OUR EDUCATION.

Auckland Star, Volume LIII, Issue 83, 10 April 1922, Page 5

OUR EDUCATION.

WHAT IT FAILS IN. SOLVING SOCIAL PROBLEMS. speaking at Cornwall Park on -Saturday afternoon at a welcome to Mr. L. A. Mander, Ttr. L. A. Mcllwraith, vicepresident of the Auckland branch of the Workers' Educational Association, said "that the people of some countries were living on the edge of a social volcano, and it was such institutions as the W.E.A. that acted as safety valves, through which the ferment could be profitably directed. Too much time, said Dr. Mcllwraith, was spent in cramming. which did not explain the facts, and he was pleased to sec that primary schools and universities were now doing their best to eliminate part of this evil. Instead of the glories of ancient Rome and Greece, they could equally well show the glories that could lie ahead of the chilc\ in the future. Education should put the best before the youth of the country, show it the joys and delights of study, and allow it to teach itself —not attempt to itself mould the pupil. A solution of many social problems probably lay in that school of thought, which in some countries set out to abolish the school time-table.

The existing educational system did not even teach that there was a social problem, let alone attempt to solve it, and it did not teach people how to wisely spend their leisure. There were splendid picture theatres, bars and racecourses, but the Government was spending only l|d per head of population on the education of adults over "20 years of age. Bnt there was a powerful influence at work tending in the development of; thought along one line, concluded Dr. Mcllwraith. The WJ-i.A. was so constituted that it could educate the people lo take the facts as they were and draw conclusions from them, no matter what force was at work controlling the thought of the people.