TIMELY TOPICS

Northern Advocate, 21 March 1934, Page 4

TIMELY TOPICS

EXAMINATION MOLOCH. Some aspects of the educational system wore criticised by Bishop Grotty, of Bathurst, in a .Founders 1 Bay address at Trinity Grammai School, Summer Hill, Svdnev. i 7 ' . j “There is tragic and growing con- | fusion,” he said, “between education j and mere fact cramming, between | knowledge and mere Information, j Fact-gathering is reducing much of j modern scholarship to mere triviality. !It is diverting education from the j more educative process of underI standing the facts. The result is that we are not turning out, on the whole, realty thoughtful people. We have been breeding intellectual dyspepties, filled with undigested and unrelated fads. Half our democratic failure springs from the educational heresy that salvation depends on. information. It does not. It depends on knowledge and wisdom. And our whole educational aim and method needs reconstructing to serve these major ends. : “There must bo examinations until some Utopian substitute for them has

matemlisort,” Bishop Grotty added. *‘l do not plead for their removal, hut for a mitigation. of their early severity, a relief from their inquisition, and a withdrawal from that onj tire field of the child 's mind and life. ; which at present they occupy and drain. I protest against the insatiable demands of the examination Moloch, that some margins for culture and real education might still ho loft. I protest against the number of young victims who, year hy year, are sacrificed to that Moloch's ritual and that Moloch's worship. T protest against the increasing tyranny of the expert; in education, and plead for the coming of the humanist in his stead. ’ ’ ❖ <?> <;> 4". WORDS or WISDOM. Love cannot: be hid any more Ilian light, and least of all when it shines i forth in action. —John, Wesley. j ■#>-*> <s» <♦> I TALE OF THE DAY. Lady Motorist: “ But really, il j wasn’t my fault. J put out. my hand."! Gallant. Irishman: “Sure, me dar-1 lin’, ’lis your hand that’s so small 1; didn't, see it at all." |