EDUCATION AND AGRICULTURE

Press, Volume LXXIX, Issue 23946, 13 May 1943, Page 3

EDUCATION AND AGRICULTURE

SPECIAL STUDY IN SCHOOLS The educational authorities are making a special effort to balance community interests between town and country in New Zealand. Teachers are being provided with special material to enable them to obtain a wide perspective of the problem, and the last is-me of the "Education Gazette” has a special supplement dealing with a variety of aspects. “A disturbing feature of New Zealand life for many years has been the shift of population from country to town, a shift that is producing the paradox of the community in an agricultural country becoming less ruralminded,” says an introductory article in the "Education Gazette.” "The towns, especially as local industries develop. offer good jobs and regular working hours to young country folk. Thev can get ahead, save money, and settle down much more quickly than in the country, where in the majority of cases a young man has to look forward to years of saving before he can hope to buy a farm of his own. “Then there is the fact that life in many rural districts has very little to offer intellectually. Those who feel the need of intellectual pursuits turn to the towns, where they can widen their mental horizons and enjoy the companionship of people with interests similar to their own. These two sides of the problem—the economic and the intel-lectual-must be faced up to if we are to adjust and then preserve a correct balance between town and countrypopulations," the article continues. The economic problem was not for (he schools to solve, but on the cultural and intellectual side they could do a great deal, beginning with the inculcation of an increased respect for agriculture, it says. Agricultural courses should be so skilfully pliwined as to be firmly integrated with other school work. By this means the agricultural course would not be regarded as “a study undertaken by less bright pupils, but one requiring the fullest powers of mind." A new status and dignity would then be accorded the v» ork of the farmer. The activities might then be co-ordinated and expanded into community centres.