The Hokitika Guardian WEDNESDAY. MAY 17th, 1922 THE WIDENING PATHWAY.

Hokitika Guardian, 17 May 1922, Page 2

The Hokitika Guardian WEDNESDAY. MAY 17th, 1922 THE WIDENING PATHWAY.

Thu engrossing character of the opening lecture at the winter school on Monday morning was acknowledged byall who had the opportunity of hearing Professor J. Shelley handle his subject- “The general outlook in education.” It was a fine exposition of the evolution of thought- going forward in the matter of education and the widening nature of the pathway leading towards th.' main fountain of knowledge. The trend of public thought just now was towards the creation of a real democracy, One it! practice and not in name only as it. is at present. I. heio was a great mental activity on all sides. The industrial unrest was duo to this condition of mentality, the desire lo uplift the individual, and create a better civilisation. The world was passing tluough a period of travail now as it did in the last century, hut the pains were occasional by a different cause, lu the last century the world hud been satisfied by the establishment of the economic law which was serving its purpose admirably. But further progress had to be made to ensure contentment among the people, and their mental attitude hud to he analysed and a panacea provided to ensure a personal betterment. The aim of education it was maintained, should be to produce hotter men and better woman, so that they would be more qualified to perform their allotted tasks. The ideal should not he unattainable. Indeed, l’rof. Shelley was bold enough to predict that great changes were ahead. The people were never satisfied with the present. They looked forward to and aimed at something better" ahead, and education would do its part to attain what was the world’s desire. An illuminating analogy was drawn with the ancient past. The life of the Greeks, and their great advancement in the days of Socrates and Pluto and their giant contemporaries, was the illustration of what a single age might produce. The Greeks knew little of the world, hut their own immediate Athens and its environment, peopled by about three hundred thousand people, and no larger than the Province of Canterbury. Yet tile great men of that age had not been eclipsed. The opportunities of to-day were contrasted with those of the distant past, and the point was made that, it was not greatness in population, nor wealth which produced the illustrious people. Another phase of life contrasted with the dim past was in relation to transport. In the earliest of day, man had to use his own legs, and his rate of progress was not more than four miles un hour. There he trained the horse, and doubled his rate of progress. But in a few short years nowadays, man harnessed steam and then electricity, and it was not long before he was doing ,'!0 miles an hour, then (10 miles, and now with flying machines he passes through the air at a tremendous rate. These facts indicate the possibilities yet before us, and education applied as it should be, the people thinking and understanding, and grappling with the problems of the day, producing better living conditions, humanising the lives of all, wo come in the end nearer and nearer that supreme state which should ever be the goal of mankind to aim for. |