CONTINUATION EDUCATION.

Press, Volume LIV, Issue 16341, 12 October 1918, Page 2

CONTINUATION EDUCATION.

HOX. J. A. HANAN'S VIEWS. Speaking yesterday to a represents# tive of "The Press" as to the results that would accruo if provision were made for compulsory continuation education, the Hon. J. ,A. Han an. Minister of Education, remarked that the good intellectual habits and" the worthy moral traits inculcated by the schools, instead being dissipated by the too early assumption of independence, or, to some extent, obliterated by premature contact with the world, would! have a fair chanco of becoming ingrained in the nature, and so remain an asset of the personality. While the modern idea of universal education had rapidly taken concrete form, successive chan«?s in the curriculum, iif accord with tho •better realisation of educational aims and methods, liad also been made. Avoiding learned definitions, education) might bo said to be preparation -or life. Our youth would be called upon, amid growing competition and the growing noed of skill and intelligence, to take their part in tho industrial or commercial spheres, or in the professions, or in tho home. Without for a moment implying that the school should specialise in particular occupations, it must be recognised more and more that there should be a relation between tho training which was given and the occupations of tho community. Henco tho inclusion of manual training, and of instruction in tho domestic "arts, was justified, and, in general, so long as tho reasoning powers, judgment, memory, observation, and tho remaining faculties were trained on scientific lines, the subjects that were used as instruments of this training would be all the better if they wore of a practical kind.? In our eagerness to nourish growing minds, we 'must take care not to overfeed—what was assimilated told, not tho quantity taken in. Dropping this figure of speech, th© Minister said that we must not overcrowd our programme of instruction - K if we did, we would engender tho vicious element of hurry and pressure in our schools, and slipshod work and superficial cramming which took the place of real training. "In this connexion,the Minister said in conclusion, "the primary school syllabus is at present under review by tho Department."