A FRESH THREAT

Evening Post, Volume CXIX, Issue 134, 8 June 1935, Page 28

A FRESH THREAT

EDUCATION AND DICTATORS

Sir Ernest Simon, chairman of the Association for Education in Citizenship, told the New Ideals in Education Conference at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, that those concerned with education had to meet the new menace of dictators, who disliked above all things democracy, liberty, freedom of expression, and all the virtues we in this country associated with democracy, says the "Manchester Guardian." Dictatorship, he said, stood only for obedience and discipline, and the method was always the same—propaganda and brutal and cruel repression. Tolerance was the greatest possible crime in countries which "enjoyed," as they put it, dictatorships.

One of the great questions in front of the world was whether this completely new system of' education, which was deliberately calculated, intensive, and where necessary brutal, inculcating one political point of view for future citizenship, was to spread. It had been said that the sort of training given in schools in dictatorship countries was a vile prostitution of education, and that was, true. British youth must be given a liberal education, and must be trained in wise and sensible citizenship.

The products of British education were on the whole very good. We got some who were pretty well trained and who did their jobs well. -There were no complaints on the vocational side. But teachers must turn out people who as a result of their education were determined to prevent cruelty and tyranny, believing in metiAds of persuasion. He believed that a great deal could be done in the secondary schools, where education in citizenship did not receive the consideration it should.

He suggested that there had been a tendency in the past to make classics, history, and geography too .abstract, with no relation to present-day life. It was desirable arid necessary to have some direct teaching in what used to be known as civics, economics, and politics. In teaching for future citizenship, however, they had some extraordinarily complicated and difficult questions to consider from, the point of view both of economics and of politics. They had to weigh carefully the arguments from both sides before they could offer their children a balanced judgment. This kind of education required a special kind of training,' but everybody ought to be taught these things. The young people had to learn to form sound judgments on these complex subjects and try to eliminate their own emotions and prejudices. They -must lay the foundation of clear thinking, character, and outlook, and above all send out boys and girls interested in the world and intending to go out prepared to educate themselves. One could not get wisdom in social affairs while one was young. One could be interested and ready to help, but must have trie older people to help and advise. .

He believed that our future civilisation depended on education. The future generation must be encouraged to have a wider vision and to resist this tyranny, which, as General Smuts had said, was a menace to the world. The most important profession in this country was the profession of education. Parents seemed to be' tending to take their responsibilities less and less seriously, owing to the rapid increase of attractions such as motoring and cinemas. They were more and more leaving things to the teachers, who were becoming profession parents as well as teachers.

It was of the utmost importance, therefore, that they should teach their pupils, in addition to training them for the vocations and in the best use of leisure, to be good citizens and to make the world really safe for democracy. Mr. J. H. Simpson, principal of the St. Mark and St. John Training College, Chelsea, who presided, said there was a rapidly-increasing number of people who felt that education in the schools for training children for afterlife should be more definite and deliberate than in the past. At the present time training for citizenship was incidental, ,