THE BOY’S CAREER

Taranaki Daily News, 21 December 1929, Page 9

THE BOY’S CAREER

AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. “WHAT REALLY MATTERS. Christchurch, Dec. 17. The headmaster of Christ’s College, the Rev. E. C. Crosse, in his speech at tho annual prize-giving last night, made reference to the question of agricultural education, a matter to whieh considerable attention has been directed lately. It would be fitting, Mr. Crosse remarked, if he said something on the subject of agricultural education at the school. He believed that it was false logic to suppose that a country could decide the future careers of boys at school by giving education a particular twist in any direction. It was not tne business of the educator to give any sort of twist to the education he provided. In the long run it was economic, not educational, considerations which decided what vocations boys would adopt.

BOY’S AND FARMING.

If a Government really wanted to encourage boys to go on the land they should first begin by making farming a more profitable business, said Mr. Crosse. The chief trouble at the moment was not that boys did not want to go on the land. The fact was that for most boys at any rate the prospects seemed to be unpromising.

They had welcomed the commission representing the present Government a week ago, and found them helpful in every way. It was not his business to take sides in present-day politics, and as a schoolmaster he hoped he would never have to do so. Though he did not think that very much could be done to coax the boys on to the land by teaching them actual agriculture, he agreed that they ought to bear in mind that some, and they hoped an increasing number, of their best boys would take up farming. In view of their limited space at Christ's College and the type of boy they had, he believed the best training was to attempt to build the foundation rather than the superstructure. More benefit would be derived from learning one basic scientific subject like chemistry really well than by cramming any amount of the information undigested and half understood on the subjects of the properties of soils, and so forth, which was forgotten almost as soon as it was learned. WHAT REALLY MATTERS. If people only realised that in afterlife they forgot the details of almost everything they learned at school, he thought that they should hear less of the demand for utilitarian education. What mattered was not that a boy should have learned at school all the information he would require—that was impossible — but that he should have fashioned the weapon of his mind so that it could hope to do its work properly. In business the ability to write a good letter was worth more than a mere knowledge of book-keeping, and in a farmer’s life he believed that a sound scientific training, plus the habit of industry, was the greatest asset a boy could acquire. Lest it might be thought that they were just pig-headed by shutting the door on what thoughtful men in the country had felt to be real need, he would gladly teach botany if he had any one prepared to teach it, and he admitted that there was some justification for teaching book-keeping.