THE EDUCATION OF THE ADULT

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 314, 2 July 1912, Page 6

THE EDUCATION OF THE ADULT

ADDRESS AT THE BROTHERHOOD.

On Sunday last, at the meeting of the Brotherhood, Mr. 0. H. Dolby, M.A., delivered an interesting address on "The Education of the Adult."

"I do not wish to speak to-day," said Mr. Dolby, "of the education provided in schools, and colleges, but of the far more important education which each one of us acquires for himself. We sometimes hear of a boy or girl having completed his or her education on leaving school, hut there can surely be no greater misuse of language than this; or a training which closes at sixteen or eighteen years of age can do nothing more than provide the tools with which the mind is to work during the next forty or fifty years of the ordinary life. Another misconception is sometimes caused by the idea that teachers are required if we are to be educated, but as a matter of practical observation most of us find that the only things of real and lasting value to us are those which we have learned for ourselves, though others may point out the path, and perhaps smooth away some of its difficulties. In some sort of way we all educate ourselves after we have left school, perhaps quite I unconsciously, and the question I wish to II ask to-day is whether there are reasons for trying to form some definite plan for our own education and what benefits, if 1 any, we may hope to reap from such a ' I course of action. An old ideal set before ' I us was that of 'a health}' mind in a j healthy body,' and the progress of knowledge has served only to emphasise the importance of this view. The relations between body and mind are so numerous and so complex that it is difficult for one partner in the concern to he in full . J vigor unless the other is so also. We J I all know that long-continued indigestion j or sleeplessness has a disastrous effect ] on our mental activity —showing the effect of the body on the mind; and the success of Christian science, with all its exaggerations' rests ultimately on the > fact that its foundation is a belief in the influence of the mind or will on the bodily health. It is clearly recognised that the essential elements for bodily health are adequate food, good surroundings and plenty of exercise for the muscles to keep them in good order. Any portion of the body not properly exercised will become atrophied or useless; our bodies are, in fact, economical machines, and i will fail to supply nutriment to any por- ! tion of the organism which is not used, ■ and as the result it soon loses the powers it has failed to employ. Exactly the same line of argument applies to our minds. If we fail to keep them constantly exercised we cannot hope to keep I them in hard condition, and unless they j are supplied with proper food they eanj not be expected to keep in a healthy . state. As we look back to the time at which we left school, where, in spite of our inattention and laziness, our minds did get a little exercise, so must most of us adults know that \vt have treated our minds in a way, which, if applied to our 'bodies, would have rendered them totally incapable of performing the daily tasks we demand of them. There are men whose business in life demands constant mental activity, but these are the rare exceptions; we generally get into grooves, and even when we imagine we are using our brains they are acting in an almost automatic way, as they have done over the same work thousands of times before. Hence if we are wise we , shall recognise that our daily work does not supply a sufficient variety of exeri else for our brains, and we shall endea--1 vor to get them some kind of intellectual j Sandow treatment in our leisure hours. ! You all know the keen pleasure produced I' by moderate physical exercise under j pleasant conditions and show that you j do so by your interest in sport of one J kind or another. But if there are phy- \ sical pleasures which result from bodily ■exercise, so also are there mental pleasures which await the adequate employment of the mental powers. The first argument, then, for mental culture is the pleasure which results from using the f mind.

"Again, it will be found that the man who keeps his mind from getting rusty by constantly employing it, adds enormously to the interest of his life. If you watch a small child as it plays on the beach or elsewhere you will note that; it takes the keenest interest in all it ! sees and grows quite excited when any- 'i thing new comes within its ken. Every ! moment its brain its taking in new im- j pressions and storing them away for future use. Our minds would work in | the same way. though our outward in- | dications would I>e more restrained, if I we had kept them receptive instead of I letting them become, unfit for work owing ! to disuse. Xow, the man who reads— ] and reading is the chief means of educa- ] tion for adults—finds constant sources of ] interest. Ideas he has met or informa-; tion he has acquired seems always coming up again in sermons, in speeches and in the daily press, and they seem like familiar friends whose faces he is glad to see. If we are to keep abreast of the times we must keep out minds constantly open to new impressions, otherwise we are preparing for a miserable old age, in which we shall find that the ideas, which perhaps were advanced when we were young, have grown too out-of-date to apply to the new conditions, and we shall sit and growl that the country is going to the dogs and that the younger generation is rapidly rushing to ruin. On the other hand, if we have kept ourselves abreast of literature and ideas of the times, we shall, while perhaps not quite convinced that all that is new is good, still have some power of sympathising with the new ideas, and therefore have some influence in preventing the new movements falling into the old er- \ rors. A man who is not full of interest in what is going on around him is, in fact, only half alive, and misses some of the greatest pleasures in life. "It may not have struck some of you how important it is that we should have a grasp of language in order to eomi municate our ideas to others or understand thoso expressed by them. It haa | been said that the agricultural laborer in an English village in the old days got through life with a vocabulary of three, hundred words. Such a man is in a kind of prison cell and might almost am well be dumb so far as his power of expressing his thoughts is concerned. We are better off than this, but we often find it difficult to convey our exact thoughts to others, and even, more important, we can often obtain but a veryrough idea of the thoughts that others express. What can a preacher or writer

hope to be to his hearers or readers when the ideas he wishes to convey to them must ho couched in language which is quite beyond their mental grasp. The remedy for this is extended and careful reading which will give us a comprehension of the exact meaning of words and the ideas they are used to express.

"In a recent address in this hall, Mr. Powlds referred to the necessity of the people being educated if a democratic government were to be a success. He recommended education because he said it would help people to penetrate the depths of the wickedness of the capitalist press. It was somewhat surprising to hear that the press had depths of any sort. Many of our friends tell us that we are always shallow and superficial, and of (he two charges the latter is, I

think,'nearer the truth. However, Mr. Fowlds was right, if he supported a

wise suggestion by a poor argument, j When the majority rules it is essential, ] if disaster is not to result, that the ma- \ jority should be the wiser half of the \ nation. Now, Ido not maintain that I all educated men are wise and all un- I educated men are \foolish, but I do say that if you take a thousand men, educated either in the schools or by their own exertions, and a thousand uneducated men, the balance of political sagacity will probably be on the side of the educated. If there were no centuries of history behind, during which men of , quite as great abilities as ourselves had ' had governments of every description, education would not be so important, but it is folly to throw away the experience behind, us as of no value. To the educated man the experience of past ages is to a large extent an open book and he can profit by it, but the uneducated man who plunges into politics may often 1 advocate a policy which has a hundred 1 times been proved to lead to disaster.

"Then, again, education trains the critical faculty. When you purchase a horse you generally examine the state- ' ments of the vendor with considerable earo and do not accept them unless they agree with the result of your own observations, but often when we go to hear a political speaker on our own side, we accept his statements as gospel practically Without examination. It therefore lends to make us more valuable citizens if our minds have been so trained by following processes of reasoning that wo are capable of detecting obvious falfacies. Here I should like to refer to what is, I think, a mistaken view of the object of education. By many people the chief value of education is supposed to be that it will enable their children to get on in the world. Money spent in education is, in fact, regarded as an investment likely to bring in a good re- ' turn. There is at first sight a certain > amount of truth in this view, because 1 the entry to some of the professions is j barred by examinations which demand i that a considerable period should be spent in study. It should, however, he i pointed out that money spent in this j way is a speculation rather than an in' 1 vestment, inasmuch as the returns are by no means certain. Many are unfitted / for the careers they set out on and many fall out of the race for other reasons, while the rewards ultimately acquired are far lower than expected in advance. There are big salaries at the top of every sphere, hut the mere fact that a man has had a college education is no guarantee that ho will have the qualities necessary to bring him to the top. In fact, from the present trend of affairs it seems likely that in the near future unskilled labor will be paid at a far higher rate than the lower ranks of the professions, and it seems quite possible that the parent who wishes his son to be well off will make him a wharf laborer or a coal miner. While it is true that a good education may often not bring the monetary reward expected there is not the slightest doubt that it gives a return whose value cannot be measured by mere money standards. Hence no one

should hesitate to give his children the best education they can obtain, because it will throw open to them a source of I happiness which will be invaluable whatever their lot in life may be. All of as here to-day have ended our school days and most have definitely chosen our walk in life. To us self-education is not likely to bring any definite monetary reward. It may do so, but it should ) not be pursued with that object alone in view, or disappointment may be the result. But the power of enjoying a good book is- a possession which is far more valuable than any income. We are apt \ to take far too material a view of life and to believe that the acquisition of ] wealth is a means of adding to our hap- I piness; to hear some people talk one I would imagine it was the sole avenue ] of happiness. Yet if we look round > among the people who are better off than ourselves we can see nothing to support the belief that their happiness, if greater than ours, is due to greater wealth, and not to the possession of personal qualities which we might have in as great a measure as they. If we could be offered a choice between £IO,OOO a year and no taste for reading and our present income j with a love of books, we should undoubtedly be wise to ,refuse the large income . without any hesitation. In books we can enjoy the best thoughts of the greatest men the world has known, and the effort to appreciate these ideas will not only give us the highest mental pleasure, but will also make us more useful to our fellow men. Some people are apt to look on the writers of books as comparatively useless members of society; they are not producers of wealth, hence some regard them as mere parasites on the body politic. But ideas, which are the product of the stud-' ent, are the only things that really matter in the world. It is ideas that move mountains. The French Revolution, which shook the thrones of Europe, and broke the bonds of feudalism, was the result of the yeast of new ideas set forth by Voltaire, Rousseau- and Diderot' and other toilers in the study. The socialism of to-day is but the result of the new ideas preached by Karl Marx, Henry George and other writers, while the vast changes produced in the world by Christianity are traceable to the teaching of new thoughts by the Carpenter of Nazareth. Hence books and their contents are not to be despised, and for most of us they are an essential element for our self-culture. "Perhaps, without trespassing,too far on the field of the pulpit, I may be allowed to point out that the form of study I am attempting to recommend to you has a real moral value. Our brains are never idle, even when our bodies are, and it is on the thoughts on which we dwell in our idle moments that our character depends. St. Paul, in one of his most inspiring passages, says, 'Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are lowest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report: if there be any virtue, if there be any praise, think on these things.' This is a grand ideal to set before us. It is one which we all admit is one we should aim at, but as we think of the general conversation of the workshop and office and street we have to confess than we make little attempt to attain it. Yet it is a great pity that when our minds could be filled with so many more interesting things that we so often allow them to become mere garbage heaps for rubbish and filth of every description. To come down to the direct practical application of what I have tried to set before you this afternoon. I maintain that it is the duty of every man to read for himself some good literature which makes a demand on his brain. This will keep the mind healthy and active as it should be, will add enormously to his interest in life and in his fellow men, and will provide him with a source of happiness of, the highest kind. That is my proposition. Many here present could give evidence of the truth of my thesis, and probably support it much more ably than I have done, but there are some who may i say, 'What you have, urged is true ■enough perhaps, but I have no taste for I books.' If I were to ask a man if lie liked playing billiards and he answered that he did not like the game at all, I might go on and ask whether he played very often. Should he reply that he had never handled a cue in his life, I i should be somewhat surprised, but I honestly believe that many of those who say they have no taste for reading are

in similar case to the man who does not like billiards. You know quite well that if you want to excel in billiards you must devote a good deal of time and thought to the game, and yet some people seem to expect that a taste for reading will come when the first book is opened. 1 have never heard that anything worth having in this world can he got without an effort; that is why the world is a good place to live in. No doubt when you lirst put the mind into harness it will play up a bit, but you must let it feel the bit and now and again a, touch of the whip, and you will find that when it knows who is master it will journey steadily enough. I don't profess to prescribe a course of reading for anyone, but I can give a little general advice. First, as to novels. The reading of modern novels is just like smoking. It is a very pleasant way of spending time, but if carried to excess weakens the digestion and ruins the nerves. If you visit any of the bookshops in the town you will find rows and rows of series of books, Century classes, Everyman's Library, Nelson's series, the Home University series, each book costing fifteen pence. Look over these and choose one that takes your fancy. Nelson's scries is perhaps the easiest to begin with. Take a month to read it, and the next month buy a second. A year of this course will cost you los. You may not find that during that time you have made much progress in culture, but I may remark that 15s spent on billiards would certainly not qualify you to give points to Gray or Inman. Try the process for two or three years, during which time you may find it advantageous to jon the public ■ librarjr, where, for 10s per annum, you can have the use of many books of a more expensive, character. The scheme is really worth trying, and I think that if you persist in it you will soon find that you arc growing quite proud of your little library, that you are developing a taste for literature, and that you have acquired a source of happiness that will not fail you whatever your lot in life may be.