LIFE’S CALLING.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 26 August 1924, Page 6

LIFE’S CALLING.

1 WHAT CAN ONE BEST DO ? An interesting and at the same time thoroughly enjoyable address was delivered to Wtellingtoii llotarians by Dr. Adams on a new (to NevV Zealand) aspect of the -wider educational system. He spoke of the possibilities of classifying pupils in accord with their temperament and their capacity for doing certain types of work that in later life they might choose the calling for which they were best suited, to their own advantage, to the advantage of their employers, and to the advantage of the State at large. Dr. Adams referred in happy fashion to the registration card system brought into operation during the war, a card which was filled in by. every Englishman, and was pigeonholed in the Government offices, there to die quite a peaceful death. Actually, ib was a system of no importance, possibly it might have evolved into something really great. Such a system applied to the.school system, the filling in of'particulars in regard to every* boy and girl on leaving school could develop into a great system.

First would come the temperament of the boy or girl, for temperament counted for much in application to one’s calling. A pupil’s “various qualities as a human being” would be considered. No man had merely a good memory or a bad memory, for there were half a dozen different types of memory, the verbal memory, the rational memory, the chronological memory, and so 011. Surely a knowledge of the types for the position of a librarian would be of value in filling that position.

What faculty of attention did a person possess? In one occupation concentrated attention was required, in another diffused attention; a person whose attention was of a concentrated type should not, if the best results were to be obtained, be placed in an occupation where a diffused attention was required. One worker could give his or her whole attention to a space the size of a table napkin; another could, and would, notice the slightest abnormal happening of a whole roomful of machinery. A card whereupon appeared such and other particulars would show at once what work a man could best do, and doing so would operate in the interests of both employer and worker.

Mr Adams referred to an ingenious “capacity of work” recording instrument, the “ergograph,” and suggested that the record as shown by the ergographic curve, which-' was apparently permanent throughout life, might—evpn in the eyes of trades unions—very well form a basis for the amount of wages which should rightly be paid to individual workers as a return for the work actually done. During the latter war years the Army authorities knew very accurately indeed the numbers and physique of the lining people coming forward each year. To-day the want of that knowledge was gone as far as fighting was concerned, but as far as plumbing, engineering, (bookkeeping, and all other trades were concerned that need had not disappeared. A registration system of pupils leaving school would give such knowledge as regarded peace time activities.

Reference Avas made by Dr. Adams to an experimental system carried out in Germany before the war, whereby temperament and capacity according to allied groups of work, were taught a number of trades simultaneously, dropping those in which they made least progress at determined intervals. For instance, a group of boys AA'ould start off upon six trades, all allied in type, and would pursue these six trades for two years. Then the two trades in Avhich the boys each made least progress would be dropped, and so again at the end of the next tivo years," the result being that Avhen the course of training was being completed in the fifth and sixth years each. hoy AA'ould receive a final course of training in the tAvo trades at Aldrich he made the best showing. There Avas no sense of compulsion about the working out of such a system, no loss of the liberty of the individual; the most suitable life calling Avas indicated by a. gentle push, and the individual found his place in a trade for which, he Avas best suited.