BROADER EDUCATION.

Taranaki Daily News, 20 September 1924, Page 6

BROADER EDUCATION.

FITTING FOR LIFE’S WORK. OBJECT OF FUTURE VALUE OF MANUAL DEXTERITY. A broader basis of education, so as to fit the pupils for real life work, was toutehed upon at the meeting of the Auckland Education Board this week. Mr. R. Hoe stated that he understood the junior high schools were designed to bridge over the gap that existed between the primary and secondary stages of education, but there still remained the wider and more important gap between the system and the real afterlife work of the .boys and girls who were passing tlwough the most important adolescent period from 14 to 18 years of age. The great problem for the majority of boys and girls was the obtaining of comforts and conveniences of modern life. In advocating a higher standard of utilitarian education ho did not wish to disparage the academic side of education. The system df technical education seemed to be out of touch with practical agricultural and industrial production. Mr. J. C. Caughley, Director of Education, who was present, stated that the general tendency was to broaden the basis of general education.' In some countries the proprietors of big industries had instituted schools of their own in which the young workers were taught academic subjects while they were getting practical experience in their avocation. It was from these workers the future managers were expected.

Children, he went on to say, should not decide at too early an age what calling they wished to follow, and it was a mistake to try and determine a certain avocation for them. But the things which had been thought preeminent twenty years ago were discounted in modern education, and it was their aim to give the child an education which would have a bearing on subsequent life.

The academic subjects should not be discounted too much, however, and it was an astounding fact that a B.A. diploma eo-uld be obtained without a student taking his own language. On the practical side the training desired was manual dexterity. There was a kind of training which could not be obtained in any other way than by making something. It made a child’s mind adaptable, and this was the broad basis, along with the general education, on which the future training would be based.

The wonderful agricultural system in Denmark was a remarkable instance of the value-of proper training. There the child was not taught agriculture in the early stages, but was developed physically without subjection to examinations. Then two years’ training was given on the farms, and the pupil came back to the folk high schools. As the result of this scheme Denmark had the finest agricultural system in the world.

The • broader outlook, the Director added, wus spreading to the secondary schools. There was less academic instruction, and no longer was there devoted the inordinate amount of attention to Latin and Greek. The technical schools, which previously were too vocational, were changing, and secondary and technical school was becoming more as one.