NOTES AND COMMENTS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21907, 17 September 1934, Page 8

NOTES AND COMMENTS

LOYALTY Addressing the boys of King's School, Ely, Dr. W. W. Vaughan, late head-* master of Rugby, said that according to one writer the present product of public schools was depraved by an absurd loyalty. Dr. Vaughan said he deplored the disappearance of loyalties in the general world to-day. Loyalty was, in fact, the basis of all civilised life. It gave assurance that the treaty would be kept, the debt paid, the promise fulfdled at all costs. If loyalty meant being true to obligations, duty, gratitude and love; if it contained within itself the idea of sensibility to law, willingness to make sacrifice and readiness to lay lown life in the cause, such loyalty could never be absurd. He urged the boys to set among their lessons that of true loyalty. That alone could keep bitterness out- of controversy and usher peace into a distracted world. TEACHING HISTORY At the City of London vacation course in education Mr. E. Wynn-Willianis, formerly chief examiner in history to the Board of Education, lecturing on the teaching of history, said their aim should be "that every boy should leave school able to read a good newspaper intelligently. This was the great questtion with which teachers of history were confronted: Were they satisfied in. their own minds that it was better for the child to know nothing at all about early and medieval history and to leave school with his mind awake to modern problems, and able to talk about them and listen to other people talking about them? Or were they of the opinion that it was better for him to leave school with the full knowledge of Magna Carta or a detailed knowledge of the Hundred Years' War, and without any idea whatsoever of modern problems ? Teachers of history had to work out the problem for themselve.s, though he had no doubt whatever as to the right course. It was that they should give the child a knowledge of modern problems. PSYCHOTHERAPY Addressing the psychology section of the International Congress of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences on "The Social Importance of Psychotherapy," Dr. R. D, Gillespie, of London, said that of persons seeking medical advice the estimated proportion of illness of a psychological order varied from 5 per cent to 60 per cent, the estimated figure depending much on the personal views of the doctor concerned. In a group of 1000 insured persons receiving national health insurance benefit it had been found that about 35 per cent, or one-third, were suffering from psychoneurosis. The result of certain inquiries showed that psychological illness, mainly psychoneurosis, was responsible for at least one-tenth and possibly as much as one-third of all cases of illness. The task of psychotherapy was to correct faults in the social adaptation of the individual. Out of the last 20 patients who had undergone psychotherapy at his hands, 15 had parents who could be classified as definitely inadequate in the psychological aspect of their parental function. One of the needs that emerged in most psychiatric endeavour was for a standpoint of the kind that was usually supplied by religion. The most obvious, because most readily measurable, parental failure was in the teaching with regard to sex. The vast majority of the psychoneurotic patients whom he saw had received no sex instruction at all from their parents. It was possible that they were not singularly different from the normal population in that respect. But a snail control group of whom he had inquired suggested that in the post-war generation at least the proportion of instructed persons was higher among the average normal person than among psychoneurotics. That that had much casual significance for a psychoneurosis he would hesitate to say, but it certainly added to the difficulties that culminated ie psychoneurosis. A similar comment applied to lack of instruction on preparation for marriage. The function of psychotherapy was to rectify those omissions of education and of instruction in the art of living as a socially useful unit. ■. - «

DICTIONARY OF COLOURS When the British Colour Council came into being the declared aims and objectß included the placing of colour determination for the British . Empire in British hands and the provision of standard names for colours for* clearness' sake. Members were promised that among the services offered would be the free issue of such a standard range of colours, to be distinct from the seasonal fashion ranges and to be comprised of those colours which are in constant demand. The promise, according to the Times, has been fulfilled by the production of the British Colour Council Dictionary of Colour Standards, consisting of two volumes, one sh<fwing 220 colours presented on pure silk ribbon and named, numbered and coded, And the other giving the history of each colour, the various names by which each has previously been known and the authority for standardisation.' The dictionary is primarily intended for industrial and commercial reference, hut it would delight the artist or the lover of appropriate words by its spread of fascinating colour tones and the imagery that has been brought, to their naming. Cyclamen pink, nettle grey, battleship grey, bee-eater blue, Chartreuse green, buttercup and banana may be given as n random selection from the list. The colours, other than those decided on as spectrum colours, fall into three classes — those which can be matched to definitely existing standards, such as Wedgwood blue or Post Office red; those which can be matched to the average of a nnmber of samples, whether animal, vegetable or mineral, such as squirrel, carrot' and sapphire; and those of which the colour sensation attributed to a definite colour name shows ti very wide divergence of opinion, such as sky blue, saxe blue,and old rose. .It is stated that the third of these classes was the most difficult to deal with, as in some cases names still regarded as standard were first used hundreds of years ago and the number of hues attributed to the same colour name increased,. for various reasons, until the original significance was lost. The variety of specimens received for each colour was astounding; there were, for instance, 80 different sky blues, 60 different whiteis, and 40 different blacks.