THE QUESTION OF EDUCATION

Grey River Argus, 30 November 1920, Page 6

THE QUESTION OF EDUCATION

/THE LABOUR PARTY'S POSITION . STATED. FREE EDUCATION WANTED. Speaking in the House of Representatives on the Education Amendment Bill, Mr H. E. Holland (chairman of the Parliamentary Labour Party) said: There can be" no question of greater import than 'this which is now before tho House. The last speaker remarked that possibly if some of usavlio are on these benches had had a higher education, we "might not ha\ r e been here. The reason wo are here to-night, taking up the attitude -we do take up, is because avc know better .than anybody else in this country the disabilities that belong to the life of the man who has been, denied education in his childhood. He Avho has been denied facilities for education, avlio has had to burn the midnight oil in pursuing his studies, without any adequate knowledge of the methods of study, knows better than the honourable member for Gisborne, or any other member, of the House, how utterly disadvantageous it is to be in that position. And I venture to say that there is no man who has undergone that experience who would wish to have his own or anybody else's children suffer the same disadvantages. How could .knowledge possibly be a disadvantage to anybody? One reason Ayhy I advocate education more strongly than I would advocate anything else is that I, along with my fellow Labour mebers, know that you lean NEVER MAKE SLAVES of educated men. The Russian Minister of Education, Lunacharsky, has said: "Whatever Budget is reduced, the Budget for public education must remain, because education is the honour and glory of the people." What is true of Russia is true of New Zealand and true of every country under the sun. There is to-day a hunger for education on the part of the people. Deny it whoever wishes, the fact remains that tho Avorld over, the people are hungering for knowledge; and nowhere AA«as.that hunger for knowledge more exemplified than in Russia after the revolution. When Tsardom was deposed, 2 per cent, of the people of Russia were literate. Before 12 months had gone over 30 per cent, of the people were learning to read, and were not only learning to read, but many of them were reading basic politics, economics and philosophy. The task that ought to be before the ParHament of NeAv Zealand to-day is lioav to make education positively free in this country. Free, compulsory, and secular education is what the party on these benches stand for, and Aye arc prepared to help the Government to make education free. A hope the day will come Avhcn we will have positively free education, not THE MISNAMED SYSTEM we have at the present time, for education is most certainly not free in Ncav Zealand to-day. I agree Avith those Avho say that the present Board system is not satisfactory. There is a great deal that could be said on that subject. I only have time to deal i with it in passing. The system of control that is needed in New Zealand today fs a system on which the teachers themselevs Avill have adequate representation, a Board system if you like, certainly not an intensely centralised system, but a Board system on AA-kich the State Avould be represented by the expert and the scientist on the one hand, and the teachers Avould be represented' by representatives elected through the machinery of their organisation. I believe that you would get a far more perfect system than you have at the present time, because you would have the theoretical knowledge I of the expert on the one hand, andj the practical knowledge of the teachers on the other. Clause 10 proposes to raise the school age to 15. Only one member of this House fortunately has raised his voice against that proposal. That proposal is, I think, one of tho most important in the Bill, and it certainly is a proposal that no thinking man or woman will object to. It errs only in that it docs not go far enough. If I remember rightly, the Teachers' Institute asked for the immediate raising of the age to, 16, with a further raising in the future to 18. THE LABOUR MOVEMENT stands for raising the age. to 16, and before this Bill goes through we shall give the House an opportunity of voting on an amendment in favour of 16. There is not a Avord to be said against extending the age. There is everything to bo said against holding the age down to 14. '• Certainly,; ( w3icn you start to talk about raising the school age, you have to take into consideration Avhat provision the State is going to make to give effect to the cphngc. The educated citizen is the very best asset that any country can have. The State that Tecogniscs that the eduea- j ted citizen is its asset certainly Avill not stop when it comes to making provision for educating the citizen. There is plenty of money ' in this country,' and there should be no lack of funds to make it possible to lift the school age. Let mc carry hoonurable members BACK TO RUSSIA AGAIN, where, with an economic blockade operating, with the country practically at war, the school age was raised to 16. They were faced at the time Tfcith their food supplies being cut off by^jthe Allied blockade, and they found ii necessary to make, it possible for ei|j,ldren to work for certain hours— children between 14 and 16, After the revolution,

(within 12 or 18 months of tho overthrow of Tsardom, more than 20,000 I schools, had been opened in Russia. The Russian people recognised what they Avere up against Avas lack - of education, particularly because in the days of Tsardom it was a criminal offef_cc to teach th*c peasant to Tead and write. Those who have read Russian history will know' how hundreds of Russian students came back from SAvitzerland in the latter half of last century arid entered upon the work', of educating the peasantry, Avith the result that within a very short period of time not one of those students Avas free, they Avere cither in prison or in Siberia. When they came back from Switzerland the men went out as carpenters, bootmakers, etc., and the Vonicn as mid Avives or teachers, and in this way they sought to teach the" illiterate. But as I have said, IT WAS A CRIME in the eyes of the Russian ruling class to teach tho peasantry. On tho day that a measure of freedom was achieved in Russia, it was recognised that one of the first essentials was the education of the people, and so the schools sprang up. And not only did schools spring up, but they utilised the theatres and. picture shoAvs for the purpose of educating both adults and "children. And they did more than that. They initiated .a medical service in connection with the schools. They had women doctors as well as male doctors looking after the younger children. They had opcn-aijr schools, whose curriculum included physical culture. Mr Jones: Aiid the children were starving. ' Mr Holland: The children were starving because an economic blockade w r as operating — an economic blockade on the part of the capitalist Governments of Europe against Russia. There is no more criminal kind of warfare than the economic blockade^ because it means warfare on women and children, because it brings death by starvation to the children who are in no way to blame even when the nations concerned are at w r ar. HoAvcvcr, there are the facts, and I do not propose to be draAvn off the line of my argument by interjections. In whatever country there is anything good to be copied •Ncav Zealand ought to be prepared to copy it. Conversely, avc ought to be prepared to avoid whatever is bad in the educational system of any country. There . is not a country in the world where it is not possible to find something both good and something bad. Let us take THE GOOD EXAMPLES from other countries and follow them. Noav, I want to say a AA'.ord with respect to the teachers themselves. I haA'c had telegrams' from the Buller Institute and the Grey institute, asking mc to suppoTt the Dominion promotion scheme. Tho Bill proA'idcs in a measure for this, and to that extent the Bill is to be' welcomed. The lack of a Dominion promotion scheme, it is pointed out by the teachers themselves, and by others who have looked into the matter, has operated to the detriment of both the teachers and the children. I had proposed to speak at more length on this aspect of the question but it is not necessary to do that since in a measure the Bill makes provision for it. But therO is one other matter the teachers arc concerned about that the Bill does not provide for ,and that is the payment of teachers removal expenses. It is one of the greatest handicaps on the teachers of New Zealand that tTiey arc compelled to pay their own expenses when removed from one place to another. I know the case of a teacher avlio Avas recently transferred from the town of Granity in my electorate to Richmond. The transfer Avas to his advantage in tnat no w r ent to a better school, but his removal expenses were £46. I have the case of another teacher whose removal expenses cost him £36 (and I haA>;e been told of still another case in Avhich the teacher had to pay £100 for removal expenses. The cost of the first removal I mentioned is by no means above the average for the distance involved. I knoAv that j Avhon I moved from Wellington to WcstpoTt it cost me not less than £60 for removal expenses alone. When a teacher is moved he has to PAY HIS OWN EXPENSES, whereas Avhcn other members of the Public Service arc moved they haA'o their removal expenses paid for them. I know the case of a postmaster avlio Avas recently stationed at Westport. He has been moved three times in two years, but on each occasion his expenses have been paid by the Government. If a railway man is moved form one place to another the department pays the whole of the removal expenses. Why should not the department treat the teacher in the same Avay as the postal employee and the railway servant arc treated? It is most certainly a proper thing for the department to pay the cost, of the removal of the railway man ot the postal official, and equally it is a wrong thing for the Education Department to deny the same treatment to the teacher. If it costs a teacher £50 to move, that means £1 a week from his salary for a year, which is a .serious matter for the teacher. I am sure that when the Minister' looks into this disability he will bo one of the first to help to remove it. Take the case of a teacher who is stationed at what might be called one of the worst of the teaching centres, for example such places as Dcnniston, Burnett's Face, Stockton, 'or Millerton. Those four places are particularly bad. Bur- , nett's Face is probably the worst of them. Dcnniston is 2000 feet above , sea level, on the top of a mountain, , and is mostly enveloped, in fog or a s cloud of mist. Millerton is 1000 feet |

above sea level. As a conseuencc it is -very DIFFICULT TO GET TEACHERS to go to such places. The Nelson Education Board sugegsis that it would be a wise thing to lift all such schools a grade higher than other schools more advantageously situated, and thereby induce foafihers to offer themselves. Sir, there is something wrong in the system that determines the status of a school, master oh the basis of the number of children attending the school. Take i Blackball, an insanitary aiid diseasestricken town, whose population is dwindling away. The school there is graded according to the number of pupils, and when the attendance declines the school master is liable to have his salary reduced. I maintain that every school! master should be graded according to his qualifications and abilities. There is another matter in connection with the curriculum, to AA'hich I want to refer. If one reads the "School Journal" he will find that a A r ast amount of attention is paid to the militaristic, nationalistic, and jingoistic side of education. I want to say here quite frankly that the day has come when w r c should write ALL MILITARY TEACHING out of the school books. We should elevate the minds of the children by teaching them the higher things of life, not the lower things. We should teach the children the lesson of human brotherhood and love. They should be taught that the same red blood of. humanity flows in the veins of all the races of man irrespective of creed or colour. The fact that they are bom on different soil' does not alter the fact that their interests are identical. Let the children be taught what affects adversely those avlio are living in any one country will necessarily affect, cither directly or indirectly, the rest ] of the 'world. If such teaching were carried out in the schools of all the world, then we Avould have a different world altogether I read the ' ' School Journal regularly, and I often find sandwiched amongst excellent articles on science and other subjects of great interest other articles which are posi- : tively a falsification of history, articles that arc laden Avith a „iom and with poison. I say it is the most regrettable thing in the Avorld that this should be so, because it lowers our educational; standards. There are iavo kinds of patriotism Avhich, may be taught; there is that kind Avhich was TAUGHT IN GERMANY prior to the war and which unfortunately we seem to be emulating here in New Zealand at the present time. S. T. Coleridge has briefly stated the German system. Ho says the German system insists that national education ought to aim at forming and training the people of the country to bo obedient, free, useful, and organisable sub- ' jects, citizens, and patriots, living to the benefit of the State and prepared to die in its defence. Mr Lysnar: Hear, hear. Mr Holland: That was the Prussian idea, and the honourable member ror Gisborno says '"'Hear, hear" to it. That is his idea of it. It shows that between the bourgeois mind of Germany and the bourgeois mind of New Zealand there is no very deep gulf. John ; Langdon Davics, in his excellent work i on "Militarism in Education," which any member of the House can read in the Parliamentary Library, after having outlined the German system and after haA'ing warned the British people aaginst the tendency to copy that system, goes on to say: — ' "Now, there is a humanistic loA r e of country which is merely a part of true internationalism. It is. the love and pride in one's country's spiritual contribution to the universe. . Such ideals are at the basis of the Danish FoilHigh Schools, where the adolescent is taught to revere his country's spirit as it is revealed in folk-song and mythology, music and art; to familiarise himself with this country's temperament^ — its gift to the -world; to express in himself al lthat is best in this spiritual heritage. Thus do we learn to feel ourselA'cs citizens of no mean ' city. "But the dangerous patriotism based on a love of commercial supremacy, naval and military . efficiency, and insular misunderstanding and undervaluing of all things foreign — which is all that the Navy League, tho colonels, bishops on the education committees and the givers of flags and bunting , mean when reduced to its lowest terms: , this let Us strive to eliminate and not to perpetuate; it will merely make us more like Prussia and less like England's better self." ( That is a sentiment that CA r cry member of this House ought to be prepared to subscribe to. Now, the honourable member fo rClutha dealt Avith the disabilities which- he alleged were impos- , ed upon '" BACKWARD CHILDREN by compelling them to undergo a sys- ( tern of education. I agree with very much of what., he said with respect . to that, but he seemed to ignore altogether that there is a method of deal- , ing Avith defective children from an educational viewpoint, and that the j Danish people seem very largely to ( have solved that ' problem. There is • uitc a number of other matters I should have liked to touch upon, but my time will not permit me to do so. I wanted to refer to the differentiation betAvecn mpn's and. Avomen's salaries, and to claim that male and female teachers, should be paid equally for equal work. I wanted to urge that school committees should be elected on a similar basis to that on which local bodies are elected. I have not time

to deal further with that aspect. In the feAv minutes that remain to me/I Avant to deal with clauses 26 and 27 of the Bill, and to say, in the matter of the scholarships, instead of dealing with them in the patch-work way in which this Bill proposes, w ; c should wipe out the scholarships altogether, substituing ABSOLUTELY FREE EDUCATION from the kindergarten to the university. We should provide that there will bo no bar to tho child of genius in the way of his or her progress from one grade to the others, from the primary school to the secondary school, and from the secondary school to the university — no bar except the child 's oavii inabiilty to pass the necessary examinations. The State itself should maice the education of the child its care, and should see that if the child is able to pass those standards it should be made financially possible for it to pass through every grade. It seems to niOj that AVhile clause 27 makes a pro- j vision, the coming of which may be said to be inevitable, it is merely a concession to one of the most sinister influences inside of New Zealand, and honourable members will know wdiat I mean Avhen I say that. Mr Speaker, I propose on behalf of tne Labour Party to give tho House an opportunity to vote on the following amendment: — "That the Bill be Tef erred back to the Committee for the purpose of considering the question of substituting for clauses 26 and 27 other clauses Avhich will provide: (1) That all scholarships be abolished. (2) That education in the national schools shall he absolutely free, and, that there shall be no bar to any scholar passing from the primary to the secondary school and on to the university other rthan his or her inability to qualify by examination for the higher grades." ,