OUR EDUCATION.

Press, Volume LVIII, Issue 17430, 15 April 1922, Page 9

OUR EDUCATION.

"WHAT IT PAILS nr." Speaking at Cornwall Park, Auckland., at a welcome to Mr L. A. Mander, Dr. L. A. Mcllwraith, vice-presi-dent of the Auckland branch of the 'Workera' Educational Association, said that the people of some countries were living on tii& edge of a social volcano, and it was such institutions as the W.E.A. thai; acted as safety valves, through which the ferment could be profitably directed. Too much time, said Dr. Mcllwraith, was spent in cramming,. .which.' did. not explain the . facta, and he was pleased to see that primary schools and universities were now doing ■their best to eliminate part of this evil. Instead of the glories of ancient Borne and Greece, they could • equally 1 weil show the glories that could lie ahead of the child im the futyio. Education | should put the best before the youth of tiiie country, show it the joys and delights of study, and aliow it to teach itself—not attempt, to itself mould the | pupil. A solution of many social problems probably lay in that school of thought, which -in some countries .set out to abolish the school time-table.. The existing. educational. system did not'even, tea,Ch that there ..was a social problem, let alone attempt to. solve. it, and it did not teach people 'how to wisely spend their leisure.. There were splendid picture theatres, bars and racecourses, but the .Government was spending only lid per head of population on the education of adults over 20 yearn of age. But there was a powerful influence at work tending in- the development o? thought along one line, concluded Dr. Mcllwraith. The W.E.A. was so constituted that it could educate the people to take the facts as they were and draw conclusions from them, no matter what, force was at work controlling the thought of the people.