WORKERS’ EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION.

Evening Star, Issue 19409, 18 November 1926, Page 6

WORKERS’ EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION.

Life is a challenge, not a truce, to the Workers’ Educational Association. Its road may bo said to wind uphill all the, way, which is perhaps good, on the whole, for its vigor and vitality, though it can bo discouraging at times. Easy conquests are forbidden to a body which is required to spend , too much of its time soliciting funds that are essential for the continuance of its work, that is always meagrely staffed through the scantness of funds, and whose efforts to benefit the community are accustomed to be met by a full measure of the suspicions and questionings that are the usual accompaniment of such labors. No small part of the report of the Otago branch which will be presented at the annual meeting to-night is concerned with a reply to those suspicions and an explanation of what the association really stands for. It docs not exist to make converts for either Capitalism or Bolshevism, to convince men of the perfectness of the present system of society, or confirm them in discontent with it Its tutors are not propagandists, but teachers. Their business is not to form beliefs, hut to furnish a foundation of accepted knowledge on which the individual can form beliefs for himself, with the advantage that they will he something more than instinctive (which too often means prejudiced) or impulsive. It is an influence for reasoned and informed opinions, which will seldom in practice be violent or destructive. The limitation of its functions which we have described may he hard on its tutors, since most men find pleasure in airing their own views than in teaching mere facts and general principles, but they cannot be propagandists instead of teachers without betraying their calling. The impartiality of the association on vexed questions is of a piece with the whole nature of its constitution. It is controlled by the University, assisted by a tutorial committee which itself is formed of seven delegates from the University Council and seven from the District Council. The District Council, which is the organising body, is formed from the affiliated bodies-—trade unions, chambers of commerce, .and others — who are subscribers of a guinea a year and upwards to the funds. Almost tho widest possible variety of opinions, therefore, is included in its control. Its lecturers, as lecturers, have no opinions, but the widest play is provided for its pupils’ views in the discussions which follow addresses, which also are tlie best inducement to broadmindedness and tolerance when different viewpoints have to be considered and different classes are brought together. As the report neatly puts it, “ if, in tho process of interchanging ideas, we discover that those who differ from us are not necessarily defective, cither morally or intellectually, that, too, is a conclusion which is not without value.” After eleven years that the association has now been working in New Zealand there should be small room for either ita principles or its methods to be misunderstood- We are glad to find that, notwithstanding special difficulties which the Otago branch has had to face this year owing to the. prolonged illness of one of its tutors, it is still forming new classes, and considering how it can extend its work by > correspondence to those too remotely situated to come into personal contact with its lecturers. The work of the association has had its ups and downs in recent years in Otago, but its growth has been remarkable since it was founded, and it is growing throughout No movement in these days fills a better purpose than one which exists to enlarge the intellectual interests—in the best sense to enrich the lives—of workers in town and country, and which, by bringing all classes together, helps them to understand one another. The association should be helped, and not discouraged, by all who have this country’s welfare at heart.