WORKERS’ EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21018, 6 May 1930, Page 4

WORKERS’ EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION.

COMPARISONS (concluded). We give the conclusion of the extract from “ Adult Education in the British Dominions,” published in the Daily Times last week. The first instalment dealt with the difficulties which faced adult education in the respective dominions. This one deals with the varied attitude to the W.E.A. “As far as organised labour is concerned, it cannot be said that it has as yet evinced any remarkable interest in adult education. This is probably due to a number of special factors. Taken as a whole, the wage-earning class is far better off in the dominions than it is in Great Britain. In Australia it is quite the usual thing to find that the industrial .worker owns his bouse and garden, in which he takes the keenest interest. ’ In Canada such a man will probably turn up to his job in the morning in his own Ford car. This well-being lulls the worker into comparative quiescence and, while he may rail against the existing economic system, he does not- in his heart really feel that capitalism is the iniquity which, would be the conviction of his fellow in England. The lack of class distinctions, the cheapness of education, not only in the primary schools and secondary schools, -but also in the universities, enable many to get their heart’s desire who in Great Britain would have to content themselves with a W.E.A. one-year class, or, at most, a three-years’ tutorial class. “ But, while it is ■ true- that organised labour in the dominions is vitally interested in education, it would be quite erroneous to assume that the Dominion worker has no interest at all. The gigantic strides -made by the W.E.A. in Australia and New Zealand is sufficient in itself to prove this, and the spread of the movement in South Africa and Canada would lead to the same conclusion. The* workers are interested in many, problems and. in many subjects, and, judging by the . experience so far gained they would gladly take, advantage of any facilities offered to them, provided always that these are above the suspicion of propaganda. ' . . . - ' The movement in the dominions, has encountered opposition both positive and negative. As might have been expected, the most active propaganda, against the spread of sound, non-political, non-sec-tarian education among adults has come from the Harxian. In Australia this - group, following on the example of the Central Labour College in England, ‘ attempted .to set up rival classes to those provided by the W.EA.. In these were to he taught only the principles of the Master, and ■ they were to offer a full-blooded programme which would be in violent contrast to-the anmmia of the W.E.A. .Similar movements have also mane their appearance in the other dominions, hut in every case these attempts have ended in verbiage. . , “ Adult education has also been attacked from the other side. In Australia, for example, the W.E.A. has been denounced as a violent, seditious, and sun* vorsive movement. But these criticisms have usually come from old stagers who still think in terms of the early nineteenth century, and their opinions and denunciations have produced no serious effect. Indeed, there is danger that adult education, by becoming too respectable, may be identified in the eyes .or the ■working class with the capitalist intcrost. One of the reasons why the W.E.A. has not caught on better m Canada than'it Has is probably the fact, that it too obviously has the blessing or officialdom and plutocracy. The only way to destroy this opinion in the, minds or the workers is to discover among their own ranks a number of men ,and .women whose political and social .outlook is from the workers’ point of view above suspicion; and who at the same time are willing and anxious to spread education among their follows. . “As far as working class adult education is concerned, Australia and New Zealand are undoubtedly ahead of the other dominions. . . . In both finance and Organisation the work must he carried, on with the active co-optation of organised labour on the one, hand and the Government on the other. , - "Finally, it -may he seen that .the amount of work done in the dominions is considerable. Regular classes of one sort and another are widespread, and their number is annually increasing. The habit of reading good books seems to be very much more common among the British peoples overseas than it is in England. There are innumerable organisations engaged in active adult education and there are other bodies, Rotary clubs. Canadian clubs, and the like that, with proper handling, could be 'pressed into the ser-, vice. Australia has laid a commendable stress upon the importance of social intercourse, for adult education does not live on lectures alone. The idea’ of' having a house belonging to the W.E.A. in which to hold summer and other schools and conferences is one which should he seriously considered by those engaged in the work in other parts of the Empire. It is impossible to come to any general conclusion on the quality of the work done, since it is difficult to decide the standard ' by which to measure. But it seems that at-its best work in the dominions is done of the same quality as that of the English tutorial class, and at its worst the work is no lower than that of the ordinary popular lecture.” W.E.A. readers of the foregoing notes may find therein. both food, for thought and object for criticism. In either case, the comparisons are interesting. DRAMA CLUB. Last Saturday night an exceedingly interesting and illuminating first talk on the Greek drama was given by Professor Adams who spoke both as a lover of his subject and' as a thoughtful critic. Professor Adams described the rise of the drama in Greece from its origins in the ritual _.dance, and the addition of actors who conversed with the personified god, so leading up to the astonishing flowering time of dramatic poetry in the fifth and fourth centuries Athens, when Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides competed at annuaT festivals for the crown of honour. The Greeks, it may be presumed, took their plays seriously—thrde days at a time, four plays a day (three heavy tragedies and something lighter). Professor. Adams dwelt at some length on Euripides, not a favourite dramatist in his lifetime, but a poet of supreme insight, sympathy, and courage, who defied the conventions fearlessly, and with his eyes open; the only precursor of Ibsen and the modern problem play; a man who analysed the* feelings of the unconsidered, the woman, the slave, and the vanquished in war, with matchless subtlety, and in his noble verse reached out to problems which are with humanity still. Following Professor Adams’s talk a reading was given by class members of Euripides’ “Alcestis,” one of his less serious plays, dealing with the efforts of that not very admirable character Admetus, King of Pherae, to escape his fated death, and the substitution and subsequent rescue by Heracles of his wife Alcestis. The impression one takes away is that some men are a great deal luckier than they deserve to be. The following students took part;—Mr Bridgman (Admetus), Miss Titchener (Alcestis), Miss Laing (Handmaid), Mr Laing (Heracles), Mr Beveridge (Pheresl. Mr Hunter (Thanatos, servant), Mr Young (Apollo), Mr L. Gdanit.z (boy), Mrs Watson, Miss Rollo, and Miss Osborne (chorus).