REAL EDUCATION.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 198, 23 August 1928, Page 12

REAL EDUCATION.

IMPORTANCE OF THE PAST. PROFESSOR CONWAY'S VIEWS. (By Telegraph.—Own Correspondent.) WELLINGTON, this day. "It is a fact that all the men who made the British Empire were classical ncliolars, men who thought in terms of the past," said Professor R. S. Conway, professor of classics at Manchester University, when addressing members of the New Zealand Club. Real cilucation, the professor went on to say, was a process of making the child at home in the world in which he lived. A child's mind was not a sack into which to put things. The mind of the learner, whether child or student, would only take in something for which it had to reach out, like the tendril of a vine. A child to be properly educated had to realise wljat a glorious heritage it had, that the present civilisation dated centuries back. To bring up a child without a knowledge of the past was like treating the child of noble parents as a foundling from the street. Professor Conway said he would repeat what he had said elsewhere, and insist that the child must be taught by teachers trained in Universities. Such was the aim in England, where before long it would be an accomplished fact. If it was a luxury, New Zealand could afford it. The country should take its courage in both hands, insisting on uni-versity-trained teachers and on the limitation of classes to not more than 35 children. "I know what I am talking about; no real education can be given by a teacher to a class of more than 35," concluded Professor Conway.