The Daily News. MONDAY, JANUARY 5, 1920. PRACTICAL EDUCATION.

Taranaki Daily News, 5 January 1920, Page 4

The Daily News. MONDAY, JANUARY 5, 1920. PRACTICAL EDUCATION.

It is usual at this season of the year for those engaged in teaching to meet in conference and discuss important matters relating to the different branches of the profession's work. These meetings serve a most useful purpose, and there is no question but that the cause of education and the general welfare and progress of the country and its people are materially advanced by these conferences. Two, notable contributions in this direction were recently made, one coming under the notice of the Technical School Teachers' Association, and the other brought before the annual meeting of the New Zealand Women Teachers' Association. In his address at the opening of the Technical Association Conference, Mr. A. L. Moore, director of the New Plymouth Technical College, drew attention to the great need that existed for work, and for laying a sure foundation of technical education as the first step in any reconstruction policy that will be of real service to the country. He rightly contended that more money must be spent on this branch of education, and more encouragement given by the Department to launch out and start any class that is needed, or likely to be needed,' to establish ! and increase efficiency in our industries. Admitting that the Dominion is nrimnrily a producing •wintry, the time has arrived when, in order to reap the full benefits of its products, industrial j enterprises should be established j and carried on with the most rej cent equipment. Mr. Moore stressled the point that if waves have

been raised in Britain 130 per cent. on pre-war rates, we should be able to produce as cheaply here, or more so, than at Home. In addition to this, the manufacture of woollen goods means that wool would be treated in the Dominion, thereby saving much freight and creating other industries in dealing with the by-products of woolscouring, treating the oils and fats, and turning attention to the question of dyes. He urged that the gospel of production should be preached by every teacher in the Dominion until the idea is woven into the fibre of the rising generation. The soundness of this contention is self-evident, as well as the loss the country is suffering by sending away the raw material instead of manufactured goods. "With an expenditure of £85,000 a year on technical education, and a total production of about thirty millions sterling, it stands to reason that if only a one per cent, additional increase in value represents £300,000, it would veil justify the Government in trebling the expenditure on technical education, and pushing forward vigorously the completion of the national scheme of hydro-elec-trical power. The matter is one that should be seriously considered by the new Parliament. Two other important points were stressed by Mr. Moore, namely, the need for the elements of economics to form part of the technical curriculum, and the desirability of inculcating into the children the spirit of social service, without which the essence of education is missed and the full fruits can never be attained. Mr. Moore has done good service by emphasising these i vital matters, which are material factors in making education of practical service as well as being r a means to an end. It was somewhat of a coincidence that Miss E. A. Chaplin, president of the Women Teachers' Association, should take as the main theme for her address the same subject of the place that education takes in the scheme of national reconstruction, but she approached the matter from an entirely different viewpoint—the increase in the number of children who were the innocent sufferers of an unfit parentage. In the course of a very I striking address, Miss Chaplin emphasised the part that heredity plays m human destiny, the benign influence of good environment, and the need for the best class of teachers to be attracted to the ranks of the professionno price being too high to pay for the right kind. Dealing with the need for an improved system for the education of girls, Miss Chap-1 lin strongly advocated that greater] pneouragement should be given to women teachers to cater for the needs of older girls, especially in the cities, and that, in every large school an experienced teacher should be set apart for that work. The suggestion is one that ought to be seriously entertained for reasons that are only too obvious. There is much truth in the statement that the unhygienic domestic conditions revealed during the epidemic must be largely laid at the door of a system that allowed girls to drift away from school without a knowledge and praetic; of the principles that goverued a clean find healthy home life. The teaching of a well-defined curriculum in physiology and hygiene, and the inculcation, by daily p_<>cept and practice, of habits of neatness in dress and surroundings generally, are but a part of the training which is the right, of every girl. With the benefit of that training the mothers of the future may be expected to have an appreciable influence in making home life more what it should be, | and raising the tone of future generations. Special attention to the morals, health and manners or both boys and girls will well repay for the time and trouble involved. These suggestions are not by any means an indictment of the present system of education, but steps in advance made necessary by the experience of the past and the needs of the future. It is gratifying to find that teachers are getting down to basic principles as a means for evolving higher citizenship, and every encouragement should be given by the Government in all matters tending to the desired end. Before legislation on education is brought down next! session it would be a wise policy to submit the proposals to a joint conference of teachers of both sexes so that it may be framed on the right, lines.