THE AIM OF EDUCATION.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 206, 31 August 1926, Page 5

THE AIM OF EDUCATION.

PRESENT IDEALS

SPECIALISATION" AVOIDED

"What Our Schools are Trying To Do" was the title of an interesting and" inspiring address delivered to-day by Mr. J. W. Shaw, M.A., lecturer at the Auckland Training College, to members of the Karangahape Road Business Promotion Society.. Hβ prefaced the main subject by stating that the education system, which probably cost the country more than any other department, was mainly in the hands of experts, and the general public appeared "to take very little interest in it. In educational matters it could be said that if there were a definite aim in view it was not difficult to achieve it. for boys and girls were plastic in mind and character. "What did we want to make our boys and girls," was the inevitable query, and upon this there were diverse views. He felt that our educational aim must not be too narrow. If it were narrow the aim could easily be obtained. The broader and less defined the aim the more difficult it was of attainment.

What this country wanted from its educational system was not a succession of trained clerks, of artisans, of drapers or other tradesmen, but the basis of a national character upon which the children could build the structure of their own lives. In a democratic community the politics of the country would draw from its citizens all the culture and the best features which had been trained into them through the schools. This was the policy underlying the work in our schools which was emphasising the responsibilities and privileges of citizenship, and training the children in the hghest ideals of culture.

He felt that more could be done in the direction of teaching children a better understanding of the position of other countries. The love of all nations, the glory of pear?, could be taught side by side with patriotism.

Holding the?e views it was not poesible to advocate a system of specialised educational or " vocational training. What the schools were trying to do was not to train a boy or girl for a epecial job but rather to save them from the job. Each boy or girl should be so trained that they inherited a kingdom of their own, a key to the treasures of a beautiful and wonderful world, so that they could never become slaves to the narrowing influences of the particular occupation which they had to follow in after life.