LIFE ESSENTIALS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 285, 1 December 1936, Page 5

LIFE ESSENTIALS.

DRAMA OF EDUCATION.

NEED FOR CRAFTSMANSHIP.

WHY THINGS ARE DONE.

"The drama of education can only be regarded as a tragedy," said Mr. J. G. Patterson, master of the Vasanta Garden College secondary division, in a Sunday evening lecture at the Theosopliical Hall. For, lie said, with the best of intentions, in each successive generation the attitudes of parents and teachers towards their children antl pupils have been such as to entail never-ending calamities upon the human race —not the sensational ones of the dramatist, but the inner ones, which are more deadly. Such calamities are debased standards, weakened will power, perverted ideals, contracted horizons, externalised aims, self-centred activities and an entire misconception of the meaning and value of life. All this is the result of deadening tradition and a social tradition whose intention may only be to create order. "What are we educating for?" said Mr. Patterson. "If we know this we have no tragedy." teaching system should not lead to aiming at salary, at grading marks, but be flexible and be understood by all concerned. Nor could a system of rewards for effort lead to real education — in which instance Mr. Patterson caused some amusement by quoting the story of the child who was requested to be good —for sixpence—and retorted that he would be good for nothing, like father. Mr. Patterson considered that the reason did not awaken before the age of 12, but the development of character was profoundly affected by the child's own day dreams and the working of his own imagination in the preceding years. Real and Unreal. Three-fourths of what Ave learn, under the past system, is unreal and has 110 relation to real life. For any but the exceptional child, Latin, higher arithmetic and mathematics are a-grind that

leads nowhere. The use of modern appliances in the school, the typewriter, the radio and films, made for reality. Education should aim at laying" a firm foundation for after life by creating wise activities, and the only preparation for social living is social living, which every true school • should provide in the form of shared activity. At present the fetish is sport to fill this need, whereas it should rather be communal crafts. In the special school of Professor John Dewey, of Columbia University, in, Chicago, he has deliberately relegated the three R's to a second place and craftsmanship takes first place instead. Child Must Understand. "The child must not be crammed and he must realise just why he does whatever there is to do," said Mr. Patterson. "When education —the relation between teacher and pupil—is planned 011 the basis of understanding and practical ideals and in line with the requirements of to-day, then through education the world can be reconstructed economically, artistically and spiritually."