EDISON ON LACK OF ABILITY.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19046, 17 December 1923, Page 8

EDISON ON LACK OF ABILITY.

An extremely interesting article by Thomas A. Edison, the famous discoverer, on “How I Would Double the Volume ot Business” appears in “System.” He makes a remarkable confession about his inability to got good men. "There is,” he says, “a lack of men capable _ of designing- automatic machinery. We are increasing our knowledge of -the possibilities of automatic machinery at the rate of 100, and we are increasing the men capable of putting the ideas into effect at two. No educational or technical institution that I know of .is even attempting to develop men for this all-important, phase of industry. This is an extremely serious problem. I had much less trouble getting good men 40 years ago than I have to-day. The men of to-day seem to lack imagination. I have examined 1800 men for positions in the last two years. I took 80 of them, and of that 80 only 35 have lasted. I test out the men with a questionnaire in which I put five little mathematical problems which I took from a child’s book on arithmetic. Not one man as yet has correctly answered all five of the problems. It seems somehow that in the modem system of education the average boy’s brain stops somewhere between the elementary school and the secondary school—that is, .when ho is about 14—and thereafter he takes no interest in knowing anything. I find that unless a boy has become interested in seme subject—it does not make much difference what it is—before, he is 14 ho never thereafter masters anything, but is to be led or driven. Industry is the result of the efforts of man, and I think a large part of the work of bettering industry will have to begin with the education of the boy.”