ADULT EDUCATION

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22960, 11 February 1938, Page 14

ADULT EDUCATION

Sir, —The announcement by the Minister-of Education that an expert , ment in adult education, on lines of the Danish Folk High Schools, is to bo' made at Feilding is, in, my judgment,, the most encouraging statement on the subject ever made in this Dominion. If the proposal is carried out fully uid effectively, it will undoubtedly be of very great value as a corrective of "mass thinking," and the loss of .in? dividual initiative and resource that is. so deplored by the best minds in. the community.' The biatf of the' Danish Folk High Schools is not technical (there being other schools for technic?! instruction), but cultural. To a young man who inquired what he could "get out of it," the reply was given that if he wound his watch up every day it would go constantly, but that the.'. Folk High Schools would wind bis mind up in such a way that it would be' active for life, without any further winding. The cultural education received, including thb personal contacts, has the effect of raising, or developing the mind to a higher power, and the fruit of that improvement is shown in all the future activities of life, It makes a man a better farmer, better business man, and the women students more capable at their different callings. Most people know that Denmark is regarded as a sort of world's laboratory for intensive co-operation movements, which have achieved astounding auccesses in face of seemingly superhuman difficulties. It is a very significant thing that over 75 per cent of the managers and leaders in the i>*eat and ramified co-operative organisations have passed through the Folk High Schools. I think the new proposal is the most hopeful thing that has swum into the adult educational pool in New Zealand, and I trust the movement will bo pushed on with vigour, and rapidly spread to other centres. T. E. McMillan. Matamata.