The Sun MONDAY, JANUARY 16, 1928. IS THERE TOO MUCH EDUCATION?

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 253, 16 January 1928, Page 8

The Sun MONDAY, JANUARY 16, 1928. IS THERE TOO MUCH EDUCATION?

IN the alternative of boys who have secured their proficiency certificates being unable to secure suitable employment, parents are, by a committee of the Auckland Chamber of Commerce, advised to allow them to continue their schooling. Being business men, the members of the committee should be in a position to judge what is required to equip a boy for a business career. Apparently they agree with the maxim that “you can’t have too much education”—a maxim that is as worn as a George the Fourth shilling. On the other hand, other business men declare the whole trouble to be that “there is too much education” for the ordinary purposes of life. It has been seriously questioned whether education, as imparted in our schools, is knowledge; that is, after the child has been taught “the three ‘RV ” which are essentially the basis of learning. It is asked whether the knowledge instilled into the child on a flat system is the sort of knowledge required to equip him for the competitive struggle of life. Recent'criticisms of the New Zealand educational system are. by no means flattering. “It is not only that they can’t write; they ean’t even read or talk or think,” said a Christchurch business man, referring to boys leaving school. “ . . . Nobody seems to have bothered to teach them to think straight or talk decent English. . . . They don’t know what to write, and they can’t write legibly what they do know.” This criticism was supported, though in somewhat milder terms, by Auckland business men who were interviewed on behalf of The Sun. Consider, on the other hand, the letter of an Auckland assurance company manager who protested against the advice of the Chamber of Commerce committee that boys should remain longer at school. There is too much education, in his opinion, and people force an education on their children so as to get them into professions, when they are better fitted for trades. He believes that “our leading educationists are overdoing things from selfish and unsound motives,” and he advocates a severe weeding out of pupils who are receiving secondary education. The whole question bristles with difficulties. It certainly appears that much of the education imparted at the primary schools, and continued in the secondary schools, is of little or no use to the hoy in the trade or business in which he is later to engage. If such education is regarded merely as “mental exercise,” then it fills a purpose. But for how long should such mental exercises be practised? There is the case, just reported, of the boy who went to school at the age of five and was allowed to progress as fast as he could, so that he obtained his proficiency certificate at the age of ten. There are many boys who could do the same thing, although the wisdom of allowing them to do so may be doubted. Should they continue to “exercise” up to the age of sixteen or seventeen, or even later? The chief thing, of course, is to ascertain early the predilection of the boy, and then to educate him along lines leading to his ultimate work. But there is a problem there, too! The average boy of ten would probably eleet to be a pirate, a policeman, a cowboy, or a tram conductor —unless he wanted to be an engineer or an airman. With the mind of the boy unformed, how can the most practical of educationists determine what his bent will be ? As a matter of fact, boys do not think seriously of, or display any penchant for, a particular occupation until adolescence. There may be means of determining the ultimate earlier, hut their discovery will not be easy. That is no reason, however, for postponing the search, for under the present system of education there seems to be much economic waste. THE IDLE GUMLANDS THE problem of putting to use the idle, worked-out gumlands of ■ the North may possibly he solved, if the suggestion of the Mangonui County Council can be carried out. The chairman of the council, Mr. A. H. Long, suggested to the Minister of Agriculture on Saturday that phormium tenax should be cultivated as the best means of turning these lands to profit. There are many diggers who are now merely existing on their earnings from the meagre remaining deposits of gum, and these practically unemployed men might find occupation in the planting and cultivation of flax for milling, if the land is found suitable. There was a sympathetic response on the part of the Minister, who is seized with the importance of flax-growing and thinks it will become a much more important industry for the Dominion, though he does not agree with those flax companies “which make such very optimistic statements about potential profits.” Still, though disagreeing with kite-high estimates, Mr. Hawken believes that flax-growing may be made to pay well, and he is to instruct Mr. T. H. Patterson, agricultural instructor for the province, to investigate its possibilities in the North. In the last figures secured by the Government Statistician, there were 71 flax mills shown to he operating in the Dominion, employing 1,214 hands, the season’s output being valued at £553,285. The planted area of phormium tenax on occupied holdings was 69,420 acres. The export of this product fell considerably after 1918, but in the last few years the trade has revived considerably. There is every prospect of a good and continuous market for flax, and if lands which are of little use for anything else can be successfully used for its cultivation, there will be much additional employment and wealth for New Zealand. A TEST OF SEAMANSHIP THERE could be no finer test of seamanship among the youth of the Dominion than that involved in the contest for the Cornwell Cup. This trophy was donated by Messrs. Walker and Hall to perpetuate the memory of the boy hero, John Travers Cornwell, of H.M.S. Chester, who stuck to his gun after every man of its crew had been killed or wounded in the Battle of Jutland, and who was posthumously honoured with the V.C. It is a stirring story that should find echo in the hearts of the young New Zealanders who are now in Auckland racing the small yachts that are competing for the Cup. Boys from nine ports are displaying their seamanship in this contest. All the boats are of the same class, the boys provide their own sails, and there is a real test of sailorly qualities. In a sea-girt land such as this, there should be any amount of material for the making of sailors, both for the navy and the mercantile marine. If yachting under severe test conditions can develop a love of ships and the sea and evolve nautical skill and resource, it is doing good service to the country and to the Empire. Such competitions as this, then, are very welcome, and the enterprise of the Takapuna Boating Club, which provides the yachts, and of the clubs of the other ports, is worthy of every encouragement.