A Sound Education Defined

Manawatu Times, Volume 63, Issue 63, 16 March 1938, Page 4

A Sound Education Defined

The purpose of education is a subject upon which much thought has been given and is at present being given in New Zealand. A point upon which a considerable divergence of opinion is found is that of the relative importance to be assigned to vocational education as opposed to education for leisure and citizenship. There has recently been published a work that should be of interest and value to all giving consideration to this matter, “We Live and Learn,” a series of addresses on education by Sir Josiah Stamp, of London. This most able Englishman is a man of two worftJs, the scholar’s and the businessman’s, and has proved his qualities in both—as a professor of economics of high repute and as a director of great business undertakings. On these counts his opinions are worthy of the utmost consideration.

The author does not agree with the present “fashion” in education, of over-emphasising the cultural side. “Education is first for vocation, secondly for leisure and character, and thirdly for citizenship.” He states that “no good citizenship can come from, those who have no pride and skill of vocation, and no mastery of self and life, and no one can make the best of leisure and character who is not disciplined in the routine and detailed pursuit of some worthy business or calling and alive with the throb of struggle and achievement of it. “So, unashamedly, I put first that you should excel in your chosen art or vocation, not merely for yourself, hut also for the good of society.” Here is stated a creed for education based upon the experiences of an able man, his observations and thoughts in the two worlds, the vocational and the scholastic. A creed so founded must deserve the earnest consideration of all who seek to mould educational policy in this Dominion as elsewhere.