NOT CONCEITED

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXI, Issue 307, 11 December 1931, Page 7

NOT CONCEITED

NEW ZE.-_»ANDERS PREPARED TO LEAR! FROM EXPERIENCE OF OTHERS. EDUCATIONISTS’ VIEWS. “The people of New Zealand certainly regard a decent educati... as one of the essentials of life, but I hardly think they consider our education sys tem superior to all others or greatly inf ior. ’’ —Dr. D. E. Hansen, principal of the Christchurch Technical College. “New Zealanders may be self-satis-fied—that is inevitable because of our position in relation to the world—but, generally, they are prepared to learn from the experience of others.’’—Dr. C. E. Beeby, acting-Professor of Education, Canterbury College. These remarks were made on Monday when Dr. Hansen and Dr. Beeby wore asked to comment on the opinion expressed by Professor J. Collie, Moderator of the Presbyterian Church in Now Zealand, that New Zealand had swung from an inferiority complex in educational thought to a form of solf-concoit. Dr. Hansen said that some persons connected with the administration of education in the Dominion were apt to talk of our system as being superior to any other country’s. It was hard to lay one’s finger on anything definitely superior. Ono of the commendable things about our system was that it admitted the right of every child to a good education. When free places at secondary schools were introduced there was a tendency to consider that every boy who passed, through a secondary school should enter banking, accountancy, or business or qualify as a doctor or lawyer. But to-day that stage had passed. New Zealanders generally realised that boys entering trades benefited considerably by having a secondary school education. Lord Rutherford and Sir William Marris wore frequently quoted as examples of what New Zealand trained boys could achieve, but Dr. Hansen did not think that New Zealanders were conceited about these men. They were proud of their work, but not conceited. Dr. Beeb’- said that it was impossible to do other than generalise on such a subject. Because of our isolation from the world, New Zealanders naturally became self-satisfied. We were apt to look upon our mountains as the best in the world, our scholars as the most successful. On the other hand we realised, too, that we had little or no national, original thought. We were denied to a large extent the. benefits of measuring ourselves against others.

Lord Rutherford and Sir William Marris, as individuals, would, undoubtedly, have come to the top without, as with, the benefits of our educational system. “Our students who go abroad almost invariably distinguish themselves,” added Dr. Beeby. “But one must not forget that we send the cream of our scholars, and to compare them with the average students of the country to which they go would be grossly unfair and misleading.”