IMPORTANCE OF EDUCATION.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 3010, 13 March 1926, Page 4

IMPORTANCE OF EDUCATION.

QUESTIONS OF CLASS AND CREED.

What is education? It is a subject for much discussion. Mostly is it found coupled with some other subject which also may bear the same free erplanation. In Wellington an “Education Week” has been held under the auspices of,the Workers’ Educational Association (W.E.A.) . “Education and life,” “Education and Labour,” and “Education and Commerce,” — 1 these are some of the subjects chosen by the lecturers. Would it not have been well to have opened tho campaign with an address on education, just that and nothing else

There exists in the minds of many but a vague conception of what education really means and, therefore, matters are treated of in relation to this subject which are in reality foreign to it. To very large numbers of the people scholastic and Institutional instruction and training is identical with education. From that conecpton there arises the ideas that to have au educated people we must spend as much money as possible on schools, colleges, and Universities; have the whole of our juvenile population attend such Institutions for as long as our national means will allow, and provide all the auxilliary establishments that are called for.

The address of Air. W. Bromley op “Labour and Education” opened up many subjects for discussion. Both he and Professor T. Hunter affirmed that education is not merely a matter of school teaching or book learning and that it should go on “through life from the cradle to the grave.” At the same time it was urged “that no child should leave school before the age of fifteen or sixteen.” The ideal being that every child should go through a progressive course from the nursery to University. Here are apparently indications that the speaker was thinking of scholastic teaching and education as virtually the same. Education, we understand, tp mean the giving and rimeiving of instruction and exercises to the development of the physical, mental and moral character of our being. If this evolvement is what education means it is far from being confined to the schools. Though it may appear a hearsy to some yet it is true that many persons have been educationally neglected by being kept at school or college when the better means of training for them was outside these Institutions. Of education in the broad sense we recognise the great value and importance. Properly trained and just minds will deal with serious questions in ways that narrow and prejudiced intellects cannot attain. “If we are to solve the problems of to-day we must solve them through education,” is a statement of Air. Bromley’s with which we entirely agree, keeping ever in mind what truly is education. We do not believe that the problems of our social, political and economic affairs are to be solved by purely scholastic training, or Jhat the schoolmen, who are often most dogmatic, are the best guides in dealing with the practical problems of our every day lives. There are fields of practice in which men and women who have taken degress (speaking generally) are by no means educated persons.

Were a clear conception oi‘ what education truly means more widespread and firmly held it might clear many minds from the illusion that it has anything to do with class or political creeds. The Communists who speak through the “Plebs League” think of education only as a means of establishing a Socialist or Communist State. Their attempts at teaching consequently take the grotesque form of affirming the ridiculously ignorant statement —“Capital and Labour have no common problems.” .Really such minds are closed to educational inliuence. Sealed tight by class hatred and preconceived political prejudice. Mr. Bromley pleaded against class distinction and said rightly: What shall never get rid of class distinction as long as we preach class hatred and class warfare.” That we have said many, many times. Strange it is to find the same speaker disclosing a certain class bias where he refers to employers. Why it may be asked, was it necessary to talk of class at all when the subject was education 1 The speaker suggested that by taking every child equally through a course right up to the University, snobbishness and class distinction would be eliminated. We doubt it very much. Snobbery is a matter of character not of class or position. Snobs are to be found in all walks of life. In the ranks of Labour as well as with the wealthy. Amongst the so-cal-led educated besides those of no education. Education we agree will in time dispense a good deal of snobbery and class bias, but it is only as it is broad in its character that this effect will be realised.

Mr Bromley closed by a reference to “Labour’s objective the new world of socialism.” In this he showed the same weakness as those of the “Plebs League” by indicating that he looked upon education as a means to a political end and lost sight of the truth that the function of education is not to inculcate political dogma or establish political conditions, but to develop the individual body, mind and character. The matter of class conflicts and political creejds are things apart from education proper. Attention can be drawn to the

American Federation of Labour which is carrying out considerable work in the field of adult education on lines simlar to the W.E.A. and does not look for such effort to result in socialism, but in broader and higher individualism. The work of education, whether of the W'.E.A. or any other organisation will make soundest progress when it is not devoted to the 'bolstering of any “Ism” or regardful of class conflicts with which it has no real connection. (Contributed by the New Zealand Welfare League).