WORKERS’ EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20548, 25 October 1928, Page 21

WORKERS’ EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION.

REPORTS OF THE YEAR. At the last meeting of the Tutorial Class Committee members bad before them the final tutors’ reports on the work of the year, and were able to get a clear impression of the progress of the association during 1928. Complete detailed statistics are not yet available, but it seems probable that the total of average class attendances-—-a concept calculated to cause the most extreme mental anguish to any sensitive statistician —will be about the same as in 1927. There is no doubt, however, that in elements which are less easily measured progress has been real, and in some directions surprisingly rapid. Members have been keener, have read more books, and thought and discussed more intelligently. Some of them have been persuaded to write a little, though progress here is slower. Of course, mere writing in itself is not a virtue; the Workers’ Educational Association pleads not guilty to any charge of having stimulated the correspondence columns , in the newspapers, but most of us find that the attempt to put thoughts on paper helps to clarify them and bring out unsuspected ambiguities. More important than all else, perhaps, has been the progress in individual initiative, in willingness to co-operate actively, to suggest, to experiment, and to work without relying merely on the stimulus of those whose official duty it is to do these things. People who delight in taking gloomy views of the present - generation are frequently disposed, especially in New Zealand, to deplore the tendency which they believe is everywhere displayed for people to rely exclusively on the State or on other organisations for support instead of stirring themselves and working on their own account. Some of us are disposed to doubt whether our grandfathers were all such incredibly active and sturdy persons as their survivors now want us to believe; we do, of course, deplore the predominance of herd instincts, the infrequent emergence of real individuality, but reflection on the history' of the Work ;rs’ Educational Association during recent years gives good grounds for the belief that the spirit of initiative is still far from dead, and that many people can still be relied upon to think apd act and organise for themselves. Among the problems of organisation which the District Council will have to face for 1929 is that caused by the absence of Mr Milner, of Oamaru. For several years, Mr Milner has acted as tutor in an honorary capacity, to the Oamaru literature class, and nas made valuable contributions to the training of literary taste there. He proposes to leave early next year for a tour of Great Britain and Europe, and the Workers’ Educational Association must therefore perforce be without his services. COUNTRY DEVELOPMENT. Reports which have recently been received show that the co-operation between the Canterbury and Otago Workers’ Educational Association, which has this year made possible the use by three country groups, at Waipiata, Middlemarch and Kurow, of the musical and literary material prepared by Professor Shelley, has already borne excellent fruit. The material is circulated, for the most part, independently of the work of tutors, and its satisfactory treatment therefore depends also on the existeiice of local enterprise and indivi dual initiative. According to one,report, “ the most popular items in the' course were the music and drama. The drama sent us was greatly appreciated—most of the ciimle members had ever hardly heard a play. To them the plays sent us were a somree of unalloyed pleasure. The yhqngisst members of the circle were used to motion pictures, but even they thoroughly enjoyed the plays of Goldsmith, Sheridan, and Pinero." The correspondence courses, for which Otago has been definitely responsible, have also attracted a larger number of country members, from farms, the Public Works Department, schools, and elsewhere, and some of them are still writing letters and reading books. It is proposed that the University of New Zealand shall shortly place before the trustees of the Carnegie Foundation a request- for financial assistance for the development of rural education, and if these suggestions are favourably received, it will be possible to extend more widely both these activities, POLITICAL MEETINGS. W.13.A. members whose appetite for public lectures has not been sated by their -winter experience are now able for a few weeks to sample the waters that flow i!rom fountains of another type The W.E.A. wishes, among other things to stimulate interest and rational thought in politics, and at most of the politicaj meetings held just now some of its members tire to be seen. It would be an interesting, though possibly ungracious, task to compare exhaustively the political meeting with the W.E.A. lecture. The former usually has a larger attend a-nce, but there, too, there is an attempt at discussion, though the speaker usually seems to have great difficulty in compressing his thoughts into the space of one hour* and it is not always c,L;lous that he has the same earnest desire such as inspires every W.E.A. tutor to answer fully the questions that are put to him. Of course, an election campaign shows clearly that the W.E.A. has little excuse for priding itself complacently on the success of its work. There are two points o-n which candidates of all parties are agreed. The first is that they are anxious to serve the best interests of the country as a whole. One might suppose that this was sufficiently obvious, but the point is so frequently repeated that one concludes that there are doubts about it in s< | e quarters. The second is that their opponents display a low | grade of political education. And some are harsh enough to declare that the second point is the only one on which all parties arc right. The W.E.A. still has much work to do.