THE REAL THING IN EDUCATION

Hokitika Guardian, 3 December 1930, Page 5

THE REAL THING IN EDUCATION

(Otago Times)

Otago lias been described as a place where the natural scenery is ot' the loveliest and the people all have “rabies paedagogiana.” This malady, an endemic one, attacks the minds in such a way as to give all those afflicted with it a frenzy for talking about education. It has been asserted that there is no adult m the provincial district who has not already lectured in the field or is not infatuated enough to believe that he could lecture on it if only he could get an audience, while the topics treated in recent expositions have ranged from the spiritual pabulcm of infancy to the psychology of the octogenarian. This picture may be regarded as extravagant, and yet there is a modicum of truth in it. It is probable that- there is no town comparable in size to Dunedin where questions of education are discussed with some earnestness, more insistence, and more insight. A cynic might suggest that the Scotch passion for abstract dialectic once issuing so vehemently through theological channels, has, by the lessened emphasis on the next world and the increased emphasis on this, merely diverted the inherited flow of thought towards a new and more immediately profitable outlet.

Be that as it may, there is no doubt that in Otago there is a deep and abiding interest, almost amounting to religious fervour, for all things educational. It is not surprising, therefore, that some of the itinerant lecturers who from time to time, to their personal benefit, unload here their various -orophies and -ologies find that their audiences include many persons able to give a very critical assessment of what they hear. Amongst those so interested in education is a very considerable number of private citizens who do not desire to be “organised” in their studies or to be restricted to compulsory subjects or to fall under any TOUtinal regimentation. These love above all the free ranging, of the intellectual powers. They would agree most heartily with what was said recently by Mr Stanley Baldwin when lie thanked God there was such a place left as Morlev College, for nobody came there to . learn anything useful for the knowledge and beauty taught there opened up magic case.ments with a vista, not of “perilous seas and faery lands forlorn” as in Kent’s sonnet, but of the serene and solacing fields of the humanities. The prevalence of such generous educational convictions in Otago may have excited mild surprise at the recent cable from England announcing that the Minister of Education, Sir Charles Trevelyan, when addressing the boys of the Coatbain School, said he hoped the school “Would never become like Harrow,—!! school .merely for the rich, with such evils ns football and cricket captains, boys who did not believe in brains but merely brawn.” The headmaster of Harrow Dr Norwood, contended himself with the curt reply: “The Minister should be aware that the curriculum at Harrow is identical with those of other schools. The fact that he is an old Han •ovian, and now Minister of Education, is sufficient to show that Harrow has not harmed him much.” There is no man in England more competent to expound English educational ideals than Dr Norwood. How refreshing! after the various nostrums prescribed amongst us by selfcomplacent itinerants, to turn 'to Ilfs fine. book. “The English Tradition of Education!” In this he sets forth the five materials from which the edifice has been traditionally constructed—religion, discipline, culture, athletics, service. These things have made the name and fame of the public schools of England.

No other schools, ancient or modern, have ever inspired such loyalists, no other schools have produced' such a body of men who have carried with them to the ends of the earth the ideals of the old schoolroom, and, even more, of the old cricket and football ground. On the 1 burning sands of Africa, itn the jungle of Burmah, on lonely seas, in Arctic glooms their lives and deaths have witnessed to their code and its endurijbleneiss. Sir Arthur Keith sums up the! tradition: “The English have learnt the secret of education—it is. self-discipline.” Yet this is not enough, as Dr Norwood points outFor, while paying his tribute to British enterprise. British initiative, and British vigour, lie expresses a wish that in this modern world more kudos might he accorded to British know-, ledge as a great requisite to the preservation of a foremost world place. It may he hoped that when Sir Charles Trevelyan, now a Labour Minister, turned recreant in public to bis old school, all he meant was that the public schools should lay increased emphasis on the intellect without the guidance of which character is but blind will. With that einph'asis there is no reason for New Zealand, or any other part 'oi the Empire, to renounce educational tradition which has produced some of tlie noblest men in history.