THOUGHTS ON EDUCATION

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXIV, 15 January 1931, Page 3

THOUGHTS ON EDUCATION

ADDRESS BY BISHOP WESTWATSON Observations on education in the light of his recent trip abroad were made by Bishop West-Watson when lecturing before the Teachers’ Summer School at Christchurch, reports the ‘ ‘Press. ’ ’ His Lordship said he had been asked to say something about his tour, which, though not primarily educational., had been a great education. Four years in New Zealand had given him just a glimpse of the needs and achievements of the Dominion educationally. The svstem was wonderful considering the short life of New Zealand.

The Bishop went on to speak of the need for flexibility of the system, and of facilities for research. Examinations, he said, were an incubus for which it was hard to find any alternative. In New Zealand they were afflicted by them just as was the rest of the world. It was easy to throw stones at the system, but more difficult to find something which would replace it. If the fact were borne in mind that the real examination was the examination of life, then the school examination would fall into its proper place There was no doubt that the system hampered the teacher, and prevent ed elasticity, but, ' ir it. were removed, he feared that many would clo Jess than was now done under compulsion There was a tendency everywhere, lie continued, to talk the principle of unity in education. In America he thought they were ant to stress too much the value of lectures, so that students obtained a lot of information which was unrelated At Cambridge in his day this was the case: there had been far too manv lectures, and far too little time arid' facility for research and private study. SOMETHING LACKING

In general, added Bishop West - W atson, the world was seeking for educational ideas and methods. There seemed to be a feling of inadequacy of the present system. Education was a thing that could not be mechanised; it was essentially spiritual, and the supreme value of the real teacher—the experimenter, the man with vision—was being more and more emphasised.