WIDE EDUCATION

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22398, 20 April 1936, Page 11

WIDE EDUCATION

IDEALS OF MINISTER "TEACHING TO LIVE" KNOWLEDGE AND LEISURE THE HOMEWORK QUESTION An indication of some of his ideals in education was given by the Minister of Education, Hon. P. Fraser, on Saturday night, when he addressed the gathering held in honour of the coming-of-age of Workers' Educational Association classes in Auckland. Mr. Fraser recalled his long association with the movement and expressed his sense of the value of the work it was doing. At the outset the Minister apologised for the absence of the Prime Minister, Mr. Savage, an old Workers' Educational Association student, who sent a message of congratulation and good wishes to.the meeting. Mr. Fraser said he had been in Auckland before the days of the association, and though political and economic questions were discussed then, it was only in a very limited way. So restricted was the knowledge of the subject 25 years ago that when a student, acting on Professor Grossmann's advice, went to inquire for books on social reconstruction the puzzled bookseller offered hira a work on reinforced concrete instead. It was feared in the early days of the movement, the Minister said, that the intellectually wealthy people would condescend when they came among the working people, but anyone who went into the classes would see how foundationless that idea was. Intellectual Awakening The students were not at all overawed, and he was afraid some of them went there to exercise their wits and use the professor as a whetstone. Somo of them went there to learn to speak, and some of them unfortunately did learn. Some of them went there to push their own theories, and did so until people got tired of hearing them, but it could all be summed up by saying that there was an intellectual awakening, and people did get interested in things that they were not mI terested in before. In Auckland the association was not : only doing a great work in the citv, j but by its box system ami correspondI ence classes was reaching about 1200 people in the province. Of course, sometimes grave questionings had arisen about the work of the association and it was accused of promulgating all sorts of doctrines that would j undermine the constitution. "It was i said that it was generally favouring advanced thought, and when you look at some of the present Cabinet there might be some ground for that suspicion," remarked the Minister. "But the great thing about the association is that it is not there to preach any particular form of doctrine, but to endeavour to find the truth." Need lor Thought "May I say this as Minister of Education?" continued Mr. Fraser. "I would not like people to attach too much importance to education. I hope that does not sound too much like heresy." In further explaining his i meaning, he recalled Tennyson's line, "Knowledge comes but wisdom lingers." and said that nobody with the capacity for learning by their experience could be called uneducated. The great work for educationists in the future was to endeavour to get people > to think. Taking education in its widest sense it was not something that was superimposed from without, but something that had grown out of human needs and requirements. "Education is not enough if ift teaches us merely to earn a living." said the Minister. "Education must teach us to Jive." He referred to the work of the early Christian socialists, Kingslev and Maurice, and to the teachings of Ruskin and William Morris, who pleaded for a world where work would be beauty and where all would enjoy the fruits of {heir labour. We had gained much and we had lost much by the coming of the machine age, but there still could be found places where men put their souls into their work in the creation of beauty as did the cathedral builders of the Middle Ages. That was still done where people had time and no profit was expected out of the job. Machines and Leisure The Minister said the people must go forward and not back, and machines might make it possible for people to have shorter hours of mechanical work and longer hours of leisure in which they could express themselves if tlfey knew how. That was where adult education was of such importance. He hoped to see before 12 months was over some scheme that would carry the benefits of adult education to every part of the country. Education should be a ministration to life and not a servitude to knowledge, and it was from that standpoint that the varied and complex educational problems of the day must be examined. On the question of homework, for instance, he received many letters from parents asking him to abolish it, and he confessed he had a good deal of sympathy with that point of view. It was a question whether it was more important for children to absorb knowledge or to have plenty of sleep so that they would grow up properly equipped. Speaking of intelligence tests and mental ages. the Minister said he had got a friend to test him. and he had found that his mental age was less than one and his intelligence was a minus quantity. A previous Minister of Education who had advocated these tests had also come out minug when he tried the questions. Work to be Encouraged Previous Governments were entitled to credit 'for the way in which they had helped the association, and it was for the present Government and its successors to give help in the future. It was very important that an organisation which had the effect of making people think for themselves should be encouraged In adult suffrage we had a priceless heritage which we should guard with our very lives. The thanks of the gathering to the Minister were conveyed by the Hon. B. Martin. M.L.C.. another who had associated with the movement here from its commencement. In view of the number of requests that were made to Ministers for their presence it was a tribute to the association that Mr. Fraser should have accepted their invitation, and thev were deeply grateful to him.