SCHOOLS and COLLEGES

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22320, 18 January 1936, Page 9 (Supplement)

SCHOOLS and COLLEGES

EDUCATION IN NEW ZEALAND ♦ Advancing Outlook DIRECTORY FOR PARENTS' PERUSAL THERE could be no better time than the present holiday season for parents, pupils and teachers to rest and survey the system of education. On it the foundations of the future are built. It is as true today as it was in the time of Aristotle that "all who have meditated on the art of governing mankind have been convinced that the fate of empires depends on the education of youth." When one reflects that, even in our small country, 20,000 children annually pass out of the primary schools, it is apparent that a problem vital to our national destiny is involved. The fruition of democracy depends less on the machinery of government than on the ability of the citizen to guide it by clear thinking. Therefore, education must be one of the first cares_ of the community, and the objectives and methods employed should be subject to searching thought. What are the aims of education? The lit. Hon. J. Ramsay Mac Donald speaks on this subject with the authority of one who had to struggle, with Scottish determination, for his first schooling. " The aim of education," he says, "is not fulfilled when you simply make pupils well-stocked reference files. Knowledge is not education. You can know as much as the wisest man in the world ever knew —unless his wisdom consists of the 'affairs of the sou l —but so far as his book knowledge is concerned, material knowledge and the knowledge of things, a man may know all that there is to be known and in the end be a consummate fool. Ihe aim of education is not lmerely the acquiring of knowledge." So much for what education is not. We in this country are slowly outliving a system which compelled teachers to compel their pupils to be more or less well-stocked reference files. How quickly are we defining our new objectives? For those who would have a definition of education, the following may be as satisfactory as any other. It is "the determined and longcontinued effort of a serious-minded person to train his powers of observation, thinking .and reflection through gain in knowledge." The stress on personal effort is all important. True education is, in fact, self-education. The mission of the schools is to guide the opening of the young mind, to develop the pupil's personal interests, thus building a capacity for independent thought upon a basis of knowledge acquired without cramming. The words, "free, secular and compulsory education," have not now the magic spell thev had 30 years ago. Wo owe much to that formula; likewise we have suffered much from it. It saw the foundation of a system of State education in New Zealand, which was in its day something to marvel at. It saw a state of affairs in which the Minister of Education might consult his watch to discover whether all the standard fours throughout the Dominion were studvinc Geography or history. Founded on a materialistic misconception it produced the mental outlook of the pupil, who stated that the aim of' primary education is to fit pupils for free secondary education, and the aim of secondary education is to enable a pupil to get a better job than his father had." Happily we are moving away from this, and progressing in the right direction. Altogether there is reason for satisfaction with the state of educational affairs. The day of regimentation is behind us, and both State and private schools offer a freedom to develop which the fathers of the rising Generation never knew inside the school gates. The growing freedom of pupils and the diversitv of studies in both primary and secondary schools are signs of the ceneral advance. The individual consideration given present-day pupils ?s in conformity with the, remark that "every child is a problem child. Mass . instruction that turned out thousands of children all moulded to the one design is rapidly becoming a thing of the past The individual is encouraged, his interests drawn out, and his talents fostered. Instead of being a ''cavern of fear and sorrow" the school of to-day-is nearer an intellectual playground. 1 New Zealand is well equipped with modern schools, progressing as rapidly as public opinion and the demands of practical employment will permit. Nursery and preparatory schools offering a sound basis for future training are numerous, though not more than is warranted by the children offering. Secondary schools both for boys and for girls are feeling the benefit of a return of prosperity enabling parents to send their youths. Both on the ' 1 an d 0 n the athletic side, these are sound and trustworthy, and in every wav institutions to be proud of, A stndy of the following page, will aid parents in that most important decision-the choice of a school for their children. Young New Zealand deserves the best.