NEW EDUCATION FELLOWSHIP

Dominion, Volume 31, Issue 144, 15 March 1938, Page 10

NEW EDUCATION FELLOWSHIP

Defence By Mr. F. L. Conioj The educational outlook to-day was both stimulating and heartening. said Mr. F. L. Combs, vice-president of the New Zealand Educational Institute, addressing the Wellington Seitool Committees’ Federation last night. A feature contributory to a brighter educational horizon was the New Education Fellowship eon tereut.es wuicu took place iu the four main centres of New Zealand nine months ago. be sail. These- conferences had stirred pub ic interest in the schools to an exte; t unprecedented for two generations. Someone bad alluded to tl.eiu wkn all too superficial contempt as a

theosophical side-show. Tu.s speaker was evidently unaware tLat tlievsopfiy had played an outstanding part among religious bodies in ii.telleciuai leadership. Tlie term "sideshow.” 100, was particularly inept; the New Edncatiuii Fellowship included in its international headquarters, and its executive board some of the most distinguished educationists throughout the world. Ttiere was uot ;m overseas New Education Fellowship speaker who had come to New Zealand who bad i ot, either as an administrator or as -t leader of educational thought, made such outstanding contributions as to be a national figure. If one looked for educational s,deshows it must be in, a different direction where teaching, far from the busy hum of life, trod in the grooves of an obsolescent tradition. That people nationally mid internationally known should deem it a task of the first importance to vitalise and direct public interest in education increased one's faith in democracy.

Ours was an epoch of rapid change, and therefore one requiring fundamental readjustments of the public mind. it. was, therefore, essential that education should change with equal rapidity, otherwise there wou'-I be a time-lag >f public opinion ard western countries would be incapable of coping .with their problems. In th' schools new wine was bursting ninny antiqmi ed and, cobwebbed bottles: no soe.ailytuinded educationist would deny but what it was high time.