“TOO LITTLE JOY.”

Manawatu Herald, Volume LI, Issue 4488, 7 August 1930, Page 4

“TOO LITTLE JOY.”

LTF'E OF NEW ZEALANDERS. WIDER EDUCATION NEEDED. ONLY ONE TYPE OF THOUGHT. A plea for the development, of the present education system along broader 'lines was made by Prolessor A. B. Fitt in an address to the New Zealand Federation of Teachers at. Auckland. Professor Fitt said that while from the point of view of instruction the New Zealand system equalled any other in the world, the creative side of education w’as in danger of being overlooked.

“We in New Zealand are cut off from the rest of the world and we are inclined to lose much because we are unable to make comparisons with other countries,” said Professor Fitt. “Tn terms of intellectual quality we have firstclass instructors if we have no! educators. In subjects where kowledge can be gained merely by instruction New Zealand stands alone. We set out to instruct in our schools, hut we arc beginning to realise -Ihat. instruction is only a small part of education. “There is a peculiar defect in the Dominion —probably with a historical significance —and that is that there is a uniformity all through the country. There is only one type of! thought in tlie schools, although this is now being varied. In New Zealand we have probably the most homogeneous population in ttie world and Professor J. B. Condliffe has said that we arc developing a monotonous type of citizen and becoming a stereotyped people. There are not. enough of the oilier types which go to make a community. Finding an absence of leaders Professor Condlifle said thill the schools were to titanic and I am inclined to agree with him.

“Raskin divided life into three parts, labour, sorrow and joy, and Professor Condliffe stated that there is 100 much labour and sorrow and too little joy, in its fullest seuse, in New Zealand. New Zealanders are too mat lev of fact, and too staid.

“While, our system has been very effective in giving instruction, not enough attention has been paid to the other aspects of education, and the creative side, has been neglected. If our schools are making absorbing machines of pupils, the creative impulse is dwarfed, if a nation is not creative in art, in thinking' and in other fields of endeavour, it is losing a. great deal of the romance of life. The schools should reach out the other way and encourage greater creative activities. From the point, of view of intellect- we are more than abreast of other peoples of the world, hut we ace 100 serious and in some respects perhaps too intellectual. The cause of much of this is our insularity."