Manawatu Daily Times

Manawatu Times, Volume LIV, Issue 6869, 26 March 1929, Page 6

Manawatu Daily Times

The Educational Problem

THE Minister of Education has expressed the deliberate 1 conviction that there must be a change of some description in the present system of education. The need for a change is so apparent to him that he said recently that he has an open mind to everything except that there must be a change. He lias claimed, morever, that the conviction at which he has arrived on this point is shared by every authority on education.

Mr. Atmore approaches the educational problem (says the Otago Daily Times) from a somewhat different angle'from that of the university professor, but the conclusions respectively reached are strikingly similar. The university ideal is to create men and women whose professional careers shall be leavened by a meed of culture, that purely technical learning shall not be attained too much at the expense of intellectual claims. Mr. Atmore advances the view that the educational system of the • Dominion is too largely dominated by academic influences and that sufficient provision has not been made for the larger number who have ability in other directions.

The obvious inference seems to be that the democratic idea of an avenue for all from the kindergarten to the university has been carried too far, with the result that a mechanised system of education has been produced, presenting grave dangers the full effect of which we are now beginning to realise. It has safely been observed that education is not a process of producing uniform minds, but one of enabling each different mind to develop its particular capacity, and that under the present system much valuable time and money is wasted in a vain endeavour to fit square pegs into round holes. Mr. Atmore proposes as a partial remedy that the instruction imparted in the secondary schools shall be of a more practical nature than it is at present.

In this direction the Minister is at one with an eminent authority in the person of Dr. Norwood, headmaster of Harrow, who TVis recently uttered a warning against what he terms the mechanisation of education. Dr. Norwood, amongst other criticisms, complains of the tendency to make schools similar to one another tor the sake of easier administration, and the complaint has application no doubt to the schools of the Dominion. Mr| Atmore points out that while 95 per cent, of the wealth of the Dominion-, is derived from the land the majority of country children are induced to take academic courses which will be of little or no use to them in after life. He holds, therefore, that an educational system which has not an agricultural bias is not suited to the special circumstances and requirements of New Zealand.,

The ideal which the Minister proclaims as the culminating point in the policy of the Government is to train each child for the position for which he is naturally fitted, and to educate him along the lines of his natural ability. To that end there must be greater freedom both for teachers and for scholars. Educationists will await with interest the announcement promised by Mr. Atmore of the new policy which is to be evolved after he has conferred with representatives of the primary and secondary schools and technical colleges.

A fire in a glasshouse in Rongopai street was responsible for the brigade being called out at 12.45 p.m. yesterday. The fire fighters speedily dealt with the outbreak, no great damage being done. The building is on the same section as an empty house owned by Mrs Bassett, of Auckland. Insurances were not available.

Inquiries at the Palmerston North hospital late last evening elicited the information that there was no change in the condition of Arthur Hall, aged 18, of 270 Cook street, who suffered a fractured skull on Sunday afternoon as a result of being thrown from the motor cycle he was riding. lie had not regained consciousness.