INDIVIDUAL THOUGHT

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19374, 12 July 1937, Page 6

INDIVIDUAL THOUGHT

COMMON NEED STRESSED ADVICE OF EDI' C A TlO NA - LIST (Per Press Association.) AUCKLAND, this day. The need for any audience to think for itself was stressed to-day by Dr. William Boyd, the head of the Department of Education, Glasgow University, in giving an address under the auspices of the New Education Fellowship. He said he did not want people siniplv to agree with a speaker, however authorative, but simply to use what was said as a basis for their own opinions. He added that most people did not think much after their teens. That was one argument for advancing the school age. He thought that half of the present school curriculum was wrong, but it did help to keep, the mind open. If a youth took a position too early his mind became mechanised and this stultified thought. Ho mentioned the lesson learned through contact with the unemployment situation in England. At first sport was the only activity in unemployment clubs formed to combat the problem, but then it was seen that sport was “poor stuff for the human soul." Some occupation was needed and that had led to the introduction of drama, the fine arts and music. These were important, not only to the unemployed, but to all persons, both children and adult.