EDUCATION IN DOMINION

Southland Times, Issue 24891, 3 November 1942, Page 5

EDUCATION IN DOMINION

CRITICISM OF SYSTEM That New Zealanders had as yet developed no individuality or culture was claimed by Mr FI. Winston Rhodes, lecturer in English at Canterbury University College, when addressing members of the New Education Fellowship in Christchurch. Mr Rhodes’s subject was the influence of Pacific cultures on New Zealand education, and he urged the importance of studying the history, literature and social conditions of the United States and other Pacific countries. '■

In spite of a century of human endeavour, he said, there had been no real co-ordination of creative effort in New Zealand, where no real literature had been produced, and where no real contribution had been made to world knowledge. There was no New Zealand music, he said, neither was there any New Zealand philosophy. “As New Zealanders we have yet to discover our own country,” Mr Rhodes continued. “We are still imitators looking towards England. We have not put our roots deep into the soil of this land. We do not yet feel that it is our own.” It was evident from a perusal of what literature had been produced that it was the self-expression of people who still regarded themselves as exiles. New Zealanders were still extremely self-conscious of their intellectual isolation. Most of the books written he characterized as “guide-book literature.” “We ■ still talk about England as ‘Home’,” he said. “We do not talk about New Zealand so much as ‘Home.’ New Zealand literature expresses the lack of culture in this country.” STUDY OF NEIGHBOURS Such a situation, he declared, was dangerous in the extreme because the time was coming when New Zealand’s cultural allegiance might be transferred to another country. Therefore, it would be wise to study other Pacific countries. “The trouble is that we do not know our Pacific neighbours, any more than we know our own country,” he said.

Evidence had shown that New Zealand was a nation of imitators, and had “neglected our own situation, place and time” in relation to the rest of the world. “Whether we like it or not, America is going to influence us,” said Mr Rhodes. “It is for us to say whether we are going to absorb what is good or had in the traditions of that country. Few of us discriminate in the fact that there are two Americas —one of the Hollywood variety, and another emerging as a great democratic influence in this world. But as yet we are not thinking culturally in terms of America or any other Pacific country (though we are a Pacific country, too), but in terms of England.” Neither must New Zealanders forget, Mr Rhodes concluded, that they were a white people surrounded by coloured peoples. Unless the social and cultural aspirations of New Zealand’s coloured neighbours were studied, together with their history and traditions, there would undoubtedly be tremendous racial differences in the future. “If only on humanitarian grounds we should reorientate our views concerning our neighbours,” he said, “and get to know them.” “A ROTTEN SYSTEM” “I think our education system is rotten,” said Dr K. R. Popper, lecturer in philosophy at Canterbury University College, “and it is rotten because it is pretentious.” The speaker qualified this remark, however, by stating that while New Zealand shared in this educational trend, the Dominion was perhaps a few degrees better than many other countries, principally because its demands were, comparatively, more modest. , Dr Popper alluded to the grading system as “dreadful.” “I really dont know how you people put up with it, he told the assembled teachers. “It is not dignified, and it is not worthy of our democracy.” The present examination system, he continued, did positive harm, as it prevented children from studying. “But the criticism I am offering is not new,’ Dr Popper added. “Others have offered it in the past.” Referring to corporal punishment in the school, he characterized it as undemocratic and inhumane, and said: “I am absolutely opposed to it, in any form.” In fact, the whole educational system from the primary schools to the university was, in his opinion, “full of pretentiousness and dishonesty.” “It is also full of big words that are meaningless,” he added. The system was far too ambitious. The first aim of theteacher should be to do as little harm as possible to the children. There sas too much emphasis on students “expressing” themselves. They shoudl be taught to “describe” what they knew in simple English, and not be restricted to what he termed “literary English.”