EDUCATION FOR WHAT?

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26246, 2 September 1946, Page 6

EDUCATION FOR WHAT?

University’s Wider Meaning

The obligation of the University to provide, and of the student to accept, a training that extends beyond the compass of his immediate vocational needs, is emphasised in this important article by Dr ( Raphael, the second and final one in a series based on N.B.S. talks.

By D. Daiches Raphael, M.A. (Oxon.), P.Phil. (Oxon.)

II I have sketched out three aims of university education, training for a job, training for citizenship and opening the gate to the enjoyment of the arts and of the pursuit of knowledge. Obviously the first of these aims is catered for by 'professional or vocational courses.

What of the second aim, the development of a critical attitude? Here certain arts subjects, and also certain basic scientific subjects, are of the most value. If you think of the wider conception of citizenship, it would seem that subjects like political science and sociology would serve the purpose most directly; but this would be a mistake. These are background subjects, which one should pick up as a matter of course through being given an interest in human affairs. The most valuable subjects are those which provide a rigorous mental training, like Latin, mathematics and logic. These should then be combined with a subject like history, or moral philosophy, or literature, which will relate rigorous thinking to human affairs.

The third aim, so far as it concerns the enjoyment of literature and the arts,, is, of course, provided only by the study of literature (through language), and by courses of introduction to music and visual art. So far as it concerns the enjoyment of learning, any subject will do: what is needed here is not the right sort of subject, but the right sort of teacher. Combined Courses Now how are we to provide these three things for each student? Clearly some combination of subjects is needed. Let us look first at students of the arts faculty, where a solution seems easiest. What about vocational training? Those who are going to teach arts subjects are easily provided for. As for other jobs, arts subjects, it has been said, fit you for everything and for nothing. They give you the sort of mental training which will enable you to go on to practically any specialised training, but of themselves they do not train you for a particular job. Many jobs, of course, do not require specialised training of the kind which universities can provide.' They themselves provide the only specialised training there can be, namely experience of the job. What they need is an alert and appreciative mind which will be atsle to take full advantage of the experience which they themselves will give. Such a mind the arts faculty does (qr should) turn out, and I venture to think that preparatory training for responsible positions in business and- administration is better obtained from arts subjects (including mathematics) than from subjects which hope to teach directly the methods and practices of commerce and administration. Those who are aiming at professions other than teaching or business or administration must find their vocational training elsewhere than in the arts faculty. If they can afford it, they would do well to take an arts course first (for that is the best way to achieve the other two pur-, poses of education) and then follow it up by a professional course in the particular line which they wish to follow. But most people cannot afford to do this nowadays, and the solution for them is to include in their course some element of arts subjects while mainly concentrating on the professional training which will lead to the job they are after. The Claim of Arts

While I am on this tpoic, I want to ask whether a training in arts subjects alone is enough in the modern

world, and whether the drift from arts to science and technology is a complete evil, as some people seem to think. In these days, when science and technology have become so important in the world and are becoming increasingly important, we must expect and, I think, encourage, the majority of students to train in those subjects; the modern world needs it; but we should make sure that they obtain something of the value of an arts course by including some arts subjects in their curriculum. Complete specialisation in science at school or in the early stages of a University course is deplorable and should not be allowed by any decent educational authority. But equally, m my opinion, complete specialisation in classics, for example, is a bad thing in modern times, for no man can be regarded as properly educated to understand the world to-day if he has no knowledge of what is happening in science. ,We want our arts students, then, to do some science, preferably physics or biology. I think, in the upper forms of the schools and probably _ also in their first year at the. university. We also want our science students to gain the benefit of arts studies by taking'at least one language, and I think that many would also benefit by doing an elementary course in logic and meta- i physics. Students of the more narrowly .professional faculties should take either mathematics, or a language (preferably Latin), or logic, for mental training, and they should also study some literature in order to achieve the third purpose of education. The Medical Student Does this apply to the medical faculty? Here we are up against a very difficult problem, for medical students have so much to learn in their own subject that it is hard to find time for other things. Other professional courses do not last so long, and if they cut out a bit of the specialisation in favour of some arts study, the student will not lose thereby. But whether this is possible for medical students, who have six years crammed full of professional training, I do not know. What is certain is that the future medical student should do some arts subjects in the Sixth Form at school. There, then, is my prescription for solving the problem of vocation and culture. I turn back now to the problem of numbers. At the end of the first article I referred to those people who just do not and cannot enjoy learning for its own sake. It may be said that such people, if they want to enter* a profession, should be., allowed to take a purely professional course alone at the University. My answer is that they should do their professional .course at some other institution of higher education and not at the University. They may make very good engineers or secretaries, but they should learn their job at a technical or commercial college. The sort of jobs for which a University trains peoplemedicine, law, teaching—cannot be done by students who have no zest; for learning. There is nothing wrong with lacking zest. We are not all made the same, and we are not all fitted for the same things. I have no doubt that I should make a shockingly bad fitter or turner, and consequently I ought to be debarred from an industrial apprenticeship. Equally the man who nas no bent for theoretical study should be debarred from the University. The University will fail to achieve the aims I have outlined if it does not pursue them all concurrently pnd with the standards of theoretical study that those aims reqhire.