ADULT EDUCATION

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIX, Issue 204, 29 July 1939, Page 14

ADULT EDUCATION

ESSENTIAL TO DEMOCRACY. ADDRESS AT LUNCH CLUB. “Education is the only bulwark of democracy; if democracy is to function at all it must bo an educated democracy,” said Mr A. S. Hely, tutororganiser for the Workers’ Educational Association in this district, in addressing the Citizens’ Lunch Club at the weekly gathering yesterday. Mr Holy emphasised that to meet social change within democracy there was need for the adult section to he educated, because it was this section which had the responsibility of making decisions affecting the welfare of the social system.

Schools played a very important part in education, commented Mr Holy, who said that they had two responsibilities; the first, to teach the children to use the tools of education; and hue second, to leave the children with a desire 1o use those tools to a greater extent. In the first part of their work schools were very successful, but in the second they did not have cpiite the same result. Democracy had tended recently to lose some of its vitality and some of its meaning over the last few years, continued the speaker. We were not too sure of democracy, which had been put on the defensive and, in some places in the world, had had its back to the wall. In building np his social organisations man had been implicated in a conflict between freedom and organisation. Without organisation wo could not consolidate what v o had gained ; but society was always changing and new methods of technique were required in our new organisations. However, the old social organisations made no allowance for these changes. Sometimes social changes were made rapidly, sometimes slowly; some were far-reaching and some were but small. Gradually, over a period, democracy had risen to decide what type of social change should take place and when, remarked Mr Holy. Otherwise lhe minority made the decision. We had evolved a political democracy, but we were faced with the fact that post of our social problems were very complex and that most political platforms were based on economic formulae. Therefore, when most of tho people came to cxerciso their democratic power tinough their vote, if democracy were to be complete, the voters had 10 have some ! knowledge of those very complex pi obtains. All could not be economists or | diplomats ; they were able ci ly to secure their personal opinions in the circles in which they moved, from the people tlie.y met. Therefore, adult education was a very important factor in providing the people with the knowledge to allow them to exercise their vote without being swayed too easily by the demagogue or the public speaker. So, if democracy was to resist the attacks being made on it, it had to he an educated democracy. There wore two groups within adult education, the speaker proceeded to i explain; these wore the sociological : and cultural groups, but actually tho two could not bo clearly separated. J As an instance of the cultural being ■ affected by the sociological, the speaker said that in Germany under democracy there had been 100 writers who had been outstanding, and of these 13 had enjoyed a world reputation, in that their writings were translated into other languages. The position now, after democracy had been replaced, was that there were only 10 of the 100 remaining in Germany—all the others had to flee—and of the 13 there were about three still remaining. The educationist and the artists were the first to suffer when democracy disap- j peared. _ Adult education had to realise that j social change was always taking place, ! said Mr Hely. It had to give the stud- j out some understanding of the types of social change and in times of great change or crisis the value of the adult education and the educationist became all the more apparent. Democracy could only become educated through grown-up people taking a part in social study. Young people were not in a position to understand the problems of society because they had not taken their place in, nor had experience of, this society.

The thanks of the club were expressed to Mr Hely by the chairman (Mr J. A. Colquhoun), who welcomed Mr A. E. Madden as a new member and Mr K. Haas (Wellington) as a visitor.