BOON OR BURDEN.

Waikato Times, Volume 107, Issue 17978, 25 March 1930, Page 6

BOON OR BURDEN.

Everything possible is done nowadays to develop the personality of the individual. Educationists the world over stress the importance of this aspect of education and strive to foster originality in their pupils. To be “an original”” and to produce “originals” seems to be the aim of many a teacher. Nor is the inspectorate behindhand, the work of a school being often judged by the originality of its methods. The results may be inferior, but if the methods show invention much may be forgiven. Indeed there seem to be no limits to the sacrifices to be made in the cult of originality. Suppressed desires, it is said, not only impede the development of personality but actually tend to create criminals. To what end is all this search for originality? Docs the true original ever get the reception that the educationists would lead him to expect? As a matter of plain fact, though the world may owe much to him, he has tiie hardest row of all to hoe. Everywhere he is looked on with suspicion, if not with dislike and contempt. In truth the original is very frequently an uncomfortable person to live with. He is inclined to scoff at convention and to hold up to ridicule ideas cherished from childhood as almost sacred, lie is a disturbing element in a placid world—a misfit. Human endeavour in every sphere provides numerous examples of originals who, decided during their lives, were extolled to the skies a few generations later. But the treatment meted out to them did not deter these “originals" in their search after truth; nor has it ever prevented the really great from developing their own individualities. Whatever their medium the great ones will express themselves as they think fit. In the past they have refused to be bound by conventional thought and they will continue to do so. The great originals have genius, and genius will out. The average man needs common sense more than he needs originality. It will make him an easier person to live with and a citizen more amenable to the conventions of society, and it will help him in his struggle for existence. It is true that there must be originality in all arts and sciences or there would be no progress. But the struggle against conventional opinion lias frequently whetted the desire and reinforced Ihe determination to succeed. If the road is too easy the joy of accomplishment is lessened and the stimulus decreased. Originality which is worth while has never yet failed, in the end, to make itself felt and no great good has ever been produced by undue pampering. To excuse anything and everything on the score of repression or thwarted development is, therefore, not only a dangerous procedure but one running counter to history and experience.