The New Education

Radio Record, Volume IV, Issue 52, 10 July 1931, Page 8

The New Education

LATER on Monday evening I heard a most enthralling talk by Mr. Alexander Salmond, M.A., of Knox College, presented from 4YA. The speaker. reviewed the international aspect of the new education showing how modern ideas on the subject were changing the customs and habits of. centuries. To think that in Constantinople itself, the COMEMUAAESFPOAUREGAEUAUUTACETEELERAELL CUESTA ASSES CSUATT

home ,of the Caliphs, thousands upon thousands; af women-are now receiving University training: arid education on an équal footing. with the men!- Dr. Koo, in a recent address, cited the case ‘of an important Shanghai -banking institution,.. which ,is run | successfully and solely, by women. Egypt, Persia, Korea -in fact, practically all the old countries of, the world: who, so far, have had very: fixed. ideas on the emancipation of women-aie all ruthlessly uprooting their old prejudices and are ‘following . the more advanced methods of the West, and are thus. rapidly: learning that ."the female of the species" is possessed of both a brain and the necessary. power and ‘will to. exercise it: Thé new education has ‘for: its’ foundation the’ "ideal thought that ofigifal ¢ffort: and contribution are the only signs of progress. Old ideas on the maintenance of discipline are giving place: to new; the inherent : imitative powers of . the -young

and their love for law and order provide the fulcrum by which the new education is made more of a_ social function than of yore, Youth is encouraged to have both freedom of thought and movement in his . classes. Educational ideas are, of course, international of thought, and leaders in the various countries of the world watch for and accept the contributions of any authority, whatever his nationality. The whole modern trend is the realisation that the Rulers of To-morrow are the Youth of To-day; as a consequence no — professional teacher can hope for success without adequate knowledge of child ‘psychology.’ 3 In brief, it is now a battle between those conservatives with a ‘belief in learning by absorption and the moderns who believe in learning by ‘doing. Schools will become "seats of doing’. real life in miniature. Finally, we ¢ee: that, from the fact that upon truth only will nations agree,. and education, like Demosthenes, speaks ~ truth, so — true education becomes. an . important contributor ‘to International Goodwill.