EDUCATION AND BUSINESS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20708, 4 May 1929, Page 11

EDUCATION AND BUSINESS.

COMMERCIAL LEADER’S COMPLAINT. (From Qua Own Correspondent.) LONDON, March 14. Sir Harold Bowden, chairman of tho Raleigh Cycle Company, considers that there is too broad a gulf between the commercial world and the acadmio world. He expressed this view at a meeting cf the Institute of Linguists, where he gave an address in French on “ Salesmanship . and Foreign Languages.” It is more especially of public school and university authorities that I am thinking,” he continued, “when I say that they have perhaps been apt to regard education too much as an end ,in itself. Our boys and young men should have their education directed .by people who at least take some interest in the question of what career their pupils are destined for. I believe it is the rule rather than the exception that headmasters and house masters at the public schools assume that the future career of their boys is no practical concern of theirs. Hundreds of comparatively well-educated young men enter their names at public school or university appointment boards having no particular qualifications and no knowledge of the sort of post they could, or even would like to, fill. lam ' not in the least underrating the value of geenral education, but 1 do not see why the foundations of a general culture • should ‘not be laid at the same' time as a youth is being equipped with special qualifications which would turn him out an asset rather than a liability in the commercial world. It should be possible for every schoolboy destined for a commercial career to acquire a conversational knowledge, of at least one modern language, and possibly also some elementary knowledge, of economies or commercial practice, without impairing his general educational foundations." The Daily Telegraph disagrees with Sir Harold Bowden’s statement. “No educational system will ever produce boys specially trained for a particular career, cither in commerce or the professions," it says. “ A boy and Ais teachers have not done badly if at 17 he has acquired a general education which will enable him to specialise effectively in nis chosen vocation. Sir Harold Bowden, however, is not satisfied with that. He complains of a lack of preparation for practical life, and declares that ‘ it is the rule rather than the exception that headmasters and house masters at the public schools assume that the future career of their boys is' no practical concern of theirs.’ This attack , will find no support in general experience. -Most of ns could tell stories of valuable advice given about a boy’s career by bis headmaster or house master. Sir Harold Bowden’s suggestion of co-operation between headmasters, university authorities, and commercial leaders is wholly to be commended. No school or university now supposes that it has nothing to learn and no changes to make to meet the needs of a changing world. But it should he remembered that the commercial leader also may have something to learn about education from those who have given their lives to its problems. If he finds himself unable to obtain men with the qualifications ho desires, it may be his methods which need reconsideration.”