STANDARDISED MINDS.

Press, Volume LXVII, Issue 20412, 5 December 1931, Page 9

STANDARDISED MINDS.

EDUCATIONAL TREND. I DANGER TO SOCIETY. Tho dangers of standardisation .in education arc emphasised by a writer in "Tho Times"- Educational Supplement. "Standardisation of many of tho material aspects of lifo is indeed a necessity in a complex society such as ours," be states. "But when we find tho same standardisation attacking our thought, when wo find our political, cco--1 nomic,, social, jcsiliotic, and spiritual opinions being mass producod for us, and the majority of people ready to accept these standardised opinions in order to avoid the labour of thinking out original viewpoints, then there is cause for*aiarm; and tho educationist feels bound to enquire to what extent, if any, our educational system is responsible for this state of affairs. "One of the mdst curious contradictions of this system is that wo perpetually t preaching the desirability of eneduraging initiative and self-de--pcndence in the individual, continuously inventing, and strenuously .labouring at out-of-school. activities designed tp ovoke and establish thelfs virtues, -while wo devote practically the whole of the school day to suppressing them. For class teaching inevitably suppresses individual and initiative; if it is uninspired or over-oratorical it crushes all; if it is inspired or interestingly modern it develops the individuality "of those who least need aid at the 'expense of those who need it most- ... In the main it is still the child who is fitted into the system, not the system [ which is moulded to lit the child. Harm to Gifted Children. " "It cannot bo, pointed out too often that those whom we harm most by our attempts at standardisation arc the gifted children, who are lftpt below their level of intelligence, taught to keep a slower pace than their natural abilities warrant, trained/ in fact, to misuse tho intelligence with'"which they have been endowed; and the duller children, who, on the other hand, are forced to> a level above their normal one and overstrained to keep up a pace : that eventually kills them intellectually. Tho average pupils are comparatively unharmed; they would be under j almost any system. i "Ami it is the root fallacy of pre-sent-day democracy that all gifts under heaven exist for the average; and so wc got universal mediocrity, the inevitable result of which is standardisation all round.' Mediocrity likes standardisation, but does not profit by it, does not distinguish between the standardisation wMch renders life more full of possibilities and that which degrades life to mere existence. But, mediocrity' is not sufficient to bear the burden of a complex society such as ours. Mediocrity which, accepts all things will retrogress, for humanity cannot stand .still, it must either progress or move We do not yet realise the "extent of the effort we ought to make on behalf of the. gifted children, whose shoulders should be broadened .to take the,,weight of the salvation of society. .It is . with -.them that the future rests, provided they;are given the opportunity of full development.". ,