WORKERS’ EDUCATION

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23054, 3 December 1936, Page 7

WORKERS’ EDUCATION

ASSOCIATION’S ANNUAL MEETING The twenty-second annual meeting of the Workers’ Educational Association was held last night in the City Council Chambers. Dr G. E. Thompson occupied the chair, and there was a fair attendance. , , A welcome was extended by the chairman to the Postmaster-general (Mr F. Jones), who was present at the meeting. , , ~ , Moving the adoption of the annual report and balance sheet, the chairman said the former was both retrospective and prospective. It looked back with relief and looked to the future with hopeful confidence. The lean famine years experienced by the association seemed about to vanish over the horizon. The future prospects of the work which the association aimed at performing justified the tone of measured optimism of the report. The Carnegie grant was still continuing, though tapering off in diminishing amounts, as was expected. The Government grant, which had been withdrawn during the depression, had been restored, at all events for one year, as a tideover. There were, however, evidences that the Government was definitely interested in adult education. It had intimated its desire that all the adult education activities should be co-ordinated; and, as the report stated, a committee appointed by the New Zealand University Senate was at the present moment investigating the problem of combining these movements and of devising a system by which the domain of each might be defined and by which by co-operation they might share the resources and facilities whiM they individually possessed. On the decision of this committee and later of the Government would depend how far the W.E.A. would preserve its identity and how far it would be merged into a larger unit. All friends of the W.E.A. movement would hope that this reorganisation would leave intact certain essential features that differentiated it from most other types of education These were established as fundamental when the universities had first formed an alliance with the trade unions for the purpose of carrying on the unfinished process of education. It was ,J_naugurated as a movement of which the field of work was indicated by its name. The question arose whether the loss or change of its name might not tnjuie the movement by removing or obscuring its distinctive character. A healthy, democratic spirit at present permeated the system under which it worked. Some details of this democratic system needed frequently to be restated. Within certain natural but necessary limits a class of W.E.A. stolen.s studied what it liked. It selected its own subjects. This freedom of selection was not absolute, of course, foi no tutor in the world was competent to teach everything. The tutor brought forward a list of his available subjects. and the class made its selection. The tutor, again, was not a schoolmaster. He was one of the class. Again, the system followed was one adapted especially to the adult mind. The tutor was not a schoolmaster, speaking ex cathedra. He was one of the class. He lectured for an hour. For a second hour free discussion took place on the subject. The method, therefore, was active and not passive. The first hour was informative, and the second was educative. The classes for the coming year were at present being carefully considered. Previous classes would all be continued A forward move had been made in the dramatic classes The two classes studying the drama under Mr Brailsford had decided to amalgamate. and Mrs O. C. Stephens had been' asked to undertake the important work of producer. A new class would bo instituted — one on “Films and Film Criticism”— in which Miss Hypatia Johnson would give a course. Miss Johnson had already submitted a complete syllabus to the Tutorial Classes Committee, and intending members of the class might be assured of a thorough analysis and an illuminating presentation of the details of this new industry and art. The report and balance sheet were adopted. The election ol officers for the ensuing year resulted as follows:—President’ Dr G. E. Thompson; vice-presi-dents —Messrs F. Jones. J. T. Paul, W. J. Morrell and Dr Billing: auditors, Messrs J G. Butler and E. W, Hunter. Mr Jones, returning thanks for his re-election as a vice-president of the association, assured the meeting that the Minister of Education (Mr P. Fraser) was deeply interested in adult education. He had already done a great deal for the schools, colleges and universities, and would, no doubt, yet do as much for the cause of adult education. He did not, however, wish to see any overlapping, and if he could bring about co-ordination, it would be to the advantage of the movement. The speaker did not think that the grant which had been renewed this year would be withdrawn next year. Referring to the chairman’s remarks on the possibility of a change of name. Mr Jones said he would not like to see such action taken. There would bo the danger that the workers would not realise that the movement was for their benefit. The movement and the trade union movement had helped him very materially in gaining his present position, and he knew it could be of similar benefit to others.