CORRESPONDENCE

Evening Post, Volume CXXVII, Issue 111, 13 May 1939, Page 8

CORRESPONDENCE

DEMOCRATIC DUTIES

SHOULD THEY BE TAUGHT?

(To the Editor.)

Sir, —I read with interest both Mr. Hutton's address on "The School and the Democratic State" and your editorial on the same subject. You both agree that the future citizen must be fitted for the task of maintaining the principles of democracy, and you agree with Mr. Hutton when he suggests the use of indoctrination. But do you realise what the true principles of democracy are, and why indoctrination will harm a democratic country such as New Zealand? In your editorial you stated that "the very purpose of democracy is government by the people ... if democracy is to survive, the citizen must know his job, not only as a worker in contributing to the wealth of the community . . . but as a sharer also in the obligations and responsibilities of government." But this neglects the fact that all men are not equally qualified or equally desirous to govern, make decisions, and manage public affairs. In truth, only about 5 per cent, of the population are capable of exercising these powers. There can be no pure democracy as you see it propounded in the words: "Rule by the people, of the people, for the people." Part of the people alone can rule, and, in a modern democratic state, the duty of the whole of the people is to choose the men most fitted to rule. Thus the school teacher, working in the best interest of democracy, should cultivate the utmost individual freedom of thought, so that the natural ruler may find and develop his aptitude; and the great majority, who will some day choose their own rulers, are free to form individual ideals and opinions. Indoctrination in school only tends to set up similar views on what is right and wrong. Mr. Hutton is a schoolmaster and has said in his speech:— "The future citizen (meaning the schoolboy or girl) must know that a slack democracy is destined to perish, and it is his duty to assist in securing the efficient working and continued existence of that way of life that he has .received from his forbears." I take it that Mr. Hutton would indoctrinate his pupils with the idea that it was their duty to assist in the continued existence of the way of life they received from their forbears. I take it that Mr. Hutton would have them, among other things, beat the drums of war and place rifles in their own children's hands and sing them into battle, just as our forbears have done in years gone by. He would tell his pupils that the ways of their forbears are the heights to which they should strive: that the ideals of their forbears were the noblest and best. Let us be thankful that New Zealand is still young and as yet _ free from such indoctrination. For it is freedom of thought alone that, can build a strong democracy, and the great purpose and value of democracy is not to have government by the people, but to have the greatest amount of individual freedom for the people. This end can be attained by letting our future citizens form their own opinions and ideals, and letting indoctrination well alone.—l am, etc., ALUN FALCONER. (To the Editor.) Sir,—Your sub-leader on "Democracy and the School" yesterday emphasises the necessity of securing the "quality of individual members of the community as citizens, and their training in the tasks and duties of citizenship." A careful reading of the article reveals a consistency in using the terms "individual" and "citizen" as synonymous. This is basically erroneous. The true citizen in every community is the family; the individual being the natural component thereof. Individuals unattached to families are abnormal, and therefore not common to the natural make-up of the community. Despite this obvious natural truth, the modern educationists, when referring to the essential duties of the individual, completely ignore his primeval duties and rights as a member of the family, and as a potential founder of ,a family unit of his own; concentrating wholly on his relationship, as an individual, with the State, or the political-economical organs within the State. From this erroneous view springs a multitude of moral, political, and economic errors. Duties and rights peculiarly natural to the family are ignored as such, and are assumed by the State, which gradually becomes overwhelmed with an infinity of small duties never intended by Nature for it. Modern dictatorships all operate on this false conception of society, and the democratic nations, so called, are tainted with a large measure of it. So that an educational system which continues to ignore the essential fact that families are the basic units of society, and trains the ' individuals under its methods to absorb a brand of "political economy" which perpetuates this cardinal error, cannot possibly produce true democrats. Because the essence of true democracy lies in the maintenance of the moral dignity and economic independence of the family unit. The family, therefore, is the true citizen. —I am, etc., d. Mclaughlin.