W.E.A.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 7 March 1925, Page 16

W.E.A.

Who knows and knows not that he knows is asleep, wake him; Who knows not and knows that he knows not, is simple, teach him;

Who knows not and knows not that lie knows not, is a fool, tell him ; Who knows and knows that he knows is. a wise man, follow him.

In' this column, from week to week, will he recorded and discussed items of interest concerning the important problems of adult education. The column will provide a means by which readers of the Star will be. kept in touch with what is being done to broaden the minds and widen the outloolf of‘the mass of the people, especially through tlie public lectures, classes and “schools” of the Wbrkers’ Educational Association. It. is hoped that seere- „ taries of the AV.E.A. classes and readers of- this column will forward items of interest to the Director of Tutorial Classes, Victoria University College, Wellington, under whose supervision the column is conducted. POPULAR, EDUCATION. , The attempt to educate the mass of , the people of any community is very modern. It has now, however, gone beyond the experimental stage in all advanced countries, and the more hack, ward countries are beginning to ’as- . socinte their position with the absence ol‘ popular education. With the extension of the political franchise it whs felt that it was necessary "to-edueatfe our rulers.” Hence in this country system of primary education, tree, secular and compulsory, has been of- * ganised, and the secondary schools and \ university have been opened to ; thousands to whom under the order con- > ditions the doors would have closed. The benefits of this wider educational - policy need hot be enumerated; they are. obvious eno-.gh. But every advance is liable to produce its own set-off if we are not careful to provide against it. Popular schooling has given rise to the popular error that education is a question for the schools, and is confined thereto; that the youth who has been through the primary, secondary or university grade (or all of them) has “fihisbed” his education.

ADULT EDUCATION. This popular error. 1 has a most disastrous innuence on the life, of any people. Thinkers have always realised that education is a life-long process and every community must-be made to realise the truth ot this. ‘Surely it is being more and more felt that an enlightened educational system itself is possible only among an enlightened people. Alankind finds itself within a > icious cii-cle; it cannot have a fully developed system of education except among an educated people; it cannot have an educated people unless it has a fully developed educational system. How can this vicious cire.e be broken? Only by the education of the adult. DEMOCRACY OF EDUCATION. Every democ.rs.icy is feeiiiig more and more that it cannot continue to neglect the training of the adult. Modern civilization involves an ever-increasing complexity of social condicions, and its life depends oh; an ever-increasing devolution of responsibility if it is to avoid the reign of a bureaucracy Or the evils of the servile state. As the feature of the educational development of the past half-century has been .the organization of a scheme of education for the children of our people, so the educational development ,qf the next o) years will centre round the movement for adult education. It is vain to hope that we can by any magic- power, such as tlie teaching of civics, make citizens of the scholars of our primary and secondary schools. What we are doing, not what we are saying,* will influence them. Citizens can be made only bv placing on individuals tlie duties of citizenship, thereby making them realise the relation of cause and effect in social relations; that the evils that we bear are the inevitable result of the people that we are. Be what we are and we suffer what we*do. AVe can make the world safe for democracy only by having a democracy so trained and enlightened that it can be, safely trusted to handle the great problems that modern civilzation has raised. It is an age of tremendous mechanical power. How this power- will be .used depends wholly on thei type of man and community into whose hands the direction of power falls. Hence the importance of adult education, an importance that is being increasingly recognised by the most civilized nations of the world as it was in time past by more primitive people in simpler types of social organization.. In New Zealand a great part of this work has fallen upon and will continue to fall upon the Workers Educational Association. It will he one of the aims of this column to make the objects and activities of this association known as widely as possible. '