EDUCATIONAL.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 1969, 26 April 1919, Page 4

EDUCATIONAL.

“BRAINS AND WEALTH.” (Concluded from pnge 3.) of the occasion, so it is education alone that will enable the Empire to maintain its position a j a leader among the peoples of the world, and to preserve at home the peace and the freedom that have been secured for ns at the cost of so much effort and so much sacrifice. The future of the nation is in the nation s schools, and the schools are at the people’s doors. They are the hope of the people's progress, and they ought to be the object of the people’s pride. Their first and greatest dependence is, of course, upon the teachers —given good teachers, the schools cannot go far wrong. But there are many things that the teachers cannot do without assistance from the parents, and there are many more things that they can do belter with assistance than without it. There is an everwidening held for the activities and (lie usefulness of the school. The time will come when in each community the school will he the rall\iug point and centre of local life. It will he the home of local clubs and societies, its grounds will be the exercise-grounds and playing fields of oilier than school children, for there * s 110 good reason why school premises should be closed during eighteen hours out of the twentyfour. All this implies that the people will be much more concerned with the welfare of their school than they are at present. Under present conditions there is little inducement for the output of local enthusiasm, since all power is wielded either by the Department or by the Board. But it oar system is to become the really live national fund ion that it should be—(he expression of the nation’s ideals, the alimentary system of the nation s life —all this will have to bo altered. If (be school is to take its proper place in the life of the community, and if education is to become as intimately inwoven in (he life of the. people as all our best thinkers say it is, then the people of each community must he given a much larger share of control over, and responsibility for, education in their eoiiununily than they have now. There is no reason why the people of one town should have to .send to a Board silling in another town perhaps a hundred miles away for permission to do something needed for the benefit of their .own school, The controlling body for each locality should be in the locality, and should lie responsible to llie people of the locality. Besponsibiiily and opportunity will evoke energy and interest, and this in not a few eases will deepen into enthusiasm. Then we shall have in each district a school really meeting the needs of the di-trid, and at the same time, under the guidance of a national education board, doing its share in the building up of a free, enlightened, self-respecting and self-reliant nation. For the nation will bo what the schools make it. Germany and Japan have both shown within the hist two generations the omnipotence of the power wielded over the public mind by a definite objective persistently aimed at through the schools. Lei

a nation say to itself what kind of nytion it means to be, and let Dial objective be steadily kept before the minds of the children in Die schools, and there is nothing Dial a nation cannot make of itself. On this point nothing can lie belter limn the words in which Benjamin Kidd has expressed h in the penultimate paragraph of his book, “The Selene of Power"; —

“The will to attain to an end imposed'upon a people by the emotion of an ideal organised and transmitted through social heredity is the highest capacity of mind. It can only lie imposed in all its strength through the young. So (o impose it has become the chief end of education in the future. Oil, you blind leaders who seek to convert Die world by laboured disputations! Step out of the way, or the world must (ling you aside. Give 11s Die young. Give us Die young, and we will create a new mind and a new earth in a single generatien."

And surely the need of Die new mind is plainly evident. The world lias been through a crisis that has lested its spirit almost to Die breaking point. Indeed, it is not going very far beyond'Die bounds of knowledge to say Dial in Russia the breaking-point was reached, and it is perilously near to being 1 cached in other countries. The world had, during the last century, (o all practical intents and purposes become pagan again—given over to the worship of Mammon ami Moloch —wealth and power. It was the lust of power and the greed of wealth that brought the war on the world, and it is yet to he seen whether or not the fires of war have been hot enough to burn Die evil spirit out of us.. Bat it is clear (hat one result of the war is that the working classes of Die more intelligent peoples of the world are going to assert and vindicate their right to better conditions of living than they have ever had before. They are claiming, arid the claim is being admitted, that human beings have a right to live as human beings —that though they work for a master, they shall be’ able to live as men. Hence a feature of the present day that is very noticeable is that Die working classes themselves are demanding a vastly improved education for their children. They see in education the only means by wlmdi they can attain to Die possibility of living a life of wen and women with the marvellous

endowment of mind and spirit that men and women have. And it is not technical education that they are asking for, but education in its broad sense, culture, refinement, right View's of life and Die relations of life. We hear much in these days of vocational education, but that is not what, a nation wants; that can be very speedily superimposed on a good general education. We none of us know' what any given pupil is likely to become in after life, and it is only education and the process of development that can show it. Many a youth has been condemned to a life of drudgery in perhaps an inherited falling or one chosen by chance, who should have been, say, a doctor or an engineer; and many a one has been by parental ambition coerced into a professional career when for his own good and the State’s good lie should have been a farmer or a business man. And think of the many who have had no chance of choice at all —the “mute, inglorious Miltons,” who might have enriched mankind if only the opportunity had been given Diem. That is what Die nation is losing by neglecting to develop and train the brain-power of its children. Many years ago a university professor in this country spoke .of money as the greatest power in the world, except brains. Note the exception. Brains constitute Die greatest power, and it is that very power that has been so much neglected. We have been in the habit of supposing Dial Die only brains worth cultivating were those of Die young people who were “brainy” enough to got into the scholarship list, and therein we have both imposed and suffered incalculable loss. Many of Die best minds are slower in growth than those of Die bright children of the primary schools —they come to their powers later, hut they have missed Die tide, and nothing is done for them. It is for Diem that Die continuation school is required, for Diem and for those others who are really unable to make use of what is generally under.-lood as secondary education. They all have Die right as growing human beings to the culture Dial will enable (hem to live the best kind of life for which they are suited, and at the same time to give the bc-J sendee of which they are callable to the eunimunitv of which thev are units.

The phrase, “the emmmuiily of which they are units" brings to mind a fuel of Die first importance, but which is very often forgotten. All these young' people—Die dull ns well as Du; clever —are. one day |o become citizens of this country, and to take 1 heir part, wisely or unwisely, in deciding its destiny. On Diem is to be cast the responsibility of giving (heir answer (o all Die difficult questions Dint come for decision before Die bar of public opinion. On their voles in the not distant future will depend the fate of (his country as Die home of our race. What preparation does the Stale give to its rising citizens for that responsibility/ We give Diem, up to the fourteenth year, some elementary ideas about civics—u dry-as-dust series of lessons Dial are of no practical and very little intellectual value. After Die fourteenth yeai - they get nothing at all except such impressions, half-baked ideas, and ill-considered ideals, as they may trick up by chance or imbibe from (be overflowing oratory of demagogues. Is that a snllieient mural and intellectual foundation for the citizenship of a democratic nation / The answer is obvious, and there is only one way of supplying the deficiency, and that is by continuing Die period of tutelage to later years. The school should be given an opportunity to drive homo and fix Die lessons it Ims given. The ideals of honour, duly, justice, humanity Dial Die primary schools have implanted should .be fortified, strengthened, and established in Die succeeding years —Die years when the characters and wills of young people are taking their permanent shape and qualities. Let it not be forgotten, education goes on, thongli schooling Ims ended. If Die young are not getting good education, they are gelling bad —and it is only Die good that can enable them to resist and overcome Die had. it is only good teaching that make them good citizens, and if does not appear Ilia! they can gel such good teaching an,\ where as in school.

It is in the schools Dial the future of (he nation is being decided —and Die schools are your schools, even as (he.nation is your nalion. It is for you to see that the school in your district is the best school that can he provided. To that end it is for you to see that Die control of your school is in your own hands, so that under the guidance of a National Board, which shall direct education from the national point of view, you may in your district do your part in the work of building up a nalion worthy of the bountiful, beautiful land we live in, and worthy of Die freedom and happiness our early colonists endowed us with and our warriors have preserved to Us.

At Die conclusion a hearty vote of thanks was accorded Mr Parkinson, on the motion of .Messrs Currie and Kov. Bredin, which was carried by acclamation. A similar compliment to the Chair terminated the meeting.