MATERIALISM AND EDUCATION.

Press, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20730, 15 December 1932, Page 13

MATERIALISM AND EDUCATION.

! DISCUSSION of values. j I ADDRESS BY PROFESSOR SHELLEY. ' the materialistic outlook on 'Ju'u of the modern world and its relation to present problems was discussed by Professor James Shelley last evening in his address ut the breaking-up ceremony of the Cathedral Grammar School. "These are the days when one has to be serious about education," he said, "because as far as I can gather there are people up in Wellington who are not serious. It is in times of depression that we learn that men do not live by bread alone.'' Materialism had ruled the world too long, continued the speaker. For years we had prided ourselves on the way in which we had produced quantities of goods, but the speaker understood that one of the chief reasons for our present difficulties was that we were said to have- produced far too much. Nevertheless, aa long as there were empty mouths in the world, it could never be said that we had produced too much. Business Men iu Charge. When one heard people talking contemptuously about the high falutin' things taught at such schools as Llie Cathedral Grammar School, one usually heard them add the remark that what was wanted was a few business men in charge of things. But business men had been in charge too long—men with vision and imagination were w-anted to euro tho evils from which the world of to-day was suffering. Moreover, it was the business men in Parliament who wanted to cut down education. That desire to cut down education was one of the greatest fallacies imaginable, because the things that could be got from education were worth ten times the things that could be got iu any other way. "Believe me," said Professor Shelley, "the way to find religious values and great ethical values is not j the way that lies through great wealth." 1 Aims in Education. I Beai values, the speaker continued, could not bo measured in terms of examinations. Examinations only showed that one had certain tools at one's disposal to be used in living one's life, if one knew how to live it. And how many people, he wondered, knew how to live their lives? lie ventured to suggest that to find examples of those who plainly did not it was not necessary to look far from Wellington to start with. If the people of Christchurch had proper values they would not put into positions of power men who believed in nothing but material possessions. "This is just the time when one should spend more money oil education," went on. Professor Shelley. "The only thing that can put the world straight again Is education in tho fundamental sense of the term—and even education will not put |it right in five minutes. The depression is a disease, and unless we expel that disease it will destroy our civilisation. "Serious Jobs of Life." '•The education of to-dav is supposed 1 to train our children for the serious jobs of life—for the business jobs! To me business life is not serious—it is some- j thing to laugh at, and, as a matter of fact, most business men of to-day are laughing at it themselves. Moreover, the number of business jobs that are able to be done by mental deficients are increasing. More and more positions ,for unskilled workers are being opened up, and these are positions which are degrading to the human race : —degrading and lowering. "What we must do now is to put the body in its place and give the soul a chance. So long as we rely on industrialism we shall go down and down in the scale of civilisation," concluded Professor Shelley. "We shall como nearer and nearer to ignorance and cruelty. It is the politician's job to look after the country to-day, but it is the business of the educationist to look after it for tho years to come. When people say that education should bo cut down, tell them they are talking nonsense. It does not matter what position they hold in the country—tell tlieni it just the same."