EDUCATION OF CHILDREN

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLVIII, Issue 21647, 7 May 1940, Page 9

EDUCATION OF CHILDREN

Responsibility Of Community

Importance In War Time

Stressed

Special to " The Timaru Herald."

WELLINGTON. May 6.

"When the time comes that the children of our country become of little importance, then we are indeed inviting disaster," said the president, Mr D. C. Pryor, at the annual meeting of the New Zealand Educational Institute to-day. “It has been suggested that we as an Institute should not be meeting here to discuss matters which, although of great moment to us, in our daily work and in supporting the ideals behind that daily work, might be considered of little importance in relation to the momentous problems facing the world and our Empire in particular. I cannot agree with that suggestion. I earnestly believe that we, as teachers and as an Institute, place the welfare of the children in our schools first and foremost —I hope and trust that will be so during this Conference. “I am convinced that we have a great responsibility upon us at this time—a responsibility shared by the whole community, but which we must shoulder in the main. As citizens we are doing our share, making our sacrifices for the purpose of ensuring the success of our cause. But as teachers and as Institute members we have duties and obligations peculiar to ourselves. I cannot put my thoughts better than in the words of Dr. George Pratt Insh in the course of his presidential address to the Educational Institute of Scotland. ‘The challenge to democratic civilisation implies a challenge to democratic education, and on the nature of the reply to that challenge depends ultimately the survival of democratic civilisation.’

"If we can but start our young folk off equipped mentally, physically and morally, to think for themselves, express their thoughts clearly and logically and act upon their own decisions —with a desire for further knowledge and with the equipment wherewith to obtain that knowledge, we will have rendered great service to our country.”