W.E.A.

Timaru Herald, Volume XCVIII, Issue 18084, 5 June 1923, Page 6

W.E.A.

To tho Editor of the “ Tirnaru Herald.” Sir,—Allow mo through the medium °» y°ur paper to assist many oi! your readers to understand the functions of the Workers’ .Educational Association which, briefly, are as follows : ’ . Ike main feature of the Association is to establish classes whereby a substantial and continued study can be undertaken in any cultural subject, such as English Literature, Psychology, Economics, History, Political Science or Music.

Whenever twenty or more students can be secured who will undertake a course of study a class will be formed and a tutor provided. The classes are free to all persons over the age of sixteen years who realise the benefits of further education and are possessed by a i desire to do their own thinking. Each tutorial class meets twenty-four times during, the year, usually once a week from March to October. The duration of each class is two hours. The first hour is generally occupied by the tutor’s lecture, and the second bv the students’ discussion of the problems raised in the lecture. It is this discussion which assists students to express and to realise themselves, and. to broaden their outlook, by coming into contact with minds of widely divergent views. No one who has attended a tutorial class could fail to be struck by the tolerant and, at the same time, candid expressions of the various students in discussing the problems at issue. In addition to the regular classes public lectures are organised on subjects of national and local interest; The speakers are chosen as experts in their subjects. After each lecture questions are invited appertaining to the subject matter of the lecture. Summer and winter schools are held and educational conferences. The W.E.A. offers a meeting ground for all shades of opinion on most subjects. In encourages the clash of minds in their endeavour to arrive at the truth. No propaganda of any kind is allowed, but every student is given the right to explain his or her opinions, and must in return allow the same right to the other students. ", - Each student has a free use of the library, the books of which are of an authoritative nature on the subjects studied. Attendance at the olasses develops a comradeship whioh is known in Britain as the W.E.A. spirit. This spirit of comradeship is continued outside the classroom, and thus leads to a wide ana more sympathetic conception of the meaning of life. The continued study, supported by the practical experience o life) will have the effect of broadening each student’s mind, and assist him to take a more extensive interest -m the affairs of his country and in the advance of scientific thought—l am, etc., F. G. BICKNELL, Hon. Seo. W.E.A., Timaru,<