EDUCATION PROBLEMS

Waipa Post, Volume 38, Issue 2286, 28 March 1929, Page 5

EDUCATION PROBLEMS

TRAINING BOYS FOR THE FUTURE. AGRICULTURE IN THE FOREFRONT. Commenting editorially on the educational outlook the Otago Daily Times says the Minister of Education has exprJl sd the deliberate conviction tha»ere must be a change of some descH>tion in the present system o± education. The need for a change is so apparent to him that he has said he has an open mind to everything except that there must be a change. He has claimed, moreover, that the conviction at which he has arrived on this point is shared by every authority on education. Mr Atmore approaches the educational problem from a somewhat different angle from that of the university professor, but the cone usions respectively reached are stnk ingly similar. The university ideal is to create men and women whose professional careers shall be leavened by a meed of culture, that purely technical learning shall not be attained too much at the expense of intellectual claims. Mr Atmore advances the view that the educational system of New Zealand is too largely dominated by academic influences and that sufficient provision has not been made for the larger number who have ability id other directions. . The obvious inference seems to be that the democratic idea of an avenue for all from the kindergarten to the university has been carried too far, with the result that a mechanised system of education has been produced, presenting grave dangers the full effect of which we are now beginning to realise. It has sagely been observed that education is not a process of producing uniform minds, but one of enabling each different mind to develop its particular capacity, and that under the present system much valuable time and money are wasted in a vain endeavour to fit square pegs into round holes. Mr Atmore proposes as a partial remedy that the instruction imparted In the secondary schools shall be of a more practical nature than it is at present. In this direction the Minister is at one with an eminent authority in the person of Dr Norwood, headmoster of Harrow, who has recently uttered a warning against what he terms the mechanisation of education. Dr Norwood, among other criticisms, complains of the tendency to make schools similar to one another for the sake of easier administration, and the complaint has application no doubt to the schools of New Zealand. Mr Atmore points out that while 95 per cent of the wealth of New Zealand is derived from the land the majority of country children are induced to take academic courses which will be of little or no use to them in after life. He holds, therefore, that an educational system which has not an agricultural bias is not suited to I the special circumstances and requirements of New Zealand. The ideal which the Minister proclaims as the culminating point in the policy of the Government is to train each child for the position for which he is naturally fitted, and to educate him along the Lines'of his natural ability. To that end there must be greater freedom s both for teachers and for scholars. _ Educationists will await with interest the announcement promised by Mr Atmore of the new policy which ts to be evolved after he has conferred with representatives of the primary and secondary schools and technical colleges.