EDUCATION.

Press, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20572, 14 June 1932, Page 11

EDUCATION.

MR L. F. DE BERRY'S VIEWS.

ADDRESS TO ADVERTISING CLUB "It I were Dictator of Education, I would spend ■ moro money, on education than on war but I would see that I got 20b in the & value for it," said Mr L. P. de Berry, headmaster of the West Christchur.ch District High School, in a lunch-hour address yesterday to members of the Canterbury Advertising Club. The address was ono of a series to bo given to the club on various subjects, the speaker in every instance to assume that he was a dictator. The speaker said that if a dictator were set up to take charge of education he would not be able to destroy tho present system, like a builder demolishing a house, for education was part of our life. A great weakness with ajl education systems was that they dealt with persons alone and not with the environment about them. It was i®~ possible to divorce the ideals of the community from an education system. Public opinion must be created favourable to education. This was the case all over the world, including New Zealand. He would say that education was life itself and that it was just as necessary to advertise it as any wares. Schooling itself was only a tiny part of education. Business Men and Education. An ideal had to be kept constantly forward and a business man had as big a part to play in education as anyone else. In this respect, unfortunately, people just blundered along, which waa wrong. It was necessary for all to work in the direction of creating the proper atmosphere, and as a teacher himself he could give the assurance that if the ideals were kept sufficiently high the teachers would respond to them. Mr de Berry Baid that he would copy the English system of education, where it was said that there were chairmen of education boards but no boards. Good work" was done, however, by committees, which investigated problems ana did a great deal for the cause of education. It was of course essential to have local control and interest and in this connexion he asked those present how much interest they took in school committees, or the Canterbury Board of Education. He was afraid that people generally were very remiss in this respect. Subsidies for Kindergartens. Continuing. Mr de Berry said that he would ensure that proper car© was given so that children when they were bom would be healthy. He would provide adequate playing fields for them to able them to develop their joys and happiness. He would provide kindergartens where children of poor patents cpuld be cared for, and so that this might be done he would see_ that sufficient subsidies were provided. -He would send children to Bchool later, and would have the various stages of their education linked up stage by stage right to the University.. He would get, back to some .extent to the Grecian idea _of care of the body, and wquld provide less book work and more, work. He would also prohibit the. publication of a lot of ugly things which were published in newspapers. Other steps he would take, Baid Mr de Berry, were tests to determine a boy's interest, not his capacity. He would not allow" technical institutions to .exist as separate institutions, but would conduct them as part of workshops or industries.. With regard to education at the University, he would divide ..it into tw* sides, one to' study research and th« other to study teaching, realising that . both were of great importance. " He would devise a new system of teaching, and when appointing> a teacher would 1 judge him solely on personality, taking him for what he was, u>t for what he knew. Teaching was a definite, calling, and no one should be allowed to up who was not interested in education. Having chosen a teacher, the speaker would leave him to himself. - 'fß&t as I am not a dictator but a humble teacher," said Mr de Berry in conclusion, "I strive as high as I can to get somewhere near the ideals I have placed before you."

In according Mr de Berry a vote of thanks, the president of the club (Mr C. L. Eollo) described the address ais one of the most outstanding ever delivered in Christchureh.