TRUE EDUCATION.

Auckland Star, Volume LVI, Issue 215, 11 September 1925, Page 7

TRUE EDUCATION.

EXPERT AND ABSURDITIES. LONDON, September 4. "It is absurd to imagine that concentration on schoolboys' muscular development will enable Britain to recover her lost Olympiad honours, or the tennis and golf championships, or to defeat Australia in the Tests. It is equally absurd to encourage enormous numbers of boys and girls in one-Bided or many-sided intellectual development, useful neither to themselves nor their country," said Dr. William Vaughan, M.A., headmaster of Rugby (since 1921), addressing the i British Association's congress. j "Education is unduly lengthened owing j to fear that genius may be wasted," he J continued, "but genius always asserts itself. "The artisan who becomes a trade j union leader may do society a greater i service than if he joined the black hand brigade. The agricultural labourer, I with a knowledge of animals and seasons and weather lore, and skilled in rick- j thatching and ploughing, is better edu- ] cated than the clerk skilled in figures and filing. Moreover, the taprooms friendly banter and the workmen's club | arguments are more refreshing than, revues and half-decent books and dramas. .. "Children ought to be taught to love beauty and to choose truth in preference I; to world success." . In a leading article the "Daily Mail j declares: "Elucation's true object is to build np character and promote intelli- : gence and energy. The mental discipline , of a workshop or farm often is better. tha 11 that of the classroom. 11 "Britain's enormous, expenditure on education does not give an equivalent 1 return. We must concentrate on the.« essentials of popular instruction, aban-h doning superfluities." __ ll 1