 22445, 16 September 1936, Page 2

W.E.A. ACTIVITIES

OTAGO ADD SOUTHLAND DISTRICT [Conducted by Tuion.] Memoranda. Brief comments upon matters referred to below will be welcomed. Letters should be addressed to “Tutor,” caro W.E.A. Office, Otago University. Class notes for insertion in this column should not exceed 30 or 35 lines in length. Reports that have appeared elsewhere should not be repeated. All copy must be in “ Tutor’s ” hands by the end of each week. Tho W.E.A. column appears in this paper fortnightly, on Wednesday. Correspondence. H. Grocott, Oamaru, writes as follows:—” In your notes of 2nd inat. a correspondent complains that the incessant travelling backward and forward by tutors is a waste of time and money. As a country student I must emphatically disagree with “ Interested. ’ So far as tho Oamaru class is concerned,- the tutor’s time spent in travelling and lecturing is put to good use. Travelling time is all spent in preparation, and the classes at Oamaru, Pukeuri, and Hampden more than justify their existence. In fact, I will go further, and point out that there are at least three clnses in North Otago—namely, two at Waitald-Hydro and one at Otekaike—which get no direct tutorial instruction, but certainly are worth it. It is mv opinion that a tutor could very well bo allotted exclusively to North Otago, having jurisdiction from Palmerston to the Waitaki River. There are seven classes already in existence in this area, and there is plenty of good material out of which others could be formed. A resident tutor would find that ho had a real man’s job to attend to all the classes in this area and do them justice. In regard to the same question “ One Who Knows” says;— “ (I) Dunedin people have a choice of seven city classes, besides suburban classes—and each with a tutor in charge; and further classes could be arranged it a desire were expressed for them. Is the movement, then, to grudge a few country groups the opportunity of having one tutored class a week or one a fortnight? To my mind, tho big need is for more work in the country; and whether it be in tho nature of tutorial classes or study groups, it requires more personal service and more expenditure of time and money. (2) Wo should be concentrating our efforts on all-round expansion, and not wasting time on petty rival claims of city and country. (3) A tutor travelling by train need waste no more time than ono going to tho suburbs. (4) As to tho waste of money, tutors in recent years have travelled second class—probably the only people to do so while on educational service. In any case, rail fares are simply payments to another department of public service. Boarding charges have been kept very low through the generous hospitality of class members.” Danish Folk Schools. The Minister of Education (Hon. P. Fraser) replied last week as follows to a remit passed by the recent Dominion Conference of the New Zealand Farmers’ Union “ Your general recommendation that a full survey of country education should be undertaken is a matter receiving my attention.” Replying to a further remit passed by the union, advocating the institution of a system of voluntary adult education similar to that afforded in Danish folk schools, tho Minister said it was pertinent to ask whether we had corresponding climatic conditions, and also whether our social life, with its facilities for indulging in sport or watching others at play, and its evening entertainments,, would not be a serious obstacle to the successful establishment and maintenance of such schools. Mr Fraser said the whole question of adult education in both town and country districts in New Zealand was at present being considered by a committee set up by the Senate of the University of New Zealand. Adult Education Has Saved Denmark. “ Politicians may say what they like, but the first 15 years of life are not sufficient time to educate any average person. It is in the years after 15 that education begins to bear fruit, and just when there is the promise of fruit the tree is uprooted. “ Other countries have been confronted with the problem which England is now tackling. Some of these countries without doubt place as much value on education as we do, but in no case have thev made it compulsory to remain at school after 14. They have found from experience that parttime continuation schools are cheaper and more effective than raising the school-leaving age. We should not be above learning from others. “ Perhaps the best example for us is to be found in Denmark. An interesting volume might be written about the introduction of the People’s High School system by Bishop Gnndtrig at a time early in the nineteenth century, when the country was in n, state of stagnation. The object of the schools was not to give vocational instruction, or prepare for examinations, but to quicken the moral and spiritual life of the pupils and create in their minds a love ot learning. It was towards the middle of the last century, after the Germans had captured Schleswig- Holstein, and tho country had sunk to the lowest depths of depression, that Kristen Kold established a school at Funen on simpler lines than those laid down, by Gnndtrig. Those schools arc open to" both sexes between the ages of 18 and 25. As a rule the men attend in winter and tho women in summer. There are State grants and State inspection, but there is no interference with the curricula. When Gnndtrig started the system there was no vocational training, but there has been a departure from this rule. “ Sixty years ago Denmark was in the trough"of tho wave. To-day she is not only one of the most prosperous countries in the world, but also one of tho most enlightened. Denmark lacks many of the natural advantages which England possesses, hut through eclnration she has overcome all her diffi culties. . , , ■ “ Adult education has saved_ Denmark. and adult education, if given a fair chance, can save England. Tim Danes have certainly not neglected technical and agricultural education, hut it has been the training in the Folk High School that has had the greatest effect in producing an enlightened democracy. Experience has shown that the same amount of information which it takes a half-grown youth five years to acquire can ho acquired in five months by an adult who has had some practical experience of life. “ It is by following the Danish lines —nut necessarily slavishly—that Eng-

land can best solve her educational difficulties. The Fisher Act of 1918 provided that where a child’s elementary education ended at 14, if he did not proceed to a secondary school for two years, he should receive part-time continuation education up to the age of 18. This was better than the proposal that is now put forward by the Government, but it fell short of the Danish system.

“There is much to be said for a system which combines wage-earning with a continuation of educational studies. The chief advantage, is that it continues education to an age when the raaturer mind is capable of profiting by it. The period between 14 and 18 is always critical in the life of a youth, and if education can be continued in those years the pupil will not only like it for its own sake, but he will be more likely to continue his studies. The adoption of a system like the Danish would bring about an educational revolution in a generation, and it would remove many of the difficulties that statesmen now find insoluble.”—Sir Robert Lvnn, chairman Advisory Educational Council, Northern Ireland, in the London ‘ Spectator.’

Cultural Training for Farmers. A few years ago Mr Frank Tate, M.A., Director of Education in Victoria, gave an address to the Wellington Rotary Club. His subject was education in Denmark. Among other tilings, he said:— It might be thought that the remarkable success of rural industries in Denmark was the. direct result of a line system of agricultural and technical education. Nothing could be furfrom tho truth than this, although it was certain that agricultural education in Denmark was developed to a high degree. At tho root of the matter was the system of liberal cultural education largely availed of by young men and women between the ages of 18 and 25 years. This education was given to the young men during five winter months and to the young women during three summer months, in remarkable institutions known as tho People’s High Schools. These schools were adult schools working for short courses only. The young-farmers who went to . the People’s High School in the winter did not go there to improve their practical knowledge of farming, but to receive a general and stimulating mind training. One principal had told him that the purpose of the People’s High School was to make these young men good citizens; to show them what their country stands for and how they can help in its progress; to open their minds and give them intellectual interests; and above all to develop in them the feeling of goodwill towards their work and their co-workers, so that they could readily unite as a team for a common end. The great majority of the People’s High Schools taught no practical farming subjects at all. The emphasis of the teaching was laid upon Danish language and literature, Danish history, and other humane subjects. Lectures and discussions were given on social subjects, so that young men were made to realise what it meant to live efficiently and happily in a social group and to understand not only what their rights were, but what their obligations to the group were. The economics of business—both private business and national business—were also discussed. One very interesting fact was the great emphasis which was laid upon community singing. At least one hour every day was given to the singing of folk and national songs. From the high school the young men return to their farms with awakened intellectual curiosity and with the power and the desire to acquire knowledge for themselves by means of books. They might come next winter for another course at the same or at a different high school, or they might go on to a similar institution known as the People’s Agricultural School. Here the work was more distinctly vocational, but it was worth pointing out that even in the agricultural schools a large portion of the work was cultural, and that in these schools also an hour a day was given to community singing. It was thus that the rank and file of the agri-. cultural army in Denmark were trained.