EDUCATIONAL.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 1969, 26 April 1919, Page 3

EDUCATIONAL.

“BRAINS AND WEALTH. MR. PARKINSON’S LECTURE. Mr Parkinson, secretary of the N.Z. Educational Institute, delivered an interesting address on educational matters in_ the Town Hall supper-room on Thursday night. The chilly night was responsible for keeping many away. Mr Hornblow presided, and introducing the speaker, referred to Mr Parkinson’s enthusiasm in the cause of education. Mr Parkinson, in opening, said in recent times there lias been a great stirring of the waters in the educational pool; and it is becoming every day more evident that we must be prepared to meet a demand for a re-adjuslment of our views in regard to it. W'c are all acquainted with llic reasoning of those who say that the schools were good enough for them, and they are therefore good enough for their children. Even If we are prepared to admit — which we are not —that the schools of our youth were -good enough for u.-., u by no means follows that the education that was sufficient for a generartion ago is sufficient for today, still less for to-morrow. “New occasions bring new duties,” and new duties demand new forms of: culture and training for their discharge. None of us can have failed to imbibe something of the new spirit and new ideas that go to the making of national and social outlook of the community, and the purpose of what is to follow in these remarks is to direct attention to sonic aspects of the social outlook, on which education lias qn important hearing. It is not how a question of whether or not a people should be educated —that question lias long ago been disposed of —but wbat they should be educated for. For education is not an end in itself, but a means to an end, or a process leading to an end; and the first question to lie asked and answered is. “To what end is the education of the people to he directed?” The answers to that question are as various as the ideals which men set before themselves as (lie guiding lights of their lives. The

autocratic nilov, wholher <>i' tlie dynastic or theocratic type, does not want them educated at all —• they become imbued with foolish notions of freedom and independence when (hey know 100 much and think too much, and the autocrat begins to experience troubles in ruling them. The captains of industry and employers on a large scale want a system of education that will produce intelligent and skilled workers. The more intelligently ambitious among parents want an education for their children that will enable them to earn a good living and perhaps enter one of the "professions.” The democrat sees in the education of the masses the only means of raising the general body of the proletariat to a standard of intelligence that will enable them to take and hold a position in which they can live a life of freedom and what has come to he called self-determination. Tt will he seen (hat each of these points of view—and there are others that might have been cited —has more or less direct reference to the wealth that is the product of human effort, and that the brains that

guide tnul sustain the efforts were taken little account of in the Hr*! not much more in the second, and were a secondary consideration in the third, and only in the fourth were rated as of approximately equal value with the produce of their travail. But a truer view of the nature of things is emerging from the mists and is becoming every day clearer. It is no longer a heresy to say that men are worth more than money, and that they are not in this world to be the slaves of an autocrat, or the half-starved “hands” of a millionaire employer, or strivers after professional fame; but that each, as a free and equal member of a free people, shall have the opportunity to live the best life of which he is cajiable, and in the living of it give the best service in his power to the community of which he is a unit. That is what education is for —lo prepare for complete living, ami complete Jiving implies many things. It implies the making of the best use of the powers of body ami mind' that nature has endowed us with; and these powers cannot be made the best use of until they are discovered and (rained and developed. It implies the recognition that each individual is a member of an organised society with which he has to live in community. It implies that each member has to give much to, and receive much from, those around him; and it is not until education has found for him his true place in the community that he can either give or receive to the full.

Education, iht* 11, is to prepare as for complcle livin';:. To do that it jmist itself be complete, or as nearly so as our host will and effort can make it. Our living is conveniently divided into three aspects, the phy-

sical, the mental and the moral. Km apology is needed for putting the physical aspect lirsi, for it is on the physical that the others are reared. Only of comparatively recent years has it come to be acknowledged that education and educators have anything to do with the physical condition of pupils. Even now the fall importance of the influence of health on efficiency and character is not understood. We are only beginning to understand that the brain cannot work properly nor the will develop truly if the body is insufficiently or improperly fed. Many young people, and older people, too, -are ueglx-

gent and fractious at their work because their vitality is below par. Many children at school are slow and backward not because of mental dullness, hut because of illhealth. The power of receptivity, the will to make an effort, the disposition towards one’s fellows, are all intimately related to the physical condition; and consequently any function that purports to take cognisance of living and the ways and means of living must begin with the physical basis. Neither body, brain nor spirit can do its work if the first is enfeebled, the second dulled, and the third clouded, by ill-health. Good health is always optimistic, and optimism is the sunshine of life. Given good health, the brainpower —the thinking and guiding element of the whole man —has opportunity to do its pari. Its part is (lie asking of questions, and the finding of answers to them, and putting the answers into practice; and it is because it must ask wise questions, and find right answers, and act rightly in accordance with the answers that it is of such supreme importance that the brain-power of the nation should be developed to the utmost.

It has been the rule in this as in oilier countries that the (raining of the brain-power of the young should cease for all except the best at the fourteenth year, or earlier. The clover lads and lassies, have been more or less cared for by (he provision of scholarships, leaving the others to take such chances as life Ims to offer, and make such use, of litem as their own fortunes and I heir own undeveloped characters dictated. It is impossible to estimale the w;jste of good human life and power that has arisen from this neglect, or that wilt arise from il if it is continued in the future. In a manufacturing or other industrial concern the eye of the management is continually on the alert to detect rlio smallest forms of waste, and the utmost ingenuity is employed in devising means of cheeking it or inrning waste products to account. No such care is taken to prevent the waste of brains, but care will have to he taken if our nation is to fold its own among other nations. “The future belongs to the nation with the best developed lira inpower,” said the South Wales Daily Dost recently. Thisllclon Mark, of Manchester University, says: “The nation that believes greatly in its own life will believe greatly in the nurture anql the expansion of that life by means of education.” And yet'it has been our habit to withdraw at the fourteenth year all training from (he brains and characters of three-fourths or more of our future citizens. The. loss is twofold. The community loses the value of I lie brain-power undeveloped, and the individual loses the opportunity to make use of the natural emlowmctns lie possesses. Our scholarships and free places, speaking generally, provide only for minds of one general type —we may call it concisely the literary type. But there arc immense stores of mental and moral energy lying fallow in the young people who do not get into the scholarship class; and it is of the last importance both for them and the nation they belong to (hat these stores should be brought to light and utilised. These young people have an equal right with their scholarship-winning schoolmates to a chance to develop their different powers. They have a life to live, for which, they must be titled, ami it is of equal moment to the community that they should have their powers developed and I heir capacities for service enlarged as well as their more brilliant brothers and sisters. The day has gone past when it was, safe to say of a youth who might nut lake kindly to doing sums or writing essays that “he is no good at school; ho had better go .to work,” and then turn him out to take his chance. Even if lie does g*i to work he Ims a, mind and a character to develop, and if the development is in the right direction he will find the work that he is fitted for, and will do it with satisfaction to himself and benefit to the community. AVe hear much in these days of equality of opportunity. Where is the equality of opportunity if all the benefits of education afer the fourteenth year are reserved for those who are able to win a scholarship or a free placet? There should be, and there must be, provided for the others, and enforced on them, a further course of (raining suited to their capacities. Their minds and wills are growing and taking their permanent bias; their education goes on though their schooling lias stopped. If they JmVe no school to give them guidance in the right direction there are the lotalisator, Ilia street corner, ami other agencies to turn them in (lie wrong. In its own defence, and for its own benefit, the ■Stale must see to it that not only the brightest, but all its future citizens, have provided for (hem the training that will give Ihem the ]mwer to make the best of themselves. Human life is too valuable to be allowed to run to waste for lack of cultivation. The development of civilisation lias depended upon an over higher valuation of human life. Tlie process has been summarised by Benjamin Kidd, quoting the Bishop of AVinchestcr, into these two principles;— (a) The gradual assertion in the history of the world of the value, and the equal value, of every human life, (h) The gradual rise to supremacy in the history of the world of the principle of sacrifice and service over force. Now, the spirit of sacrifice, and the capacity for service alike depend on training— on education—and the education that is to be adequate in either direction cannot be

compressed into the period now allowed for it. There must be more education, and better education than the world has yet had knowledge of, if human life is to blossom into full beauty, and ripen into full fruition. Hence the need ftfr continued education. There immediately arises the question, “How are we going to pay for it?” The reply is that we can pay for it easily enough if we are once agreed that it is needed. Mr Fisher, Minister of Education in England, answered the question in the words: “We cannot afford not to afford it.” In point of fact, it is not a question of “affording”—the money expended on education is not so much spent as invested, and it yields profitable returns in many ways. The development of industries, the progress of science, the supplying of human needs, the intercourse of humanity, the beautifying of life, the mollifying of brutality, are all parts of the return from this investment. But apart from all this, it can easily be shown that money invested in education, whet her by the State or the individual, gives far bettor returns in money itself than many other forms of investment. Our American cousins are credited with being as keen as any people in the world at estimating the value of a business proposition, and they have no hesitation about this one. Hero are a few figures from an official publication of; the Bureau of Education, Washington. It is entitled, “The Money Value of Education,” and is more convincing than a land agent’s ad - vertisement. A few of the comparative figures it gives will show this. For instance: —

Massachussets: Average school period, 7 years; average production per head, 200 dols.; average outlay per pupil, 38,55 dols. Tennessee: Average school period, 3 years; average production per head, 110 dols.; average outlay per pupil, 4.08 dols.

Massachussels- spends 31 dols more on each pupil, and gels a return of 144 dots. more.

The publication, “Who’s AVho in .America” for 1809-1900, contained 8,000 names. These are the names of all the men and Avomen avlio by their work of one kind and another bad attained eminence in (heir country. An analysis of (ho figures and of the careers of the individuals show that —

Of 5,000,000 avlio Avere Avithovit schooling, only 31 were in the list; lin 160,000. Of 33,000,000 with elementary education, 808 Avere in the list; 1 in 40,000. Of 2,000,000 Avilh high-school education, 4,245 Avere in the list ; 1

in 1,600. Of 1,000,000 Avith college education, 5,768 Avere in the list ; I in 170.

A similar analysis of the 19101911 list gave almost identical results. Nothing could show more clearly (ho value of education in increasing the capacity for doing distinguished service. This represents the increased value to the community —the value to the individual is no less marked. Taking the Avages earned or income received as 5 per cent, on an assumed capital value, Urn potential value of — $ A labourer going to Avork at 16 years is 10,200 A shop-trained apprentice 15,800 A trade-school graduate 25,000 A technical school graduate 43,000 What four years in school paid. The case of lavo groups of Brooklyn citizens: — Salary. Left school Left school at 14. at 18. $ $ When 14 yrs. old 200 0 When 16 yrs. old 250 0 When 18 yrs. old 350 500 When 20 yrs. old 475 750 When 22 Vrs, old 575 1000 When 24 yrs. old 600 - 1150 When 25 yrs. old 688 1550 Total salary of first group,'after 11 years, $5,112.50; lolal salary of second group, after 7 years, $7,337.50 These are only a few of the figures that might be quoted. They are full of meaning, and il is our business (o discern and apply the meaning. They mean that trained burin-power and will-powei are immeasurably more valuable both to the community mid the individual I lam the untrained. This laud has been abundantly proved by the experiences of the war. There is endless testimony to (ho adaptability that education gives to the output of the schools. Quite early in (he Avar a naval officer, Avriting to an inspector of schools, expressed his surprise and gratification at the quickness and ease Avith Avliieh the new recruits made themselves at home among the intricacies of naval duty. “There is something in your confounded hoard school education after all,” lie concluded. Look, also, at the experience of the munition factories. In the old days it look years of training to produce a skilled artisan: the call of Avar found the factories occupied by thousands of men and women avlio in a feAV avcolcs Avere as competent in their several occupations as if they had sem*d the long apprenticeship of the older times. 'What gave them this power of adjustment? Nothing but the quickened intelligence, the power of concentration, and the sense of discipline that they had acquired in the schools. And just as it avos the standard of general education that enabled Britain to rise to the great demands (Concluded on page 4.)