OTHER PAPERS’ OPINIONS.

Putaruru Press, Volume VII, Issue 283, 11 April 1929, Page 4

OTHER PAPERS’ OPINIONS.

EDUCATION AND TRAINING. Education, in the proper sense of the word, is not training; it is the development of the mind. No one would deny that some amount of training is justifiable in an education system, but Mr. Atmore apparently thinks it should almost entirely supplant education proper. We may

have misinterpreted the Minister, and perhaps it is unfair to base top much on utterances that are patently hasty and unreflecting, but the question is such a vital one that the country is entitled to know immediately and in detail just what changes are proposed. One could feel more at ease if one could think that Mr. Atmore’s caution was in proportion to his lack of understanding, but his statements give little ground for supposing that this is so. On Monday he modestly informed a Christchurch audience that he “ did r.ot pose as an educational expert,” but went on to explain that this ■would not hinder him from being “ master of the policy of his own Department.” His function was, he explained, to interpret “ the will of the people ” to the officials of the Education Department and see that they carried it out. This in an ingenious refinement of democratic theory, but if Mr. Atmore thinks that he can claim a mandate from the people for muddled thinking he is mistaken.—Christchurch Press.