STATE'S EDUCATION

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 241, 29 June 1918, Page 8

STATE'S EDUCATION

VALUES AND SYSTEM

[By 8.E.H.1

The national system of education fulfils only a part of ihe true functions of education. The whole system lacks two features, essential to efficiency. First, instruction in ihe art of concentration and connective thinking. Secondly, the necessary training in the duties and responsibilities .of citizenship. It is the lack of power to control mindwandering aiid waywardness so noticeable in the majority of colonial voutlis that displays the weakness of the system. By it they have been turned out from school with a few blunt mental tools, and with no skill and little knowledge of their use. These, therefore, lay noting until the youth is compelled by official or manual, duties to make what use he can of them, and to find them almost obsolete implements. If luck favours him he hacks out a precarious livelihood.

Listen to the normal youth eagerly discussing the. prospects of the different football teams; .not as a' player, but merely as a looker-on. This is his chief interest ■ from day to day, and all the days. The subject is ever-fresh and vigorous. Other subjects are scorned as piffle.' His daily occupation becomes a bore. It interferes with his criticism of games and girls. Ho is not ashamed of his limits. Manhood is, established by them. As a player he is a blank, as a critic he is profound! Here and there a youth detach:s himself to search for a higher scheme of life. For this he is. left severely alone by his contemporaries. To study, to be equipped for the whole battle of life, raises an intellectual gleam of inferiority in the pseudo-sport, who retaliates bg classifying ambition as that of "wowser.' The majority endorse this 'scathing term, and it comforts them. They are anxious to stamp out any spark of ability which may betray itself other than the "sport lxirk. The fear of being classed as something different from the majority is carVied to the extreme, and latent ability is often suffocated. . The whole system of education is based on mistaken values. The teachers we not themselves trained in this sul> ject of values. How should they be, as products of the system? They are tnrnew out from their training centres limited to the l>are requirements of a meandering and superficial syllabus, and are confined bv an ironbound time-table. Ihe child's many values are unappreciated. The child's mind is to the teacher merely a medium on wlueli lie . directs his own superficial life and learning, acquired in a set time in the training college. He seldom sees in the child the man in the making." When lie realises this lie will agitato for the broadening °Vhe present methods of the system cramp the personality of the children, a, well as that of the teachers, and keep them all on one dead level. The. result is the restriction to mediocritj, which, having nothing better locally l ° HJ™ itself with, is assumed to be suiiuciencj and efficiency. . . f , The demagogue, happening on fal low minds, assumes an . importance he is not entitled to, and his asscriioi9 secure an audience which boltshis op > ions without question. Practical education would detect his fallacies linmediatelv they ure uttered. . The school system should develop the mind so that feeling and. tl.ought work in harmony; . In the majority of caseo, it is feeling only that directs our political leaders; thinking only operates\tm the remunerative side of the arguments, ut a healthy blend of the two is nece* ary for the'jeople. The demagogue s cunning shouk\ bo instantly exposed I.V1 .V loL'icallv presented thought. l&en woild the public welcome truth, and, a. a corollary, condemn. fallacy. Truh it is worth while bringing about tills bet a splendid force the healthyminded ex-scholar, with a proportionate blend of muscle and well-trained intellect would be, if wisely directed. Unfortunately the school system is not concerned with . him after he. passes he school portals for the last time, and the. country is indilferent-excepi, for the weak effort known as "technical training." Thus he begins his low aim, for the object of technical training is solelj f °Why or this a^ift? The lad who shows special ability in chemistry probably becomes a saddler. The country which liaid for his education, the teachers \\ho discovered him, make no effort to guide him to the road that leads to the fcoal. Chance icatches him and drags whither it' may! . , , His foreign cousin, on leaving school with honours, is directed to the load most suitable to leud him to the fullest development ot Ins natuiivl powers, thereby enriching himself and his counnation is admittedly .an aggregate of units, and if each unit be made a success, the nation must be successful. On the other lu'iid, if the majoiity ot the units is allowed to become aimless, so will the nation. Aimlessness can be cured in youth only; maturity resists system produces ai "} leS3 " ness in thought, neglects to ' the sense of duty, or the low of country, and civic welfare. Political am bition degenerates to the cash value of the honorarium. Culture is held to be unbusinesslike. Honour is by business acumen. Respect and re\ erence are hypocrisies. Responsibility of this lies with the education system, which turns out narrowrut Iteachers, of textbook knowledge nnlv. The teacher should be selected wis'eiv, not'only for his academic ability but for his ethical .practice, for a high toned personality is essential for the higher' training of youth. Eemove the teacher from the standard of the paid. drudge to the social standing of the bishop. He is at luv>t of equal importance. The selection should be as momentous as the selection of a judge. One educates against crime; the other punishes the criminal. The teacher should redout ability, honour and a power of discriminating values Such a well balanced and strong personality would mould the plastic nature of youth into a divine force. The small knowledge necessary to. instruct the scholar in mere "mulberry bush routine is readily acquired, but the, ability to make a good man and uselul citizen is rare. in,:. Let us find the men who can do this, and (five to thcin the. national importance t-hev deserve. The country will be amply rewarded by the results of such selection. Our school system would then electrify the dry-bone system ol today, and a stronger manhood would arise in the near future.