TRUE EDUCATION.

Taranaki Daily News, 2 August 1918, Page 6

TRUE EDUCATION.

SWEEPING REFORMS (By M.C.0.) Kverybody that gives attention to the subject of education is profoundly impressed with the need of gueat improvements in the educational machine. Whether the body be a University Senate or a Trade Union, the verdict is the same. The series of splendid resolutions passed by the Carpenters' Union in Auckland is an up-to-date illustration. Education Boards, Teachers' Institutes, Industrial Associations, earnest students, alert Statesmen, not to mention the hosts of idealists, who approach the subject from their several standpoints, all are unanimous in demanding sweeping reforms, Although it must be admitted that there are many measures of practical import which already, to some extent, embody the new insistency, in educational reconstruction, yet this dtoes not satisfy the ever increasing -2ry for reform on a bigger scale. The growing interest in kindergarten work is not a full justification or expression of this more abundant vitalism, but is* rather an outlet for the over-ripe reform conviction, and also an indication of the new attitude.

Among the heads of the teaching profession there is, happily, a very keen eagerness for radical reform, and, as opportunity offers, they are launching out. The money allotted for schools and stiffs is ridiculously inadequate, and leaves the teacher still under the pressure of overcrowded class-rooms, and under the necessity of regarding the scholars en masse instead of individual-

The late W. T. Stead, with true prevision with regard to the British Navy, popularised with a happy result the cry "Two keels to one!" It would seem that some such watchword that would epitomise the absolute need for vastly increased expenditure on education would do good work. It is certain that, as regards staff, accommodation, salaries, and training, one could easily raise the cry "Double it!" While we have no wish to repeat the error of Germany in making education so grossly material in its aim, methods and results, we certainly need the same intensity to accomplish the maximum material, moral and spiritual efficiency. Perhaps >ve have quite as great a foe to reform in educational matters in the readiness in which parents will demand academic honors for their children at all casts. This feverish rush for paper distinction puts a fictitious value on the cram system, and the educationalists who manage to get a high percentage of passes at examinations arc the gods of food, but too often, one fears, foolish parents.

If the talk of re-construction after tlie war lias in it anything other than vague wishing and half-baked ideals of brotherhood and efficiency, it is certain we must formulate true* ideals of life, which inevitably need nobler methods and objects in the tuition of the rising generation. The basic principle for the ever-increasing urgency of new methods is that human life is essentially sacred, and that each individual possesses an individuality that, must bo considered. Practically all exponents of the new attitude argue that the idiosyncrasies, capacities, and preference of each child need sympathetic and intelligent understanding: and ttio policy in education that will give rather than impose strikes the note for the future.

Economic questions are closely allied to those of education, the latter being frequently exclusively associated with facility to make money. While true education is properly concerned with the production of wealth, it is but part of a larger equipment of 'physical, mental and moral power which is the object of ideal education. It is obvious that the higher ideals of knowledge and service must necessarily insist on improvement in child training.