STANDARDS OF EDUCATION.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 125, 28 May 1932, Page 8

STANDARDS OF EDUCATION.

PREPARATION FOR BUSINESS. (To the Editor.) Your correspondent Stanley B. Waters condemns the "useless" Latin and French in the education syllabus, and would substitute a course of "business methods and principles." It is futile to discuss here whether Latin and French are useless or not, because people who make such assertions do not understand their place in education. Well, then, what sort of a product will these "business methods and principles" turn out? What is a fair sample? The windy man of business, the dabbler, the fellow who bluffs his way through on a scrap of superficial knowledge, who has gulped in a few popular issues of economics and banking. As for these other trumpery "business problems," such ae salesmanship, shorthand, typing and bookkeeping, the average student will learn all there is. to learn about them in three months. On the other hand, the business educated genius, so I have found, at any rate, makes mistakes in grammar which would disgrace' a, schoolboy; of history, of literature, of languages he w utterly ignorant. Education to-day does its best to turn out a person who can appreciate the good things of life, not an ignorant automaton for the business man at 15/ per week. Besides it is an overstatement to say that there are plenty of openings for people trained along these lines, for many of them are unemployed. KOPIS.