“LEARNING WHILE EARNING”

Southland Times, Issue 24754, 27 May 1942, Page 3

“LEARNING WHILE EARNING”

NEED FOR CHANGE IN IDEAS OF EDUCATION

What he described as the “sudden, disastrous break” between school life and working life was deplored by Mr J. A. Brailsford, tutor-organizer for the Workers’ Educational Association for Otago and Southland, in a talk to members of the Invercargill Rotary Club yesterday in which he discussed some of the broader aspects of education.

Mr Brailsford remarked on the failure of his association to attract as many young people as it would like—a failure which he attributed in part to the lack of club life and in part to the nature of the education system. This system, he said, kept children steadfastly at their books until the time came for them to go to work, and gave them the idea that education was a good thing to have done with. Education was still only in its infancy, and he had no doubt that it would move in the direction of bringing about a more gradual change from school life to working life. He thought that plenty of boys would be the better for going to work, part-time, at the age of 13— provided that they stayed at school, part-time, until they were 20 and were able to combine learning with earning.

EDUCATION AND DEMOCRACY Mr Brailsford spoke of the tremendous problems that had to be dealt with after the war. “We do need to have a thinking democracy,” he went on, “or we will have no democracy at all. I don’t think anyone is satisfied that we have a real democracy yet. Education is one of the things that are absolutely essential before that real democracy can be achieved.” Speaking of the work of the W.E.A. in New Zealand, Mr Brailsford said it was still in the pioneering stage, though fairly steady progress had been made since the movement was started in 1915. The depression years had given the association a set-back, but it had developed new techniques of teaching and was again expanding. In the main centres it was closely associated with the universities; in the smaller places it made use of discussion courses and the box system. The association had been kept in a healthy state under university control and had thereby avoided the danger, which had arisen in two states of Australia, of political attack from one side or the other. SOME MISUNDERSTANDINGS

The W.E.A., he added, was “a movement for education by disagreement” and so naturally it became the medium of expression for many unorthodox views. It allowed the utmost freedom for the expression of those views, but sometimes they werfe a cause of misunderstanding of the nature of the association’s work. The W.E.A. had been started in England as a working class scheme, but in New Zealand it had developed into something very much wider. Some of the workers who joined it expected it to be simply a Labour Party group, and were disappointed, while people on the other side were apt to think that it was just out for propaganda. Mr Brailsford expressed regret at the failure of the authorities to use the radio for adult education to a greater extent than it had been used. He mentioned that the association had been pressing for a scheme of education in the military camps, and that this was now to be provided. On the motion of Mr Dudley Wills, he was warmly thanked for his address.