TRUE EDUCATION EFFICIENCY.

Taranaki Daily News, 26 June 1918, Page 3

TRUE EDUCATION EFFICIENCY.

(By Hiss August White.) It is recognised to-day, from the Prime Minister down to the boys and girls just leaving school, to face a world that domands efficiency for its salvation, that education is imperative, is indispensable. . . ■ What can I do? That is thjj pertinent question constantly asked -by individuals. What one can do dependi upon oneself, one's capacities, one'i? circumstances. One can be something, in" the shop, in tho kitchen, in the drawing room. You can blossom into the flower which is your character. Character alone is the first fruits of true civilisation, and the supreme education of others. Your thoughts are all the time radiating from you: even in the utmost physical isolation. These subtle, mental messengers unite with and color thoughts of others. JiTo one who haa learned tho arts of noble thinking and noble living need fear to b» left idle to-day. Assuredly, such a one will be actively and usefully employed- One writer, in describing a ladj of Jus acquaintance, says:—"To know her is a continual education." There is no fear that if a man achicveg a noble character he shall not be educating all with whom he comes in eontact. Example is ail powerful, not a self-conscious example, of course. The man who goes about consciously setting a good example to Lis fellows is an object provocative of amusement rather than respect, like a kaffir who feels himself an irresistible beau because he has Kis Sunday red blanket on. It is when we are thinking not of ourselves but o£ the attributes of God, purity and peace, and are aspiring to express some part of those attributes in ourselves, that we may be setting an example to others. People in the mass are intensely initiative, and the saddest thing perhaps that is encountered in , educating children is to hear them repeating tiie foul language and imitating the coarse, rude manners that surround theso, through the habits of older people. Small boyi and girls, particularly the hero-wor shipping type, ara continually in&itaring father, mother, teacher. So we place character first, high above all other qualifications, in the one who aspires to help and to teach others, as being indispensable. Book-learning cannot be belittled by tha man who recognises that the true wealth of the world lies in books. Education must become liberal and universal. We do not want our village IHampdens "to fall short of the national reforms"; they wew born t« achieve for want of a good, free education- We want our Miltons to sing to the true pitch of their own great nature, aided in their development iby *ll the State can do to assist "genius."