USE OF LEISURE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22608, 22 December 1936, Page 11

USE OF LEISURE

PLANS FOR FUTURE EDUCATION OF CHILDREN The necessity for planning to make the host use of the new leisure that the people of New Zealand now enjoy, and its importance to the boys and girls of to-day, was emphasised By Mr. D. M. Rae, principal of the Auckland Training College, when addressing members of the Auckland Rotary Club at their luncheon meeting yesterday. Mr. D. Henry presided. "We live at a time when we have leisure in plenty," said Mr. Rae. "Unless we can use this new leisure to produce a spiritual renaissance, we will probably find it a mixed blessing." Mr. Rae said the undesirable concomitants of leisure would remain longest in. a society where there was no positive planning or leadership. "With consistent plannning we might expect strange things to happen," he said. "We would see people beginning to organise their leisure time, and we might see a new philosophy of life, and new standards beginning to be appreciated. All the ingredients of change are in society to-day, and there are people who are keen about the great things of life. "if we look at the world to-day we can see that we are livirig on the verge of a renaissance of thought and culture," said Mr. Rae. "We are about to realise as a civilisation that life offers many satisfactions besides those of money profits. The future of this land depends on the way in which we are able to use our leisure time. We must capitalise it to the fullest degree." Referring to the effect of the newleisure upon the boys aud girls of today, Mr. Rae said it was going to be a challenge to the schools to do much < more than they had ever done before. * Spacious libraries would be needed so that boys and girls would be able to read and appreciate great literature, and craft rooms where they could learn to use their hands. Education had been all to the head in the past, and the hands had been allowed to remain idle. "We will have schools where the pupils will be challenged to use the creative urges that have been snowed under by the weight of routine tasks," said Mr. Rae. "In the school lies the. secret of the proper use of leisure. The taste of the next generation will be made in the schools to-day."