EDUCATION

Hokitika Guardian, 11 January 1930, Page 8

EDUCATION

<«.V X.)

The saying that’s trite—and isn’t quite right The conclusion that’s clear—but misleading The numerous fallacies Found on analysis Speciously specialised pleading. Is'ext in importance after the aspect of character formation is the question whether our education system is suited to New Zealand conditions. Now New Zealand has, all told, something less than the population of a- secondclass English town, and in its present state of development has great difficulty in finding employment for the people in the towns. The professions are over-crowded, workshops are not running to full capacity, banks and offices are fully staffed with long waiting lists of applicants for positions; small retailers are slowly but surely being driven ot of business by high rents, high wages and competition of the large mercantile organisations. The chances of young people obtaining work in the towns are less and less. Practically every outstanding student of science or engineering that the Dominion has sent abroad to study has been lost to New Zealand. There are not, and will not be for some years to come, many high salaried or attractive, positions offering in New Zealand. And when shell vacancies do occur there .is always the tendency to appoint men .from overseas.

What therefore is the object of educating to a standard far in excess of the requirements of the country? It is based on the illusion that a well educated man will be more efficient in whatever capacity he may be employed. This is quite a mis-leading conclusion. A professoor from the "University would probably make a very inefficient, and a very disconteded navvy. Weil educated clerks are most difficult to place satisfactory in any manual occupation. A certified officer is not looked on as an acquisition in a ship’s forecastle. An overeducated and precocious youngster nearly always maxes an unsatisfactory apprentice. The idea that an educated man can turn his hand to anything is a fallacy; the idea that his education will enable him to live a “fuller life” and lead to happiness when he is forced into uncongenial occupations is a more cruel fallacy. The happier most satisfying life is led by those who at an early age faced the realities of life, developed a self-reliant character, and had probably carved out several important steps in a career before the age at which students are now looking round to pick and choose an occupation. I have a friend who went to sea before he was twelve. At 19 he was master of a schooner and trading round the Coast on his own. He is an old man now but. with a career as a seaman and a captain of which he has every reason to be proud. In those days the youngsters knew they had to ■<'t on to the sea, or on to the land—they had to hustle and get a living in any case. How these study old pioneers would have smiled at the vapoijrings of those who condemn the materialistic doctrine of education for the sake of making a livelihood,” and continued “it is part of education to fit boys and girls for leisure.” Leisure, when there was any of it, in those days, could be spent very pleasantly and profitably in acquiring such future education as was required.

Another trite saying which is generally accepted is that “there is always plenty of room at the top.” An American advertising agency makes great use of this for its correspondence schools. According to this it is only necessary to take a short course of study, indicated on sending along the necessary fee, and at once the student will be qualified as managing director, manager, consulting engineer or advisory specialist for one of the thousands of firms who are eagerly looking for suitable men to fill these positions which are going begging. There is rather grim humour in this, but no harm is done, as the courses of study are quite good, and if studious habits are inculcated the money is well spent But lam always reminded, when I hear this silly talk of “plenty of room at the top” of the satire of Gilbert in the song of Don Alhambra:

He wishes all men as rich as he And he was rich as rich could be S<o to the top of every tree • Promoted everybody..

Unfortunately there are only a limited number of trees, and as each tree has only one top the experiment cannot be applied universally. But while there are actually very few positions vnilable at the top and not one per cent of the aspirants can possibly reach them—education alone being quite inadequate to ensure success in the scramble—the further satire of Sullivan has a direct bearing on the question:

Now that’s as plain as plain can be 'lo this conclusion we agree When everyone is somebodee Then no one’s anybody.

If the present tendency in education remains unchecked the time will sooner or later arrive when no positions will be available for anyone who is not the holder of some high educational qualification. When every milkman is a Master of Arts, and every butcher a Master of Science; when as in America button pushers and ticket punchers are university graduates will the educational authorities be satisfied and will we have reached a higher state of civilisation? Common sense of course reveals that the only tendency would be to make the higher educat-

ion ridiculous) At the present time

the educational machinery is turning out far more university graduates that can be absorbed in industry, and hundreds of boys and girls educated far beyond the requirement of any position there is any chance of obtaining.

It is surely time a halt was called and the supply brought into line with the demand. , Let the fact be faced that for some 75 per cent of the young people university and even secondary education will for the practical purposes of life be quite useless. A good sound practical education, with in its later stages _ a technical bias toward occupations which might be chosen should be ended by the time the pupil is 10, by which time the real business of life should be entered into. Only those showing very exceptional ability indeed should be encouraged or even allowed, to continue studies at the public expense. It is no 1 part of the duty of the people to train mediocrities to enter over-crowded profession, or to become office boys and clerks. .

If this policy were boldly set out and rigidly adhered to, it would eventually relieve the educational financial burden on the people generally. Many parents would find it difficult to believe that their children were of only mediocre ability. Those of them with prejudices against their boys becoming what they would term probably “mere working men,”’ would find the necessary fees to carry their educational further—as was the general practice years ago. This is as it should be. A parent has a right to carry out any whim, or back any opinion regarding the child, as long as it is not carried out at the expense of others. The special pleading for free education from kindergarten to university is specious, but is not based either on equity or the requirements of the country. The (jpuntry requires farmers, artisans, labours. If it provides the requisite education for these—with a few bursaries and scholarships only for those of quite exceptional ability, it will have done all that is actually required. The secondary and technical schools and universities would be on a more self-supporting basis, and the burden on the taxpayer reduced.

In conclusion, however, I would again emphasise that unless secular education can be given a more pronounced bias in the direction, of “character formation” sooner or later the private and denomational schools will have, not only to be recognised but sudsidised At one time I am prepared to admit I would have opposed any such idea, but the developments of the past few years have led me to the conclusion that secular education only, on the lines as now carried out has to be a large extent failed in the vital essential—the successful development and formation of the character of young people