THE EDUCATION CAMPAIGN.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XL, Issue 1816, 20 April 1918, Page 1

THE EDUCATION CAMPAIGN.

(To the Editor.) Sir. —The New Zealand Educational Institute’s campaign on behalf of the cause of national education proceeds apace, and is meeting with gratifying support. This was to he expected. It only needs to be brought home to the people that education is the deciding factor in the wellbeing of their children, and of the nation of which these children will be the units, and they will, with few exceptions, give their adherence to the gospel the Institute is preaching. The value of the child is the foundation of this gospel, and all other considerations have weight only in relation to that value. We want smaller classes. Why? In order that children may be educated, not drilled; in order that each pupil may have an opportunity to find out and develop the good that is in him; in order that the estate may he enriched by the powers of his educated mind employed in the service he is best filled to give. We want better class-rooms. Why? In order that, while the minds are being trained, the bodies may have opportunity to grow in health and strength; in order that incipient disease may he outgrown in youth and resisted in later years; in order that a sense of brightness and vitality may replace the depression of drab dinginess which is the school environment of too many of onr young; people. We want more teachers and better teachers. Why? In order that the priceless material of which tho nation is to he made may not he marred in the making; in order that those who are entrusted with the work of educating may really be enabled to educate. We want continuation classes. Why? In order that the growing generation of the nation’s citizens may have some chance of acquiring the knowledge and the spirit that will enable them to discharge the onerous duties of citizenship in a free democracy; in order that the iu lure workers shall acquire a mental training that, will enable them to cope with the complexities and monotonies of modern industrial life, and slill maintain their souls alive. And so on through want of playing-spaces, want of medical and dental treatment, want of sufficient and efficient inspection, and the rest. Why do we want all these? Because if they are not supplied our nation will fall out of the ranks of the nations of the world, as these make progress while we stand still. The future belongs to those nations which will have taken care to cultivate their natural talents; that is to say, to train youth to give of its best instead of allowing is powers to become atrophied through neglect. We are told that all this will cost money. So it will; but the neglect of it will cost flic waste of many lives; will cost the loss of (he product of many brilliant brains; will cost the eufeeblement of many families of enfeebled parents; will cost the stunting of moral growth and the undermining of social stamina; will cost soedai disturbances and the instability of the public mind that waits upon ignorance; will almost certainly cost the breakdown of the liberty that our ancestors fought for and won; tor there is nothing more certain than that democracy nrid ignorance cannot exist together. What monetary cost is worth weighing against such othey costs as these? Other countries are finding the necessary money, even iu the midst of the turmoil and disaster of war. In Britain the House of Commons last year voted, without question, an addition of nearly four million pounds to the Education Estimates, and this only the introduction of a scheme which will eventually entail the expenditure of eleven .millions more. Franco, during the war, extended the period of education in some directions to the 18th year, jhc United States to the 18th year, Germany to the 21st year. Will the people of Mew Zealand —the richest country per capita in tho world —say that they cannot afford it? If they are told the plain truth they will not say it, and plain truth is that the 'welfare of their own children demands improved education. For their own growth, thpir own health, their own happiness, their own usefulness, they need it; and not less do they need it for the future industrial development, and civic peace of the nation. Let the people be clearly and insistently told that this is the greatest need of all, and they Avil} not say it will cost too much. —I am, stc* H. A. PARKINSON, Secretary K.Z.E.I.