EDUCATION IN 1933

Press, Volume LXIX, Issue 21034, 9 December 1933, Page 20

EDUCATION IN 1933

Year of Many Changes : MINISTER DISCUSSES HIS POLICY The Minister for Education, the Hon. R. Masters, has written for "The Press" the following brief article on the changes which the economic situation have made necessary in the administration of his department:—■ Nineteen hundred and thirty-three has been another difficult year, but it has been possible to maintain the foundations of our education system intact. The effects of unemployment among teachers have been mitigated, as they were last year, by rationing the work usually undertaken by the relieving teachers, additional assistants, and probationary assistants. The scheme is at present under review with the object of discovering whether modification is necessary or advisable. lam very pleased indeed at the spirit shown by these rationed teachers, who have given their best in the positions they have occupied. On account of the supply of trained teachers exceeding the number of positions available, it was necessary to close the Wellington and Dunedin Training Colleges from the beginning of 3933, and the decision has recently been reached to suspend altogether the training of teachers next year. The Auckland and Christchurch Training Colleges will therefore be temporarily closed, but it is hoped to resume training in 1935 in preparation for the requirements of the service in 1937. In order to retain intact the excellent staffs the training colleges have built up through years of careful selection, the principals and vice-principals will be attached temporarily to the inspectorial staff, while the lecturers will be employed in various districts to see and to help the teachers in their schools, and to hold refresher courses in convenient centres. They will thus themselves have the opportunity of seeing how the principles inculcated in the training colleges are being applied in the schools. After such an experience we may be confident that training college practice will be modified, if necessary, to meet any needs thus discovered. This unique opportunity for an educational survey by those responsible for the training of teachers is not one lightly to be disregarded, either by those responsible for the administration of our education system, or by the college staffs themselves. The policy now so general elsewhere of terminating the primary stage of education at about the age of 11 years and transferring the pupils to intermediate schools or departments in order to determine the more accurately what form of postprimary education they could subsequently most profitably undertake has been carried out where conditions have rendered it possible. It is inevitable that such a break with long-estab-lished practice cannot be made without some opposition and criticism. The experiments of other English-speaking countries, including America, have been carefully studied, but the peculiar circumstances of New Zealand, not least of which is its relatively small population, preclude the possibility of transplanting any system without very thoughtful modification to suit our own needs. I feel confident that the system is evolving satisfactorily and that the new organisation will prove very suitable for the better education of the children of the Dominion. In response to widespread requests, the requirements of the proficiency examination were modified this year to allow more freedom in arranging satisfactory courses in intermediate schools and to allow also of due credit being given for proficiency in handicrafts. When the results of this examination are to hand the position will be reviewed. It is the aim of my department, while maintaining the standard of accomplishment which the public have associated with this certificate, to do nothing that would prevent each pupil being educated along the lines most suited to his native abilities. Facilities for free post-primary education were extended during 1933 to all persons who had held junior free places in the previous year, had failed to secure senior free places, and were unable to pay fees. Provision was also made in cases of special hardship for remitting fees payable by students m evening classes at technical schools, in which, in spite of a general shrinkage in attendance, especially in trade courses, all reasonable demands for instruction were satisfied as in previous years. In addition, the fee for the intermediate examination was remitted in the case of children of all registered unemployed persons. On the whole, therefore, I think I may reasonably claim that, while distinct advance has been made along certain lines, the economies which difficult financial times have necessitated have been made without placing the New Zealand child at any disadvantage in regard to the acquisition of a sound and liberal education.

EDUCATIONAL AIMS

THE INDIVIDUAL AND SOCIETY MAINTAINING A BALANCE (specially written roil tile PItESS.) [By N. T. LAMLlOl'liXl-:, Director of Education. ] . The aim of education may be viewed from the individual or from the social standpoint or from both. In recent years, education has been conceived as a provision for the realisation of the self at every stage of development. Such an aim recognises that no two of us are born alike and that each and every one should be given the opportunity to realise his or her innate capacities. With the spotlight playing so intensely on the individual it was natural that the importance of social interaction—in the home, in the school, in business and in society—as a definite factor in individual development should be minimised. Man cannot live alone. Individualism carried to the extreme means ultimate annihilation both to the individual and to the nation. Man in his own right justly claims an opportunity for free and complete development, but as a member of a group, his freedom is necessarily and severely circumscribed. His real freedom must be proportionate to the security and equilibrium of his group, intellectually, morally, and economically. Except for the purpose of abstract academic enquiry, the individual and the group should not be separated. In the manipulation of natural forces, man has exceeded his wildest dreams. The resultant improvements in transport and communication, in production on a grand scale, in the creation of huge industrial cities and in the minute division of labour, have widened the bounds of the group, and made man more dependent than ever before on his fellows. Education, therefore, must seek to maintain an even balance between the individual and society. The structure of modern society is now so complex that it demands the fullest development of social efficiency, of social culture and of social virtues. At present we are, as circumstances arise, individualistic instead of socialistic, sectional instead of national, nationalistic instead of international, in outlook. The aim of education should be, then, not the development of the individual alone, nor of the group alone, but the development of the individual as a constituent and responsible member of the group. Teaching is both a science, and as such could be taught, and an art; and ;to become an artist in teaching, in addition to knowledge and interest, clear purpose and, above all, a background of principle is required. Education in this country is not a form of national drill; we consider it more important to teach how to think than what to think. Truth and education are very close together because for each it is an essential condition to know how small a thing was what we know compared with what there was to know. —Lord Irwin.

THE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE

THE SERVICE OF TRUTH FUNCTION IN THE COMMUNITY (SPXCIALLY WEITTEX tOR THE TEESS.) [By OR. JAMES lIIGITT, Itcctor of Canterbury College.] Canterbury University College, established 60 years ago, is one of the constituent colleges of the University of New Zealand. "The University of New Zealand"—this name has a special significance we should do well in times of national crisis to stress. In the first place, the name suggests that the university is an institution specially designed to serve not other lands or the world in general, except in so far as these may benefit indirectly from our own progress, but this our Dominion, and the Dominion as a whole, not merely one particular locality or one particular class. It is true the Dominion is divided into four university districts, but no regulations prevent students becoming members of a university college outside their own district if they so desire. This freedom of movement provides a condition of healthy competition between the colleges and should also operate to restrain a college from the temptation to provide chairs and fully developed departments in all subjects common to university curricula. Specialisation so far has been limited for the most part to the professional schools of the university; but it is a matter for serious consideration whether, in view of the great cost of effectively equipping and maintaining a modern university, the principle of division of functions among the colleges should not be extended, preferably by voluntary co-operation among them. Secondly, the name "University of New Zealand" implies the obligation to ascertain and satisfy the essential requirements of a particular people with its own peculiar geographical situation, environ-

ment, and social structure. As a British community we have very properly looked for guidance to the universities of the Homeland; as a new country we tend more and more to look closely into the experience of the universities of the other Dominions and America; but as The University of (and for) New Zealand, we must ever be on guard against adopting features from abroad until satisfied that they suit, or can be modified to suit, our own special conditions. This consideration does not in the least detract from the responsibility thrust upon us with especial force by the fact of our situation remote from the great centres of culture first for providing in university education the best safeguard against parochialism and complacency, and, secondly for keeping in close touch with university movements among those peoples whose experience has led them to place the highest value on universities as the institutions with the most vital bearing upon a nation's fate. Struggle for the Academic Ideal. A third implication in the name —and one that we in New Zealand require to take much more seriously than hitherto —is that the institution in question was designed not as a 'high school, or technical school, or college of secondary grade, but as a "university," a place where 1 all things are examined from all points of view by presumably the keenest minds that can be brought to bear upon them. Unfortunately our university has been unable to free itself from a certain overlapping of functions wtih high, technical and art schools, but it struggles, and I believe valiantly, against odds to discharge the true functions of a university—the correlation and exposition of the best knowledge of the past, the discovery by research and speculation of new knowledge, the diffusion of knowledge and its application to the various special activities of the community. Doing these things for New Zealand, promoting the harmonious working. of its people with their environment, and contributing thus to the welfare of the world in general, thera is no doubt that the university will in the long run repay more than a thousandfold whatever it may get from the individual or the state. An ancient institution, a university is occasionally exposed to bitter attack; yet there is everywhere a general belief, among leaders of thought that, should universities fail to discharge their essential functions, the stream of civilisation would dry up at the source. Universities, particularly in new lands, are coming more and more under the control of governments and tend to be viewed by many as a part of a "national" system of education often with rigidly fixed standards and narrow ideals; but though beset by- the temptation to yield something to the prejudices of the .passing hour in, politics or] in busi-

ness, they yet retain the respect and nourish the confident hope of the intellectual leaders of the age, just because they are avowedly the places where knowledge and truth are sought in the main disinterestedly and fearlessly. Contact With the World. But the modern university is no mere scholar's refuge from the world. Plato likened the philosopher, the lover of good and the possessor of true knowledge, scorned by ordinary men, to "one who, in the storm of dust and sleet which the driving wind hurries along, retires under the shelter of a wall; and, seeing the rest of mankind full of wickedness, he is content, if only he can live his own life and be pure from evil or unrighteousness, and depart in peace and goodwill with bright hopes." But the modern university thinker or researcher, haying found the truth as he sees it, shares it with the world and investigates the most effective mode of applying it so as to increase some part of human welfare. This is the main support for the claim of a university upon the beneficence of the community. The humanities, new and old, and the sciences are their chief studies, but the humanities—literature, philosophy, history, economics, politics, and so forth—cease to be humanities if we pursue them only in the scholar's study and the lecture-room. Nowadays the university worker goes out seeking contact with the world of affairs, but only to get all the relevant and representative data on his problem so as to safeguard against the superficial and the partial. So the university trains men for the more serious business of life and to the supreme degree for the understanding of public affairs and their interpretation to those who will give heed. That is the chief value of the university scholar in affairs—to analyse situations into their elements, relate them to their background in history, in the nature of man, in the social and natural environment, to show the ordinary man what things actually are apart from what they seem to be, why and how they have come to be, and to give a hint of what they may be and mean in the long run. Want of Library Equipment. To these various ends Canterbury College has developed a wide field of activity. Besides the usual faculties of arts and sciences there are faculties which give a more professional training: engineering, our school of engineering being the national school; forestry—also. the national school; commerce, includ-

ing accountancy; law; journalism; music; the fine arts; and the first year of medicine. The chairman of the Board of Governors has recently drawn public attention to the amount of work beyond that of the class room and laboratory performed by the staff of the college for the city and province. The number of students at the college during the last few years has averaged about 1200 each year. If its efficiency is to be maintained and developed to a degree adequate to its special purpose, there are certain needs that urgently demand attention, the most important of which is that of a new library and the means of its maintenance. The University Colleges of New Zealand have always suffered greatly in respect of library equipment in comparison even with small and 'unimportant colleges abroad. This defect is particularly unfortunate since the tendency everywhere is to attach greater and greater importance to the library as a factor in university life. New Eagerness for Truth. The economic crisis has had many effects on the colleges, some of them very obvious, not the least upon the attitude of students towards their studies and the academic system as it is to-day. There is no space to recount these effects; though one must mention in passing the notably keener and more intelligent interest taken by students in public affairs, international as well as domestic, and a tendency to examine institutions, policies, and ideals as far as possible free from partisanship, with an eagerness to get at the truth of things. As to the effects of the depression and financial retrenchment upon the material fortunes of the University, I must limit myself to quoting the judgment of a distinguished American university president:

When such a misfortune is visited upon the higher institutions it must inevitably take years to restore their efficiency, to revive their scholarship, and to re-engage them in research. We cannot pinch our way through to prosperity, nor can we pay the long-running debts that have been incurred without developing the creative power of the people. This is the surest and safest way of paying our debts, of vanquishing poverty, and of restoring hope. A wise business people who have regard for their own interests and who cherish what they owe their children, will, through all. and in spite of the winds of frenzied finance, keep constantly at a high level the intellectual and spiritual resources of their life and power. It is in the course of great business depressions that we test our intelligence and inventory our convictions. To lower the quality of life for which improvements have been made, and which has been achieved after heroic struggles by our less prosperous forefathers, would be a betrayal of the great sacrifices which animated and directed the life and thought, the dreams and hopes of these pioneers.

MODERN YOUTH

A COURAGEOUS OUTLOOK / The Archbishop of Canterbury, addressing a large gathering of workers among young people in the diocese of London recently, said that it was no use going to the young folk in an attitude of superiority or patronage. They must be at the side of the young people and see life as they saw it. He believed that the youth of the present generation was a finer material than the youth of any other generation of which he had any knowledge in the history of this country. There was their frankness, sincerity and straightforwardness; so little of pretence and the playing of a part. They were extraordinarily hopeful and courageous in their outlook upon life. Many of them were to a degree he thought hitherto unknown, extraordinarily open in mind, and full of keen interest in all that concerned, not themselves only, but their country and the world. He knew full well their obvious faults; their lack of self-control, their excessive self-confidence, their belief that they had a divine right to live their own life in their own way, whatever it might be. Extraordinary freedom was now allowed to both sexes. He knew full well its dangers; it was inconceivable they should not cause many a shipwreck of that which ought to be the most precious possession they had. But what w'as far more amazing to him was that, with all that freedom, there should be so much astonishing selfrestraint and so many evidences, where perhaps they might least expect it, that deep down there. was some standard to which they resolved to be loyal.