Noted Educationists

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 147, 9 July 1937, Page 5

Noted Educationists

- Press Assoeistion.)

NEW FELLOWSHIP, CONFERENCE Former Harraw # Headmaster Attending SCHOOLS & DEMOCRACTi

(By Telegraph-

AUCKLAND, This Day. . A laTge overseas delegation to th«j New Educational Fellowship Confsn ence, which begins its sessions to-mo t* now, arrived by the Mariposa to-day. The delegation included Mr. G. T. Han. king, representing the English Board of Education, Whitehall, and sent rectly by the British Government; Dr. CyriL Norwood, formerly headmastei) of Harrow and now president of St« John's Oollege, Oxford; Mr. E. Salter Davies, Director of Education in Kent, and other Englishmen. Delegates from other eotmtriSs In* cluded M. L. Zillacus, !Finland, Drj Paul L. Dengler, Vienna, and also ai strong "American party, axnong thosa being Dr. Edmund de S. Brunner, Pro* fessor of Education, at the Teachers' Oollege of Columbia University, tn^ Dr. Harold Rugg, Professor of Ednca* tion at the same university, who turn* ed from engineering to edneation. The concensus of opinion of repra* sentatives of different conntriaa with different national outlooks is that the .broad basis of new educational ideale are strikingly similar, probably one re* sult of the inner searching consequAt on the post-war world-wide economiq and social dislocation. Dr. Dengler, for example, an Austri&n, spolce iq broad terms in the same breath of liii* tory and education. He said that hui small country, all that remained of it one-time large empire, was seeking to ' reorientate itself to ,the new OOndi* tions, realising the added importince of women in the larger sphere ontside as well as inside the hoine. Mr. Hankln spoke of the ineteatiag importance of mechanical aids to edneation, especialiy radie and films. fie said that he had "been sent with the goodwiil of the British Government, which was alive to the Importance o# the similar cultural ideals of the Zhig* lish-Bpeaking peopies, and partionlatly of the British Dominions. This eul« ture was teachable readily by radie and films. M. Zilliacus, of * Finland, expressed himself as inspired by coming to New Zealand, where the ideals of freodom fought for in Europe were taken as commonplace. The American view was stunmed nft by Dr. Rugg, who said: "We are look* ing to the schools and what is taught there as the only hope for democracy. We do not hope to solve any critieal problem of to-day by education, but if democracy is to last it will be the jesult of a slow infiltration of what Is taught in the schools." He stressed the point that up to the present mtlch of the discontent of the world had .been due to the fact that people did not understand their problems, and it was onq of education 's important dtt* ties to make thos problems plain,