THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS SATURDAY, JANUARY 8, 1938 IDEALS IN EDUCATION

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22931, 8 January 1938, Page 10

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS SATURDAY, JANUARY 8, 1938 IDEALS IN EDUCATION

What is a go'od education? Many answers have been given. Echoes of some, ancient and famous, still linger in human thought. More are being shaped to fit modern ideas of life. In them all, old and new, is proof of the deathless impulse to link learning with living; and the most interesting thing about them is that, in all ages, they have been prompted, if not dominated, by the wish to make education serve a good purpose. Ideas of what is good vary greatly. Therefore views of education are diverse. But the persisting tendency has been to regard no educational goal as finally satisfactory, no educational process as fully efficient, that does not accord with the notion of progress in some pursuit deemed worth while. It has been realised that a family, a clan, a nation, a world, can climb no higher than it can lift its children. Hence an education that merely aims at preserving a dead level of manual, mental or moral attainment is of little use j there must be a striving, for something better, generation by generation. Education, that is, must have ideals. This practical truth underlies the comment and counsel offered this week [to a North of England confer- ! ence by Mr. Kenneth Lindsay, Parliamentary Secretary to the British Board of Education. In his presidential address he has adjudged the value of the return from national expenditure on education as estimable in terms of "the real fruits of democracy," and these he has named—kindness, tolerance, veracity and appreciation of beauty. Believing that Britain stands for these things, he has emphasised the for their cultivation in all British schools. His point of view is not novel, but the stress he places on the attributes of a real civilisation gives them an arresting importance. He relates education, as British peoples should think of it, to the development* of democratic institutions. Democracy is to him more than a particular system of government. It is a spirit, and the culture of this spirit, he holds, ought to be the care of all directing the work of schools. His words, consequently, are a challenge to review honestly and thoroughly the task of education as it is being performed within the British Commonwealth. He utters no word of condemnation, not even of criticism; rather his object is to awaken thought about the work being done and to stimulate unceasing effort in its necessary doing. There has been much praise for British schools. Some of it came, once upon a time, from Germany. Not many years ago Spanish enthusiasts for education made these schools, in preference to those of France and Germany, the chief models of new methods; and this they did under official sanction. However, such express or implied admiration was not allowed to blunt the self-critical faculties of British educationists. Besides certain journalistic reactions a leading newspaper was bold enough to say'that, "although ten Englishmen could .talk well about politics or administration for one Frenchman or German, ten Frenchmen or Germans were interested in literature, art or music for one Englishman—there were heart-searchings among eminent British men and women. A group of these, led by Mr. A. C. Benson, gave the English-reading world their thoughts on the subject. They enlarged, as Mr. Lindsay has lately done, on the things that make life—wide outlook, exalted pleasure, enriched interest, deepened sympathy; and they ventured to think alotid about a prevalent necessity in Britain to give these things greater attention in the aims and methods of scnools. It was not charged • against the schools that these things were neglected, but it was patiently argued that the inculcation of them was inadequately accomplished. In striking confirmation of their eagerness to see improvement, there was published, soon afterwards, the official report of the Parliamentary Committee on Modern Languages and the Educational System of Great Britain, a document hailed as the greatest piece of constructive thinking in education that had appeared for fifty years. This report offered a practical programme, based on a belief that education was truly expressible only in terms of life. "The practical aim of education," this report gravely declared, "is to enable men to live better. To neglect the practical ends of education is foolish; but to recognise no other i; 3 to degrade humanity. Art, poetry, the drama, history, may have no 'survival value'; but men will work for the joy of comprehension, for the joy of beauty, for the joy of creative construction, as they will not for interests less inspiring. . . . Culture and civilisation are byproducts of life, but. like some other by-products, they may give a greater return than the parent industry. What gives dignity and splendour to life may be more precious than life itself." Such assertions, with which those of Mr. Lindsay are matched, contain the essence of every wise definition of education ever given. The desirability of embodying their truth in every system of education should require no advocacy. Yet, from time to time, lower ideals are allowed to displace the higher of which they speak. A scientific age that is also influenced by a commercial outlook can all too easily forget the truth. Technical instruction, valuable ujs to a point, can absorb effort, to the dangerous exclusion of nobler interests. Reluctant drudgery has disciplinary worth, and material wants must be supplied ; but to place supreme emphasis on these is to miss the shining mark. The art of living is much more than the getting of a livelihood, j