EDUCATION IMPORTANCE

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXIV, Issue 4590, 20 August 1923, Page 4

EDUCATION IMPORTANCE

♦_ — OUR GREATEST RESPONSIBILITY. ETHICAL TEACHINGS. Among the many responsibilities which have been transfeired to the Government during recent generations, that of education is the most important. Fifty years ago the preliminary teaching of the child was, in most cases, conducted at home; but now, as soon as the child is capable of learning, he is,, as a rule, sent to a Government school. The results may be satisfactory enough as far as learning from books is concerned, and in physical culture the system is probably far more successful than the older method ; but in other ways it leaves much to be desired. Too often the parents, having sent the child to a State school, consider their responsibility for his or her education ended ; but even if the teaching in school were conducted on lines different from those now adopted nothing could compensate for the lack of home training to a young child. Education in State schools is on a purely utilitarian basis, which may succeed in training good business men, but neglects to 'a great extent ethical development. The results are too apparent ; lack of reverence, impatience of control, and general licence seem to be increasing in the children of the present generation. There are ve p y many exceptions, but, as a genera! rule, this indictment is true in New Zealand, in Australia, and in England. Is there a remedy? If parents refuse or are unable to take on themselves their due responsibility and hand it over to z the State, the remedy must be administered in the public .schools. Because of the great differences of opinion religious instruction is thought to be impracticable, but the inculcatioi of those great moral truths which are common to all religions should not bo neglected. The teaching of history, for instance, might be transformed, and what we must somewhat grandiloquently call the philosophy of history, for want of a better term, might be taught more generally. The expression., as applied to the teaching of young children, sounds somewhat ridiculous, but it should not be beyond the resources of our experienced and competent teachers to instil into «the minds of their pupils the lessons to be derived from the study of the morals of nations. The filial piety, which was so marked a feature in the days of Republican Rome, might be illustrated: The distinguishing epithet of the hero of Vergil’s great epic was “pious” in its original sense, and Cicero attributed the greatness of the Rome of his day to reverence. These virtues waned, and the decline and fall followed. Such things may not Increase,,successes in examinations as now conducted, but they would tend to bring about the far more desirable result of raising ethical standards ; and if competitive examinations be necessary, the papers might be amended so as to test knowledge on ,suc.h lines, rather than on mere dates and names.