"THE OPEN DOOR."

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 112, 14 May 1929, Page 9

"THE OPEN DOOR."

■ IDEAL OF UNIVERSITY. A TEACHER'S OPINION. ADULT EDUCATION MOVEMENT. (From Our Own Correspondent.) WELLINGTON, Monday. Developments which have taken place in recent years in regard to adult education were briefly referred to by Mr. A. J. C. Hall, of Auckland, president of the New Zealand Educational Institute, when addressing the opening session of the institute's annual conference- in Wellington. "A remarkable feature of the later years of the past half-century," said Mr. Hall, "has been the movement for adult education. The adults of to-day were the school children of the day before yesterday, and it was in their schools that those of them who are still pursuing their education got the impulse that is still impelling them to carry on their studies. How much larger their numbers would have been had the schools of their young days been more inspiring must be a matter of conjecture. The one patent fact is that the movement lives and grows, and a reasonable assumption is that it will increase in size and strength as time goes on. There is much need that it should, and it is the part of enlightened government to give it every encouragement. Here again is work that the university could with honour to itself and advantage to the public foster and encourage. "The granting of degrees is not the only way of encouraging sound learning. This work of disseminating knowledge among those who from choice or circumstances have not come within the university halls will be productive of great benefit to the nation. Our university to-day bears something of the guise of a high-walled semi-sacred enclosure, to be approached only through a single gate marked with the portentous word 'matriculation.' One hopes that the university of the future will rather have the appearance of a lofty palace, open and easy of access, with many windows in its walls from which the wisdom and the learning gathered within shall shine out and illumine all who care to come within reach of the influence of its rays.< Certain it is that when the university is able and willing to open its doors to all seekers after light, there will be many seekers ready to avail themselves of it. If it were not so our hopes and aspirations for democracy would be a vain dream. The healthy growth of a democratic people depends on the wide dissemination of knowledge."