LOW STANDARD?

Hawera Star, Volume LIV, 7 June 1935, Page 4

LOW STANDARD?

Efforts to Plumb the * Depth of Public Knowledge SOME ENGLISH HOWLERS I CONTROVERSY RAISED The Dean ot' Christ Church, Oxford, who was a at one of - tlio i numerous .coni'cmiccs which are a constant feature of tlie British Easter holiday, season, lias been emphasising the need fur training’ taste, says a writer- iii. the Melbourne, “ Age.” There ia iio lick', of evidence- of the' need ..of ' such 'training. The dean was content to illustrate liis homily with a reference to the uglilicatiqti of the countryside which is going onrSQ .rapidly in ill-considered building developments, and on a much wider Scale,, by the depredations • err trees and flowtrs in- rural England and- the. spreading-of litter by thoughtless‘-trippers. By all means let the rising generation be taught respect for the beauties of nature and the need fof the 1 preservation of the charm of the ’countryside. It. was. irqpjicit in' his address, however, that it was good taste in its broadest sense that JUean .Matthews desired to see encouraged. It is not given to all of us to develop a just sense of values.in_artj_ literstiir.C, and music, "but in our everyday avocations there are plenty of opportunities, at present sadly neglected, of displaying good taste. It can be expressed no less' in good carpentry than in a nice appreciation of Italian Renaissunce .painting, and the lives of all of us would be enriched if the products of modern schools were trained to reject what is vulgar and tawdry, whether in the cinema, in the shops, or in the home.

ACCURATE KNOWLEDGE Educationalists arc looking to the many forms of unofficial education that abound, to-day to - supply this need, which the schools can never fully • meet. The British Broadcasting Corporation is .one of the pet objects upon which their-maiii hopes "are built. But, excellent though its work may be in f-ftfk 1 ’-direction, it ‘Would be unwise to expect too much of it, The Dean of Christ Church (who as a former head of Winchester is almost 'of necessity an .exemplar of good taste) realises that in the long run taste can be based only on an accurate knowledge of art elementary kind, and he enters a .plea for having things known clearly and accurately. There is an -uphill tight for those who are engaged on this task, for 'as a nation we are .slipshod in' our habits of thought. Hovy- uphill the light must be can only be realised when some such attempt as is now being made by flio 8.8. CA to. plumb the depths of' public ,ignorance is undertaken. For.inonths and years past our broadcasting service has called to the microphone' scholars and others

of distinction in many walks of life to give the public ‘‘the low down” on! current topics and affairs. It is not surprising, perhaps, that those whose lives are spent in Broadcasting House, devising these programmes .and selecting speakers for the instruction of the public- should think that the time has surely come when the results of all this educational work should be manifest, a lid they decided among them- j selves to put the public on trial. For, this purpose they entrusted a special commissioner with the Work of carry-1 ing out among different representative types of wireless listeners sample tests designed to iind out how far the . sources of information opened up to 'listeners by the broadcast programmes have raised the general level of knowledge. Most of those who entertained high hopes as to the result must have suffered a severe disappointment, for many of the answers given to the fifteen questions set before these care-fully-selected people d : splav appalling ignorance. So much so, indeed, that it is difficult to account for the complacency of the ‘ ‘ Listener,” the official mouthpiece of the 8.8. C., which professes to find in the state of public knowledge ground for “some admira-

tion.” THE PAPER'S So far the selection of answers given afg from a tailor, a guardsman, a colonel’s wife, a schoolboy (aged 14), a daily .general maid, an assistant storekeeper, a steel worker, a Scottish shepherd, a blacksmith, a barmaid, a fruit grower, a fitter, a stonemason, a taxicab washer, a charwoman, and a small holder. Presumably further selections of the replies to these tests will be published later" on, and it may be on the strength of some unpublished answers that the “Listener” is able to congratulate itself. Let us look at these examination papers. The questions are simple and straightforward, although some of them do not perhaps lend themselves to simple answers. Here they are:—

Why did British troops go into the Saar? Docs Mr Winston Churchill support or oppose the Government of India Bill ’ What is Roosevelt’s New Deal? What is the peace ballot, and what do you think of it? Docs -Manchukuo belong to China or Japan? Is Germany friendly towards England? Why has Abyssinia been in the news lately? How does our Government propose to make us safe in the air? Are the unemployed better off in Britain than elsewhere? Who is Mr Hore Belisha, and what has he done? Who was Handel? What did he do? Can diamonds be made artificially? Would you rather live in a flat or a house, and why? What does the National Trust do? Who invented Mickey Mouse?

It is not surprising that the question about the most-talked of member of the Government was the perhaps most accurately aifswcred of any of them. Still, the charwoman was left guessing even about Mr Hore Belisha. Her reply was, “I can’t think.” The tailor was facetious, “Hore Belisha is the bloke what has .put steel studs in the road, so that the ladies fall in front of cars in wearing their high heels.” The colonel’s wife says “Beaconitc. He has certainly made a fool of himself. Very full of his own importance. 1 think signs futile.” Probably the best replies all through the questionnaire are those of the .Scottish shepherd and the schoolboy. The latter answers this particular question in copybook fashion. “Minister of Trans-

port. He’s been making a valiant attempt to save a few more lives. He s ■stuck up a lot of beacons and given rise to some funny jokes.” The other replies were generally appreciative of the Minister of Transport’s campaign. FOREIGN AFFAIRS If Mr Ilore Belisliu’s activities arc within the range of knowledge of most 1 of those questioned, foreign affairs are ' not their strong point. The small j holder dismissed Hr Roosevelt’s New ' Deal with the phrase, “Know nothing about it. America’s a long way off.” Of Manchukuo he says, “Haven’t followed that.” And of Abyssinia, “It’s nothing to me.” Most of them are on I rather surer ground in regard to the Saar expeditionary force, and even the tailor knows, “They were ordered to go there to watch wliat would come off.” But the colonel’s wife is unblushinglv vague. “Gone completely out of my head,” she coufesses. The isola- ! tionist small holder will not go further than to admit that lie was “interested at the time, but didn’t uuderstand much about it. It doesn’t interest me really.”

Of the sixteen replies given to the question of where Mr Churchill stands in regard to the Government of India Bill, seven pleaded ignorance, two (to their shame), said Winston was in favour of this ‘‘surrender of Empire,” and the others answered, correctly. * The schoolboy is in no doubt as to whether Germany is friendly towards England. “Good heavens, no!” lie replied. “Nobody is friendly towards anybody nowadays.” The Scottish shepherd, who made some excellent replies, showed his nationality when in answer to the quesj lion, “Who invented Mickey Mouse?” [lie replied, “Not Robbie Burns, anyI way; he invented sleekit niousie.” Most j people preferred a house to a flat, the comment of the colonel’s wife being, “House, because you have more comfort and a garden, and you feel a bit more of a bloated capitalist.” The stonemason complains that in a flat “foul air rises up the staircase,” and the Scottish shepherd says they always smell of soap suds. This might well deter the charwoman, but her pathetic comment is “I’-d sooner have a flat, because I’d have a nice bathroom, which we haven’t got in our house.” And, true to his exclusiveness, the small holder says, “House all the time. I like to keep myself to myself.” Handel does not commend himself to the barmaid. “He didn’t write any decent stuff.” And the blacksmith, evidently not the “melodious” one, has “never ■heard of him.” “The only handles I know,” says the taxi-cab washer, “is on taxis.”