VOCATIONAL EDUCATION

Taranaki Daily News, 17 December 1930, Page 9

VOCATIONAL EDUCATION

BIAS TOWARDS AGRICULTURE NEW PLYMOUTH DIRECTOR'S VIEW PRACTICABILItY OF PROPOSALS. The bias toward agricultural and pastoral pursuits and the teaching of technical occupations in schools referred to in tlie Parliamentary .ecesis committee’s report on education • were dealt with by the director of technical education of the New Plymouth. Boy«’ High School, Mr. A. L. Moore, in his report at the annual prize-giving ceremony last night. ' The committee’s report had filled the educational horizon for the greater part of the year, said Mr. Moore. While it was not possible to discuss . the report ’■"fully without a more detailed knowledge of the practical application of the suggested reforms, there was much in it which he could heartily endorse. He proposed, to touch, on only two points. In the case of agricultural education, he said, the school authorities were very doubtful whether the suggested remedy of making agriculture a universal compulsory subject, if carried out to its fullest extent,' would have the desired effect. They were in accord with the view that “rich and poor, high and low, the conviction must be borne in upon our people that our prosperity, our comfort, and the very maintenance of our standard of living, depend Upon the development and efficiency of our primary industries.” With the view that agriculture as a universal compulsory subject for all schools would promote “a keener desireon the part of our young people to turn to the land as a means of livelihood, ’ they could not agree; to do so would be to lose sight of the fundamental basis of the question which was economic,' that land must come back to a normal price to offer a reasonable’ prospect of a living, at present day ..prices of,prices that might be'hoped’for in the near future. Until they reached this desired state of affairs, no amount of bias towards agricultural and pastoral pursuits would induce tile young people to turn to the land 4 a 'means 'of livelihood.; As an example Of. so-called bias, Mr. Modre mentioned that.:they had'been teaching wdodiVork sin the .Oqhool® for over 30 years,-yet they found no appreciable increasa' iii the -ranks of carpenters and cabinetmakers. Really to tackle the problem they must’first go to the root of the evil—high-priced land and heavy interest- charges—and prune away -these devitalising roots. They should, then find. plenty of the 'young people offering for rural Occupations. . ; ■ , ... The school authorities were heartily in agreement with the Minister, of Edu-_ cation in hi® insistence on- the technical and practical, side ,of secondary education, Mr. Mpore continued. Some purely classical people ‘ had stood aghast at this heresy and. had asked how one could build character without the inspiration of the humanities. ■ That despairing cry went ■ to. show that. even a classical education might.be Wide-and yet not deep; their protests arose from an ignorance of the subjects.. To work for ‘fork’s sake With a definite object in view that fitted in with the present and future reality of life was eutely, as humanising as any Studies void’ of practical application, and divorced from everyday life. To., lift the country out' of its present economic depression the best brains of ’ the country were required in agriculture, commerce and industry, and the. bright .boys should be encouraged to enter these /OeGUpaixOilgi. The study of these, occupations when taught in a school of the New Flymouth type as pro-vocational subjects had a cultural value as wide as any superficial of th^'humanities and, Mr. Moore-thought, deeper beOause of the ready-. to life -in - the present and h fuller realisation ofpresent life ..through a knowledge of the progress of civilisation from past ages by its arts, science, industry aiid Commerce. These fuels wore obvious to any educationist who had studied the work.. Education! must be suited to the needs and-environment of a people, and character so developed would make citizens who would shape and further the progress of the. country.