IS EDUCATION BEING MADE TOO EASY?

Rotorua Morning Post, Issue 5282, 19 December 1946, Page 2

IS EDUCATION BEING MADE TOO EASY?

"No one can, I think, accuse us of a reactionary attitude toward the ihanges that have been instituted by ;he Education Department, but there are a number of us who ragard with :oncern the apparent retreat from the mmanities," said Mr. F. W. Gilligan, headmaster of ihe Wanganui 'Collegiate School, in the course of his report which he presented at the annual school prize-giving ceremony last week. "There is a tendency to-day on tfhe part of so-called educationaists to make things far too easy for the pupil and to forget the truth of Aristotle's dictum that 'man has the capacity but lot the desire for education'." said Mr. Grillilgan. « • "Sweat and Tears." "A cei*tain amount of sweat and tears is necessary for the .proper development of human character. There may perhaps in the past have been too much sweat and tears, but I am indined to think that the pendulum !has aow swung too violently in the oppo5ite direction. No worth -while goal san be reached by way of the 'primt'ose path of dalliance.' As Dr. Miller Bmith recently remarked in his 'New Lamps for Old,' 'we have to be on our juard but we lightly discard the edu:ation of our fathers which was based .ipon Graeco-Mediterranean culture mriched and reinterpreted by the best ninds in every age. We might well\ remember Emerson's story of „ tlhe American farmer who expressed to him -his .pleasure at finding that he had so many ideas m common with Plato. "I want also to be allowed to make i few observations on the subject of accreditinig, that is, eertifying the fitaess of individual pupils to qualify for entrance to the university without undergoing examination by the university authorities. It seems to me and to other headmasters with whom [ have discussed' the matter, that the proper people to decide whether a boy is a fit person to be admitted to i university. course are the .university authorities themselves. "Moreover, a boy who wishes to take -a university course has to face a series of examinations extending over several years. Why then should he not have to undergo a university entrance test? Headmasters might perhaps be invited by the university to provide a confidential report on a boy's school showing so that in cas^s of dou'bt the 'Entrance Board would have some guidance, but I do not see ' why the onus of a decision should be transferred to people who hold no ofiicial position in the university. Before leavin^ this contentious subject 5 would like to pose this question: Why is it that so many other universities are unwilling to accept the University of, New Zealand's accrediting scheme?"