EDUCATION CONFERENCE

Evening Star, Issue 22638, 3 May 1937, Page 3

EDUCATION CONFERENCE

KENT'S DIRECTOR OF EDUCATION TO ATTEND 'Already a considerable amount of attention has been attracted by the announcement that Mr Salter Davies will attend the New Zealand sessions of the New Education Fellowship Conference. Mr Davies is one of the bestknown Directors of Education in the world, and, a prominent figure in the library sphere, being president of the Library Association of England. His advice will be particularly welcome in view of the forthcoming reorganisation of education in New; Zealand. Mr Salter Davies has been Director of Education for Kent since 1918, and life trustee to the Carnegie United Kingdom Trust since 1924. Apart from his work as Director of Education, he has taken leading parts in the work of numerous organisations, including the capacity of expert advisor of Army Education, educational adviser to H.M. prison. Maidstone. He is member to the National Advisory Council for the Ministry of Labour, a member of the Executive Committee of the 8.8. C.

School Broadcasting Council, the Film Institute, the National Council of Social Service, the Educational Reform Council, the Departmental Committee on Public Libraries, 1924, Exceutive Committees of the National * Central Library for Students, Association of Education Committees, County Councils, and the Association of Directors and Secretaries of Education. Mr Salter Davies was educated at Haverford-West Grammar School and University College, Aberystwyth, and was classical scholar at Jesus College, Oxford. From 1893-96 he was master at Glasgow Academy, and from 18971904 master at Cheltenham Grammar School. Till 1918 he acted as inspector for higher deucation in Kent. In 1924 he was elected president of the New Education Fellowship (English section). Among his numerous publications are ‘ The Aim of Education,’ ‘ The Reorganisation of Education in England,’ ‘Education for Industry and for Life,’ and ‘ Technical Education.’ Mr Salter Davies says that in his education district they are aiming at establishing all over the country modern schools at suitable central places, taking in the children of perhaps five, six, 10 or even 20 of the surrounding villages. “ The first problem was, of course, that of buildings. ' I am very tired of the person who comes to the educationist and says, ‘ It is not the building that makes the school.’ It was the Greeks who said that it is not buildings that make a city, but those men who were Greeks built a city the broken stones of which are to-day the admiration of the world. We should insist that our children, the future citizens of their country, shall be educated not in mean, discreditable buildings, but in buildings which they will remember with pride. The new buildings in my own country are such buildings as children may well be proud of and are proud of. Each stands in a site of not less than eight acres, and where there are two schools, one for 480 boys and 480 girls, the site will be 16 acres. These schools possess not only classrooms, but workshops of all kinds—workshops for wood and metal, for cookery and needlework, and workshops which are just workshops, the specific use of which has not been entirely determined . . . and it has particularly in the more rural areas a canteen where the children coming from a distance eat their midday meal in decency and an comfort. I think that that provision is one of the most important educational provisions in the school. Nothing has impressed me more in my peregrinations through my area than to see these children sitting down at tables spread with spotless tablecloths and decked with flowers, to eat a decent and well-served meal.” Mr Salter Davies will be accompanied by his wife, and he expresses regret that he will be able to stay in New Zealand for only a few weeks. In a recent letter he says that Lord Bledisloe told him that if ever he saw New Zealand he would never want to leave it.