NOT TOO LITTLE, BUT TOO MUCH

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 103, 3 May 1937, Page 8

NOT TOO LITTLE, BUT TOO MUCH

>..'• TOO MUCH EDUCATION SYSTEM (To the Editor.) Sir,—"What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? lam constrained to ask this question by the intimation that another attempt is to' be made to "reform" our education system and bring it more, into line with modern thought and pre-sent-day requirements. During the last three or four decades various "reforms", have been introduced, but the sum total of them all has been the. creation _of an army'of commercial, social, and industrial misfits. ■ What' has the country to show for its annual expenditure of about four millions a year upon: education? Have we been educating our young people upon such lines that they will make good citizens? Or have we rather been" endeavouring .'to manufacture: people tol'whom-, the nobility, of honest-labour has no appeal?: . :The answer .is to be. found in the street, on the sports ground, on the racecourse, and in our social halls. How many of. our "educated" New Zealanders care a snap of the finger for those affairs of life that really count? How many are prepared to accept their share of civic responsibility? How many have aspirations for service in Parliament, and an ambition to. render useful work, for the benefit of their fellow men? The recent records of the Dominion supply. . their own tragic answer. I write with, a full sense of responsibility, as one who has reared a family, and served upon school , committees, education boards, . and boards of managers of technical schools. The fault" of our education system is not that we teach too little, but that we strive to teach far too much. Our boast that education in our country is "free" from the primary school to the university is grotesquely' absurd. Imagine a system that costs the taxpayers. four million a' year : being described as "free!" ' ' . ... The time has arrived when the-ques-tion must be seriously, asked .whether this drain upon the nation's resources caii:be .continued without .tangible beneficial results upon the social life ot Jhe community. If/a "reform" is to be undertaken, it: must be : of such a comprehensive character that its effects will be reflected upon the, lives of present arid future generations. We must db away with all the flummery and make-believe of education, ; and strive 'to inculcate in the minds of the youth of today a love for home .and.country, a true sense-LfcivicVand 'national responsibility, : a reverence for old age and the teachings of history, an appreciation.;^!- the"'nobility of work, and, if: one may be pardoned for -trespassing upon the realm of controversy, ;a realisation of the infinite, greatnessand immutable purpose of a sovereign Power which has ordained that all men shall have the rightto"live, move, arid have a-being.".;'ln short;, to be effective, our education system must be.based upon something higher :,and. more spiritual thfinit is today.—l.am, etc., : :- ' -.;. .. ■ '::...: ARTHUR H. VILE, Hastings, April 30. '. '.