DO GROWN-UPS REALLY SEEK KNOWLEDGE?

New Zealand Listener, Volume 13, Issue 318, 27 July 1945, Page 12

DO GROWN-UPS REALLY SEEK KNOWLEDGE?

ADULT EDUCATION IN NEW ZEALAND:

| A Critical and Historical Survey.

By

A B.

Thompson;

The New Zealand Council for

Educational Research, 1945.

) (Reviewed by

Harold

Miller

S$ education really popular? Is there, deep in every adult heart, a passion for knowledge and improvement which only a cruel environment prevents from finding expression? A hundred years ago it was widely believed that this was the case; and there are those who believe it still. But the evidence does not altogether support them. In the course of a hundred years the environment has become much kinder, especially in New Zealand, but there is still a stubborn resistance on the part of the public to the blandishments of the W.E.A. and similar organisations. What is the reason? Is the environment not so kind as it looks? Partly that: the mothers (and the fathers) of young children have usually neither the time nor the strength at the end of the day to go out in search of knowledge. But the reason is mainly a simpler thing: "the desire for knowledge (like the desire for holiness) is a tender plant and easily discouraged, and the gardeners (like the parsons) are for the most part not so very extraordinary men and can only give what they’ve got. Most of them know it. They are only too conscious (crede experto), like the woman of Samaria, that they "have nothing to draw with and the well is deep." A. B. Thompson’s long and careful study of Adult Education in New Zealand seems to confirm this view. The New Zealand settlements, he shows in some interesting pages, were founded at a time when adult education was being vigorously promoted in England; the early settlers brought the idea to New Zealand, but it soon died. They were all too busy and too scattered, A good many Mechanics’ Institutes were founded in both islands, but in 30 or 40 years nearly all were dead or transformed into pale shadows of their former selves, In the second 40 years (1870-1915) there were sporadic attempts to revive the work-Mutual Improvement Societies, Temperance Unions, Women’s Institutes, the Y.M.C.A., occasional bits of university extension-but they never amounted to much. (Mr. Thompson does not discuss the work of the churches, which is surely educational work of a sort and well within the scope of his definition; but no doubt he feels that his task is tough enough as it is!) It was not until 1915 that adult education, as we know it to-day, made its appearance, when a couple of enthusiasts came over from Australia and founded the W.E.A. It is with the 30 years that followed that Mr. Thompson is chiefly concerned; and of this, on the whole, it is true to say that, although some excellent work has been done, the great mass of the population remains untouched. ;

Adult education began in the cities but in the last 15 years some very interesting work has been done in country districts -- by the W.E.A., Women’s Institutes (800 branches in 1935), the Country Library Service, one or two Community Centres (established by the Education Department), by organisations set up by ore or two university colleges (mainly financed by the Carnegie Corporation and the Sarah Anna Rhodes endowment). In one South Island area there was at one time a fulltime organiser, four full-time tutors, a travelling librarian and a drama tutor, as well as office assistance. Since 1935 the Government has taken more interest in the work, and further developments are to be expected. In the cities adult education has been mainly in the hands of the Workers’ Educational Association, It depended at the outset chiefly on the support of trade unionists but in recent years it has cast its net more widely and has largely lost its old trade union flavour. Its future is the subject of controversy: some desire to see it merged in a wider movement and some have desired to see it become more strictly a workers’ movement with political aims. But on the whole, Mr. Thompson sadly confesses, organised labour has shown "no very great desire for adult education of this or any other kind." Yet there can be no two opinions about the importance of adult education, If popular government is to survive, the elector must be educated; but most of the educating must be ddne after they have left off going to school. It is an immense task. So far we have only scratched the surface: according to Mr. Thompson’s statistics the W.E.A. enrolment has never reached 8,000 and during the last 15 years it has tended to fall. It is really difficult work, requiring the very best men that we have. We already have some very good ones, but we need more-a great many more-if adult education is to do its job. Mr. Thompson seems to me to attach too much importance to organisation; the fact is that in this, as in all other educational matters, everything depends on picking good men and giving them a pretty free hand. This book has been published as part of a’ forward move in adult education. A commission has been set up to hear evidence and in due time will make a report to the Government, It is much to be hoped that the Government may be persuaded to launch out in a big way. The existing annual allocation from ublic funds (£12,000) is simply ridicuous; many times that sum is plainly required, if adult education is to become a force on a national scale, if popular government is to survive at all in a world so full of problems. It will not survive unless a large proportion of the population add to the generous impulses which are so very widespread in New ‘Zealand a real knowledge of the world 1 which they live. Those who have read Albert Mansbridge’s history of the -W.E.A. will remember how, on a famous occasion, the annual meeting at Reading

was addressed by Bishop Gore, who spoke a few words that should never be forgotten by those who believe in popular government. "All this passion for justice," said the bishop, "will accomplish nothing, unless you get knowledge. You may become strong and clamorous, you may win a victory, you may effect a revolution; but you will be trodden down again under the feet of knowledge, unless you get it for yourselves . . ." No truer words were ever said. It is to be hoped that we may take them to heart in New Zealand before it is too late. This is avery useful book and we ought to be grateful to Mr. Thompson for the great troublé he has taken; but I wish it were easier to read and only half as long. We are a long-winded people and the way things are going it looks as if it may end in everybody writing books and only reviewers reading them.