PUBLIC SCHOOL MOULD

Wairarapa Times-Age, 12 August 1941, Page 6

PUBLIC SCHOOL MOULD

TOTALITARIAN AND DEMOCRATIC TEACHINGS. Contrast the orthodox English public school upbringing with that of Hitler youth and its fanatical belief in the supremacy of “Nordic” cultural values. The teaching which German youth receives is, of course, totally perverted, writes Mr L. B. Walton in the NewsLetter.” It does, however, give the young mind something luscious and attractive upon which to feed. It provides an outlet for the youthful instinct to seek out a hero and worship him. It gives youth a sense of mission and of purpose. The British schoolboy is generally unacquainted with European history as a whole. He receives no grounding in the elements of civics. It would probably be true to say, even nowadays, that the most powerful impression which he receives during his school life is concerned wih the importance of suppressing every glimmering of individuality, every tednency toward independence of thought and action. If he proceeds to a university he will, it is true, find a more tolerant intellectual atmosphere. It soon, however, dawns upon him that originality and independence of character are obstacles in the path of the kind of worldly success which he desires. If he has no private means he usually adopts the line of least resistance, sacrifices his independence of judgment, and becomes our national ideal—the “safe” man! The truth of the matter is that nothing worth doing in practical affairs has ever been done by “safe” men. Why not give the creative, independent mind a chance to play its part at the outset? The present world disaster, like the last, might have been avoided by the exercise of intelligence and goodwill on both sides. Unhappily, however, our enemies seemed, at first, to have the monopoly of the former, while we had established a corner in the latter!