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Hokitika Guardian, 11 December 1934, Page 4

In a speech at Sheffield Sir Michael Sadler, Master of University Col.ege, Oxford, sai-u that Oxford and Cam-bii-dge, .which had done s-o much for the study of rcT.gion, the classics, and natural science, did not eaie a fig for the study of education. In many countries the present educational system was a- bad misfit. An over-sup-ply of academic education bred stu-dont-agitat.r.s like mosquitoes. They in England had escaped the worst dangers for three reasons:—(l) Educational administration, including management of our examinations, was, broadly speaking, stainlessly honest; (2) they encouraged games and athletics alongside of class work; (6) the young people had-not rushed to the universities in the vast numbers which, in some countries, Wad produced hordes of B.A.’s without mbs.’ The normal Englishman was not feverishly ’interested in methods of c-duc -h* :ci. *si*ici»h cduf(vtio>a*al 'admi nisi rat-. n in India and in the de-p‘?n-c!e icie-p though it had had many heroic figures and 'was always re : pendc'-’cies, Wad been neither brilliant nor far-seeing. The was a touch of Communism 'about- all public education, but Karl Marx did not explain —still less explain away—the Lord’s Prayer, -St. Augustine, Abelard and ffeloise, St. Francis of As si, Houssean, •fo-'.-n Wesley, or the pluck of the Fln-mborough lifeboat crew. What was needed was a way of integrating scientifically and spiritually the training of the b"4y to grace, health, and self-control with the training of the mind to precision, courage and honesty . “We shall have to fi"d some better wav of selecting our elite than competitive examinations,” Sir Mic(hoel iSndler lidded. “Examinations are. like massage—tonic and stimulating, but not a substitute for outdoo'- exercise. Examinations in England are a s honest as Lord Snowden, hut they are not at their present form ca'table of accurately measur--lig ability, (incl still -less promise. Wo sneak of them i r , s if they were (Mnie-al the-wometers officially tested " + TT o v- : tM B j s an exaggeration cf their merits.” ’ .