NOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20622, 22 July 1930, Page 8

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

THE PURPOSE OF EDUCATION. "Education is not an end in itself; it is only the means to an end," said Mr. Oiiver Stanley, in a speech in the House of Commons recently. "We do not become men so that mo can be educated: wc are educated so that we can become men. Xo system of education, however perfect and comprehensive, is any good at all unless it enables us, as education is intended <0 do, lo live our lives better and happier than we should do without if. It has to have a side which fits a man better for the ordinary material struggles of life. It has to have a side which makes a man able to find an intellectual satisfaction in his lift*. It has to have a side which tits him to take his full part as a citizen of a self-governing community."

110 ADS AS RELIEF WORKS. The recent rapid increase in unemployment in Britain has caused a revival of advocacy of what Mr. Herbert Morrison, Minister of Transport, called "the false idea that the solution is to be found in the spending of hundreds of millions of pounds 011 the construction of roads." lie argued that if the highways system is extended beyond the point of adequacy for the transport of passengers and goods, it involves unproductive expenditure and a consequent increase in unemployment. This view was strongly endorsed by the Times, which agreed that there is no sense in spending money 011 roads that would be "sheer luxuries." It also raised the point that work 011 roads of any kind is unsuited to the type of labour unemployed, as the industries Suffering most severely are mining, engineering, shipbuilding, textiles, building, transport and the distributive trades. Of those not clearly physically disqualified it may bo asked whether navvving is not an unjustifiable waste of their training, their skill, and their hope of normal work.

"This obsession for the roads," the Times added, "is merely a proof of the bankruptcy of ideas of those whom it possesses." ;

EDUCATION" FOR. INDUSTRY. In what manner could a business best reciuit the type of man who could be looked upon to fill in later years the higher administrative positions? Lord Leverlmlme asked in his presidential address to the Association for Education in industry and Commerce. This was an era of rationalisation, mergers and big corporations, and examples of a small independent family business were becoming fewer. The directors of large organisations, often controlling numerous subsidiary companies, must ask themselves,

"Where are the men who, 10, 20. or 50 years heme, will be sitting round this table either with us or in our places? How can we secure a supply of the right type of men to take charge of our various subsidiary undertakings? The larger the corporation, the less it became possible for every detailed problem to be submitted to the decision of the central headquarters and the greater was the necessity of having men capable of accepting responsibility and displaying initiative. Could education be moulded so as to supply this need? Faculties or Departments of Commerce had been established in several of the modem universities. Xo one could question the value, interest and usefulness of the courses of study which they provided, but it had ycl to be shown that, they necessaiily turned out more useful men for industry and commerce than other courses of study. "We believe." added Lord Leverhulme, "that if the nation is going to spend vast sums, which it can ill afford, on further edtica tion, the education given should bear some relation to the work the pupil is going to do in later life. I see a real

danger that this great question may get entirely into the hands of vague enthusiasts, who cry out for more and more education with a big K, and arc perfectly happy so long as they see more and more schools going up, with more and more teachers needed to fill them, and more i;ml more young people turned out in the world with an array of half understood accomplishments, highly estimable, no doubt, hut. which it is entirely unnecessary to impart at the public expense. W'o believe that the ideal system, so far as industry is concerned, is that, there should not. be a sudden break between school and workshop or office, but that for a period the two should run concurrently."