THE CULT OF EDUCATION

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 1210, 3 December 1919, Page 3

THE CULT OF EDUCATION

Bishop Welldon, in an address at the British Association, said : "It is difficult to avoid a feeling of surprise at the effect of the war upon the attitude of the strangely unenlightened British public towards education, for everybody now is an educationist; everywhere there is a demand for ordered, extended, and prolonged education—an education to justify the expenditure of £25.000.000 per annum at present, and a largely increased expenditure in the future. Vet the war lias shed a rather lurid lighton education. Germany has been the most highly and widely educated of the nation-. Vet Germany plunged the world into an ocean of bloodshed, bad ruthlessly destroyed the treasuries of art and culture no less than the sanctuaries of religion, had turned science into the scourge and curse of humanity, had violated all the laws of faith, truth, honor, and mercy, and had erected not thpsVyegation of God, but the professsion 01 ..elief in God into a system of unspeakable infidelity, inhumanity, and immorality. If education is a blessing, the education of which Germany lias set an example is the extreme malediction which has been. or could be, inflicted upon the world. Great, then, is the responsibility of the teaching profession. It could create a nation of Huns or a nation of heroes. Still, the teaching profession seems to have lost something of its old attractiveness for it is now less popular than it hasbeen for years as a career. I hope, however, it will win recruits, as it is eminently "a soul-satisfying profession, the one profession which is concerned with, all the elements of humanity. But it is essential that every teacher should set before himself a definite goal, and no goal is comparable with citizenship. If ever my spirit burned within me with righteous indignation, it was when some craven agitator—as was reported in my own neighborhood a few weeks ago—basely asserted that the upper classes had left the laborers to bear the sorrow and suffering of tlit, war. That taunt was a lie, if ever there was one. Trade unionism has effected just reforms, but industrial warfare is in itself as barbarous as international warfare. It is an extreme measure not to be entertained until all other measures of avoiding strife have been tried to t-lio uttermost"." . .