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Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 317, 5 July 1912, Page 4

SPECIALISING. Every man who is not a specialist is more or less a failure. There is no place on earth to-day for the "Jack-of-all-trades" who i 3 "master of none." The "one-book" man is the man who counts. The medical man who is an amateur engineer is probably a poor engineer and a deplorable doctor; the grocer who is an authority on the boot trade is either a good bootmaker badly placed, or a bad grocer who has missed his vocation. There is no room in the human mind for all branches of human knowledge, and there is no case on record of a notability who is supreme or even efficient in varied human activities. Xobcdy believes in the cobbler "sticking to his last" if hi« special genius lies in conducting a campaign or becoming an artist, the fact being that education should concentrate on discovering the "bent" of the individual devotee and in developing it. It may be held that special brains will discover proper outlets no matter what alleged educationists do in an endeavor to develop the individual along general lines. ! The system of cramming a small quantity of innumerable brandies of knowledge into heads capable only of sue- | ceeding in one direction is developed more highly in Xew Zealand than in most countries. The system is benumbI ing to the intellect and utterly useless nationally. It is true that despite the fixed idea of alleged educationists that it is necessary to fill the human miud with huge indigestible masses of fact, Xew Zealand produces its fair proportion of specialists who have not been influenced by the system and who would thus be deemed "failures" by the average pedagogue who usually knows nothing as far as he is himself concerned and who believes that the whole art of education is in memorising the written remarks of other people. Xew Zealand has just been honored by the visit of the most eminent educationist who has ever come to this country—the Right Hon. James Bryce. It is unlikely that the authorities will admit the astounding weakness of the hotch-potch system by taking his advice. Mr. Bryce's advice—we say it with requisite modesty—is the advice that has been tendered in •this column on many occasions—"specialise." Mr. Bryce counsels the authorities to use each college in the University of Xew Zealand for a special purpose, so • that the activities shall not conflict and so that concentration on a single educational goal shall be possible. We have no hesitation in saying that educationally considered the average Xew Zealand University graduate is a faili ure. There is no need in the world for him and his smatterings cf lip-learning. Unless he has entered the University with the set idea of rejecting everything that is not of service to him in his chosen career, he is simply wasting precious time. Colleges that invited specialism would get students who desired to specialise. Mr. Bryce has obviously noted the deplorable lack of education in Parliament, although he was not rude enough to accuse Parliamentarians of ignorance. But his advice to university men to fit themselves for Parliamentary duties suggested the unfitness of many Parliamentarians who merely follow the bell-wether and have no reasonable claim to the position of leaders of the people. Perhaps the most important advice our famous visitor gave was that in which he counselled the foundation of an agricultural college of "supreme excellence." Shortly, there is no concentration in Xew Zealand on education which concentrates on the activities which keep our credit good. Immense trouble is taken to fit youths for professions which depend on the primary ones. The passion in Xew Zealand for pushing boys into the 'learned professions" is a pitiable one. It results in an ever-increasing mob of professional mediocrities who do not add one whit to the prosperity of the country. One can't teach a man to be a brilliant lawyer, or a great doctor, or a surpassingly good engineer. One can only give the student the groundwork. If he is a fool even the groundwork will not help him. If he is fitted for specialisation it will aid him. The tilling of the ground is the natural work of every human being. In this respect it is absolutely distinct from all other avocations. To aid this instinctive specialty is not only the duty of the State, but its vast privilege. The question of profit is, of course, patent to eyen the pedagogue who believes that a hotch-potch of memorised facts is the be-all and end-all of scholastic instruction. Mr. Bryce has repeated the truism that Xew Zealand is a wonderfully productive country capable of intense and marvellous development. It is a pitv that party politicians are so busy with their petty personal affairs that the necessary development is allowed to go hang. The famous visitor in his short visit noted that Xew Zealand docs

not invite its- brightest minds to stay here and help it. The fact is that 'the influence of the harmless ranter is making it unpleasant for men of outstanding ability to stay in Xew Zealand. The man in the street doesn't know anything about Rutherford, but everything about Semple; the average person is well acquainted with the genius of Parry and has never heard of McLaurin. Rutherford and McLaurin specialised; that's all, and the average Sixth Standard schoolboy might easily trip either celebrity up or. facts outside their specialities.