VALUE OF MUSIC

Evening Post, Volume CXVI, Issue 144, 15 December 1933, Page 11

VALUE OF MUSIC

CULTURE AND EDUCATION

The importance of music as a cultural subject.was. stressed by Mr. JVM. Eenner, principal of Eongotai College, in his report, presented at the annual distribution of prizes this afternoon. He impressed upon those present that a man without culture was not educated. • " One of the moat valuable cultural subjects in the school is music," said Mr. Kenner ."We have gone a long way in placing music and the kindred arts in their proper position in. the curriculum. But we have a long way to go yet. Our difficulty is to persuade people .that 'there can be no. education in the proper,sense of the word apart from culture^-rthat a man or a woman for that matter may be wholly uneducated even if he -or she has passed the highest examination in arts or science. A man with culture is an educated man —a man without culture is not educated. The second great difficulty that confronts us in our desire to develop the cultural subjects is the pressure of outside examinations, the regard for and worship. of . which has become almost a national trait. Wo cannot make one-stop forward or devote one extra half-hour of our time to a subject like music, art, drawing, dramatic work, without having to anstyer the inevitable question: 'What about his senior free place examination, what about his matriculation?' Nevertheless, as I have said, we have made excellent progross and for that I have-to thank Mr. McCaw, Mr. Meier, and other visiting teachers, ~,,." Mr. Kenner appealed to parents to support the orchestra, l The importance of other cultural subjects, such as-drawing, dramatic aTt, and the art of public speaking and oratory also were mentioned by Mr. Eenner. ■