The Daily News. THURSDAY, DECEMBER 22. THE EDUCATION PROBLEM.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 217, 22 December 1910, Page 4

The Daily News. THURSDAY, DECEMBER 22. THE EDUCATION PROBLEM.

New South Wales is evidently going to extend the scope of educational facilities in the States, and the suggestions recently made by the Minister of Education are of a kind that may be looked upon as revolutionary. It has already been suggested in New Zealand that the child wiho leaves a primary school at the age of fourteen or thereabouts is in no sense educated. He has, indeed, the barest possible foundation for the education that may. come subsequently in his contact with the world. The mere soaking in of school facts is necessary enough, but it is the application of knowledge gained that as the. test of true education. The mother State proposes to extend the school age to 17 or 18 years, on the lines contemplated but apparently abandoned in New Zealand by continuation classes. That is to say, the State would have the "handling" of the intellects of the children at an age whem the mind was most plastic, and would, if they 'had any definite use or originality might develop their peculiar specialty, for all educationists nowadays agree that to cram a little of all sorts into children is waste of time, seeing that the world is not made up of "jacks of all trades" and is crying out for specialists. A system of extended education would have to be benevolent to ensure its utility. The New South Wales Minister proposes to begin the continuation classes with factory children, and the test of the utility of such a system would be that the added work not only widened the mental outlook of pupils, but did not physically harass them. A compulsory system of extended education for children employed during the day in earning their living might be useful in preventing those evils which moralists assure us are rampant where children are allowed to wander the streets at night. If the system dove-tailed into one which made it- compulsory for children up to the age of eighteen years to have plenty of recreation, as well as compulsory education, t'here is no doubt that benefits would accrue. Modern folk are often accused of shallowness and irresponsibility, and it may be taken for granted that the modern person, whether as a result of education or the lack of it, leans more heavily on organised institutions than on self. It will hardly be gainsaid that the average recruit into tfhe great industrial army generally enters it- without much preparation for its responsibilities, and that having entered it foe has to flounder in the dark for a little understanding of the real things that affect social life. Dr. J. W. Slaughter, a noted sociologist, lately referred to the subject of education for citizenship, saying that academic learning was not what was necessary for the working man. He said: "Let them begin with the great facts of life, which were the essentials for the intellectual life, as well as for practical; birth, growth, childhood, adolescence, love, marriage, the family, work and death. In the end the working man would arrive at an enlightened view of the drama of human life. Then let them proceed to the investigation of political associations, the facts of government, and the participation of the population in the functions of government." The preparation of the child under modern school methods is not that he shall know and bear the burden of citizenship, but that he shall have a smattering of learning on which lie may, with experience, build up a more or less finished knowledge of common things. 'As the sociologist puts it, "the children are arrested in mid-growth" by the educational methods that touch on none of tihe above subjects and which do not even prepare them for the beginnings of understanding. The bulk of people have not been taught to think for themselves, but to memorise other's thoughts. There is no virtue in an ability to repeat truths. To understand them and to apply them is real education. Modern democracy does not lead. It is led. The amazing ease with which thousands are led to believe that somebody else's expressions of thought are their own demonstrates daily that the power of real thinking is unusual. To take a factory operative after he has completed his day's ■ work and to teach him to be a "scholar" will not teach him to be a citizen, or even to understand common things. The leaders of the world are not those who have memorised the most facts but those that are not Look-led. Of particular interest in the New South Wales education proposals is the one that promises "to make the teaching profession as attractive as possible." This is an admission that at present it is unattractive. In Australia and New Zealand there is at present a greater disposition to attract teachers of the military art than ever before. Every State is freely spending money with this object. New appointments are made daily, salaries are sufficient, and all the States are agreed as to the necessity of the methods adopted. It is logical enough to hold that in the social scheme the schoolmaster is as important as the soldier. He has a task that in point of utility is second to no other, and if he in the right kind of man, he exerts the greatest influence in any community, because it is given to him to mould thoughts and morals. It is interesting, too, to learn that teachers are to be given full civil and political rights, and this should have the effect of making those of ttie' profession more eager, to instruct children in the duties of .citizenship. The fu.ture s of-the.-eountry is "in

the hands of the children, of tlie present, and there is no question of greater importance than the selection of the best kind of teachers. The fact that so many people undertake teaching in Australasia, under adverse conditions, is in some degree a compliment to their qualifications, for teaching is a business that one must have one's heart in if success is to be attained, and few disabilities restrain the "born" teacher from indulging in his special bent.