Poverty Bay Herald PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING GISBORNE, MONDAY, JULY 12, 1937. TRENDS OF EDUCATION

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19374, 12 July 1937, Page 4

Poverty Bay Herald PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING GISBORNE, MONDAY, JULY 12, 1937. TRENDS OF EDUCATION

The conference of the New Education Fellowship whose sessions have commenced in Auckland is an event of international importance, and it will be surprising if, as a result of the exchange of opinions, New Zealand tides not derive inestimable benefits from a gathering of such distinguished visitors. The fellowship is an international organisation of unlimited scope aiming at the constant and free exchange of views and information on matters of educational interest. It was described by the president of the British Board of Education in his message of goodwill as one of the most fruitful forms of intellectual co-operation; a kind of international commerce into which no element of competitiveness or jealousy can enter, save competition in the interest of the child and jealousy for the welfare of future generations. No gathering could be assembled with higher ideals, and in this case idealism is supported by something more tangible, for the conference will benefit by the knowledge and experience of some of the leading figures in the educational world. A special value attaches to the gathering in this country because of its itinerant nature, sessions having been planned in ttie four chief centres of the Dominion before the delegates proceed to Australia to continue the discussions there. This will mean that those concerned with the educational system in this country will be given an excellent opportunity of making contact with the overseas visitors, discovering their views on various problems, and learning of the latest developments in other parts of the world. The visitors, in turn, will acquire a knowledge of what is being done in New Zealand, and it is not too much to expect that before they depart they will be in a position to make a reasoned and constructive criticism of the system that lias been evolved in this country. The conference, however, has a much wider application; it is essentially international in its work, and

because of this it can exercise an enormous influence on world affairs. One delegate stated in an interview that educationalists were looking to the schools and what was taught in them ns the only hope for democracy, and he added that while they did not look to education to solve any critical problem of to-day, if democracy was to last it would be as a result of the slow infiltration of what was taught in the schools. In this comment there is much food for thought, for it serves to stress the essential point that education is not an end in itself, but only a means to an end, and that end is what is so often loosely referred to as an enlightened democracy. Much of the difficulty in the world to-day is caused through a failure to -understand the problems that have to be ' solved. Orthodox teaching, in many cases, can bring enlightenment, but mere instruction is not enough: indeed, it is possible, and too frequently fco, that teaching may be directed to the inculcation of certain established and nationalistic views, and where this occurs more harm than good results. It is possible for so-called instruction to be little more than clever publicity or mass hypnotism, dulling the' senses rather than stimulating them, whereas real understanding can come only from intelligent individual thought. It is for this reason that education should aim, not so much at teaching the child as at encouraging him to teach himself. It is not sufficient that the student, in whatever sphere, should learn whatever may be taught him, but that he should be able to convince himself of its accuracy by his own reasoning. In other words, education should be regarded, not as a design or process for creating anything in particular, but merely as the materials which enable the student to build for himself according to his own design.

In our own schools endeavours have been made to some extent to get out of the old grooves and to avoid casting all pupils in the one mould. That is the first and most obvious step, but it is clear that if the best results are to be obtained it is necessary to look further afield, and nowhere more so than in an insular and isolated country such as our own. The breadth of vision that should be the basis of all education cannot be obtained within narrow confines either of textbooks or territory, but only by exploring the widest fields. It is not possible for either students or teachers in New Zealand to range the world in their quest for knowledge, but it is possible, within certain limits, to bring together representatives of the other parts of the world for an exchange of views and the pooling of knowledge. It is this object which the present conference so effectively serves. The delegates come from many different countries with varying and, perhaps, conflicting national, outlooks, but they have at least the common desire to improve the mental equipment of people of all nations and to bring to them a wider understanding of the problems than can be solved only by a fuller appreciation of other points of view. The conference cannot have other than good insults, and New Zealand has cvciv reason to feel grateful for this opportunity of learning something oi the work that is being done in other parts, and, perhaps, of having its own education system subjected tto expert and impartial analysis.