THE ESSENTIALS OF EDUCATION.

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Volume 81, Issue 73, 18 December 1937, Page 4

THE ESSENTIALS OF EDUCATION.

Like so many other goodly and important things in life that should really be in our thoughts throughout the year, the question of education, as applied to schools and universities, claims general attention only at stated intervals and, as a rule, pretty lengthy ones at that. Thus it is at the ' ' breakingup" of the schools and universities for the long summer vacation that the public hears most about education from many and varied quarters, with as many and as various views expressed regarding it. What at such times probably oceurs to the elders among us, and especially those of what may be ealled the passing generation, is the almost cornplete absence of any expressions of gratitude to the real pioneers who initiated and, in the face of no little opposition and of many difficulties, built up the system of free education that is now open to all elasses. Only those whose memories can go back over a long spell of years have any idea of the personal sacrifices which many, probably the great majority, of parents had then to make in order that their children might enjoy the advantages of the fairly liberal education that is now available to practically all with but very little direct cost to themselves. Oue result of the great change that lias been worked is that largely relieved from individual anxiety with regard to their children 's schooling, the general average of parents take but scant interest in the subject of education, leaving it to the powers that be to do all the thinking for them. Education has been made so ready of access for all that full popular appreciation of it is very apt to wane. Nor is much thought given to the fact that, though this invaluable education is virtually costless to the individual it costs the community, even in this little country, some good few millions a year that are not just taken from the clouds. As to the system that has thus been built up over long years there is a great variety of opinion, and it is well that there is among us a very fair sprinkling of earnest men and women, altogether outside the eategory of the teachers, who are continually on the outlook for means whereby it may be best administered and improved. These, too, receive but very scant recognition from those whose children derive such great benefits from their gratuitous watchfulncss and care, involving no little sacrifice in time and trouble. As for the question of education in general there has probably never been a time in the history of modern eivilisation when there was need for the exercise of the greatest vigilance and circumspection on the part of those whose lot it is to give it direction. Practically the whole world and its peoples are just now in a state of transition and never has it been more essential that youthful minds should be guided into and along the safe and sane among the many divergent and often alluring paths into which they are being beckoned and in some cases coerced. So many theories of life and how it should be lived are being urgently presented, each as providing the only real reinedy for the evils that afflict mankind, that impressionable youthful minds cannot but be sadly perplexed. It is the highly responsible task of our educationalists to assist in solving the problems with which they are thus confronted, to warn against false doctrincs that promise the easy life, to instil a realisation of the rights and responsibilities of the individual, to emphasise the priceless value of the liberty of thought and action of which we are the fortunate heirs, to teach how necessary it is to "prove all things and to hold fast that which is good." The field of hunian knowledge lias been so rapidly extended of more recent years that in mere scliolastic acquirenients specialisation has become almost , essential, tliough it can scarcely but be thought that this should not niean the exelusion of cultural attainments that make so much for the intellectual enjoyment of later life. At the present juncture, however, the great thing is to pay speeial attention to the inculcation of the basic principles that go to the making of good citizenship, with a full understanding of all it involves in the way of developing natural faculties to the utmost for tlie benefit not only of one's self but also of fellow men. There is a tendency just now for a select and selfsatisfied few to ask to be allowed to do all our thinking and rule our daily lives for us. That certainly is a claim that has to be combatted.