SOCIOLOGY AND MENTAL SCIENCE

Otago Witness, Issue 3593, 23 January 1923, Page 5

SOCIOLOGY AND MENTAL SCIENCE

IN RELATION TO NATIONAL EDUCATION. A paper on the above subject was read at the Science Congress, held at Wellington, by Professor D. R. White, of Otago University. It dealt with the sociological condition of the 450,000 breadwinners of the dominion, 350,000 of these being men and 100,000 women. They were divisible into six classes—(l) Domestic workers, (2) industrial, (3) transport, (4) commercial, (5) agricultural, and (6) professional. The agricultural class numbered nearly 30 per cent, of the community, the industrial 25 per cent., and the professional class some 10 per cent. In every community, said Professor White, there would always be different classes of workers, and in this sense there would always be class distinction. The work of each class was materially different: some had to do mechanical or menial work, others, the more responsible duties, and this difference in the kind of work would of itself bring about a difference in rank and position with a corresponding difference in remuneration. The community divided itself off into classes, and this division of labour tended to increase the sum total of national wealth. The division of labour had increased the efficiency of labour and should also increase the sum total of human happiness and comfort. The six classes of breadwinners were really competing groups, each striving to get as large a share of the common fund as possible. The biological law of the struggle for existence found its analogue in the law of industrial competition between different classes. The law of self-preservation would always assert itself as a powerful motive in regulating human conduct. It was not possibe to get rid of this principle of selfinterest. Individual interest and individual effort were the best means of securing tne highest efficiency in service. But competition became unfair, selfish, even cruel. Unrestricted competition on the part of the group of workers would soon bring down the whole fabric of human society. The ■state, therefore, must take upon itself the duty by remedial and restrictive legislation of regulating the distribution of national wealth. Women were to be found in every avenue of work. This was an entirely new development in modern democratic States. Atone time it was thought that the Home was the appropriate place, but this phase of sociological evolution had gone. There were some 250,000 engaged in domestic duties; to these were to be added 100,OCO in the different classes of breadwinners; it was found that exactly one-half of the work of the dominion was carried on by women. What share of the wealth of the community were they entitled to for their services? This was an economic rather than a sociological problem The paper further dealt with the education of the classes to enable them to perform their duties efficiently. Society was based on the fact of mutual service and goodwill. This could only be brought about by educating the people to recognise the rights and duties of the various classes, bringing about more harmonious relations between the different classes of breadwinners, and better understanding of the duties of citizenship would enable them to realise that the welfare of the people is the highest law. Professor White next dealt with the influence of national education on the character of the people, and showed that the aim of national education should be (1) efficiency on the part of the workers, (2) intelligent citizens, and (3) honest men and women. More education was required. The State had adopted universal suffrage. What education had the voter to enable him to cast an intelligent vote? The greatest danger' to which democracy was liable lay in the ignorance, apathy, and indifference of the people. Professor White then dealt at length with the ethical and political principles necessary for the moral elevation of the people. Moral training was institutional as well as personal. The short period of school life was only one of the many sources of training. The State and its laws, civic institutions, the churches and their many organisations, all tended towards the moral elevation of the people, but the most important step so far as the State was concerned lay in better economic and social conditions. The history of human society showed that the material basis was the first step in any plan for the moral improvement of the community. First, that which was natural and material; afterwards that which was spiritual. Professor White, discussing the standard of education necessary for each of the six classes of the community, said that every class did not require the same standard of education, but everyone in any class must have an opportunity of rising from the lowest to the highest or professional class. The primary school course met the requirement of unskilled labour; the technical gave a training in industrial and commercial subjects; the high schools of the dominion might be appropriately called preparatory university schools. These high schools represent the humanist aim in education—that is, a sound training in modern and classical languages, science and mathematics. The university and university schools made adequate provision for the training of the professional classes, lhe Workers Educational Classes were domcr a great, service in educating the people. this institution promised to become in time a people’s university. To give greater unity and purpose to the lectures the University Senate should establish a degree, “Associate in Arts and Science ” as was found in some of the English Universities. This would induce many to proceed to a further and higher course of systematic study. The next section of the paper was of a technical character, intended to show that logic and psychology lie at the basis of all educational methods. The concluding paragraphs dealt with the question: Is democratic education going to prove a mistake and a failure? It had been said that the demand for education arose from the desire of parents to give their children a better chance of success in life, that it induced large numbers of breadwinners to strive to get into the higher groups for which they had no natural aptitude or capacity, and that education was responsible for the present unrest and social discontent. It was true that education did create larger desires And aspirations. So long as education was Confined to one class in the community

there was no thought of rising in the social scale, but when popular education was placed within the reach of the masses they were not slow to avail themselves of the opportunity of securing better conditions in life. The remedy for the present state of affairs was not less, but more, education. There should be part-time compulsory education for those between the ages of 13 and 18, at evening classes, say, two hours weekly, one hour for physical training and one for science or history of economics. In this way the people would be better educated to discharge their duties as citizens. The largo industrial classes were the rulers of the future. If they were not better educated then we should have to face a state of things in which discontent would soon become anarchy and revolution. No apology was required for the further spread of education. Popular education had proved a great renascence —an awakening of the human spirit to a sense of its innate power of invent’on, discovery, and imagination. The more enlightened the worker the keener his sense of the reality of his duties as well as his rights, and there would be a fuller recognition of the fraternal spirit that would ultimately prevail among all classes of the community. Professor White expressed his confidence in the teachers and administration in the dominion. They would, he hoped, give themselves with devotion and enthusiasm to the advancement of the sacred cause of human culture.