EDUCATING WORKLESS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22058, 14 March 1935, Page 16

EDUCATING WORKLESS

EFFORTS MADE OVERSEAS EXAMPLE FOR NEW ZEALAND " In New Zealand we are keeping alive the bodies of our unemployed, but we are doing nothing for their souls," said Mr. D. M. Rae, principal of the Auckland Training College, in an address yesterday to the Auckland branch of the Overseas League, after outlining efforts being made by overseas countries to solve sociological and educational problems arising from the economic stringency. Mr. E. C. Duncan, vice-president, presided.

In Canada and the United States, said Mr. Rae, schools and other educative equipment were being used to train workless people and to improve their morale and their " employability." In New York he saw the case of a boy who had lost a position selling papers and had attended a training centre of the New York Social Adjustment Service. The" result was the boy was found to have remarkable latent talent as a silversmith. Between 60,000 and 70,000 people were trained by the organisation each week. " We should do something similar to this in New Zealand by using school equipment and teachers, too," added Mr. Rae.

In England there were reorganised adolescent where young people were given an industrial and social education which fitted them to meet life's problems. The.v were taught creative craft work, and no examinations were needed. Attendance at junior instruction centres for children from 14 years of age to 16 or 18 was compulsory before they could qualify for benefit under unemployment insurance.