OFTEN NEGLECTED.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 136, 11 June 1929, Page 10

OFTEN NEGLECTED.

MUSIC, DRAMA AND ARTS. FREEDOM IN EDUCATION. "There is one thing that education gives us," said Mr. 0. E. Burton, speaking at a student Christian movement tea. at the University College. "It is a freedom. The more we know of the universe the more we are at home in it." Mr. Burton was speaking of "Freedom in Education," freedom for the child, for the teacher, and of the system. He quoted from authorities of a few hundred years back who firmly believed that it was necessary, in order-to bring out the best in children, that their "spirits should be crushed."

Mr. Burton said that people had come to release that it was only in an atmosphere of love and freedom that children could learn and develop. Not by arbitrary rules, not by hedging a child in with an imposed discipline, but in an atmosphere of friendliness children grow. "If. a teacher makes up his mind, to put into practice the ideals of freedom which he holds, then he is going to run grave risks," Mr. Burton said. "Children at first will not understand, and there will be lack of order. Also the teacher will have to run the risk of losing grading marks. But ultimately the experiment must bear good fruit, for if a teacher feels that he has a mission, feels that he is impelled to give his children a share in his sincere beliefs, then it is bound to influence them.

' "I feel that one of the tragedies of our, education to-day is that music, drama, all the arts, in fact, are so often neglected," Mr. Burton said. "There are many graduates from our universities who know nothing at all of art. Surely there is more in education than just the bread and butter side? I feel that the -chief aim of education should be that we are able to give more and more of our lives to the higher and finer influences in life; that more arts should bloom amongst us."