AIMS OF EDUCATION.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 201, 26 August 1935, Page 10

AIMS OF EDUCATION.

HEALTH, HAN DIN ESS, HARMONYOF MR. MAHON. "Education is no longer based on the 'three RV " said Mr. H. J. D. Mahon, retiring headmaster of the Auckland Grammar School, speaking at a complimentarv dinner given Mm by the old boys of the school on Saturday. He was envisaging the changes that had taken place in 49 years, his time of association with the school. It was realised now, he said, that education meant the harmonious development of many sides of the pupil's being—physical, manual, mental, aesthetic and spiritual—and the cultivation of hobbies which would enable him to fill his leisure hours pleasantly and profitably. Be quoted one great educationist, Dr. Cyril Norwood, who had lately retired, from the headmas-tership of Harrow, as saying that the "three R's" had been replaced by the "three H's"—health, handiness and harmony. He laid stress on the fact that Dr. Norwood had put health first. He called, the attention of his audience to what was being done on the Continent to cultivate the physique and health of the coming generation. Every educator realised that unless there was a robust and healthy constitution it was not possible to secure the best work from boy or man.

Handiness, he said, implied the ability to use the hands, which had to be trained as well as the head. Harmony meant more than music. It meant the co-ordinated development of the boy's being, his mind, his body, his soul and his sense of beauty.

"That is the great task that is set before the educator of the present day," he said, "and the object is to enable the pupil to enjoy not only their work but also their leisure, to make them healthy, good and intelligent citizens." The permanence of the democratic State, he added, depended on the average of its members. In order that those members might be enabled to carry out their dirties as citizens they mnst be trained to exercise calm and deliberate judgment in all things. "The older we get," he concluded, "the more we are conscious of, our shortcomings for this tremendous wotk, the work of training- the plastic minds, souls, spirits and personalities . of the delightful boys placed in our charge."