EDUCATION OF TO-DAY

Waipa Post, Volume 49, Issue 3555, 8 December 1934, Page 5

EDUCATION OF TO-DAY

—_—♦ OXFORD DON'S VIEWS. THE MAKING OF MEN. London, October 26. The education systems of the World are cracking like the streets of Messina during the earthquake, declared Sir Michael Sadler, master of University College, Oxford, in a speech at Sheffield. "In many countries the present education system is a bad misfit," lie continued. "Economic causes produce revolutions, but an over-supply of academic education bx'eeds student agitators like mosquitoes. I would rather a grandson of mine grew up to be like Herbert Smith (the miners' leader). of Barnsley, than, by ci'amming, get seven credits in the school certificate examination." England has escaped the worst dangers for three reasons: — 1. Our educational administration, including management of our examinations, was, broadly speaking, stainlessly honest. 2. We encoui'aged games and athletics alongside of class work in schools. 3. Our young people had not rushed to the universities in the vast numbers which in some countries had produced hordes of B.A.'s without a job. There was a touch of Communism about all,public education, but Karl

Marx did not explain—still less explain away—the Lord's Prayer, St. Augustine, Abelard and Heloise, St. Francis of Assisi, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, or the pluck of the Flamborough lifeboat crew. Apart from Jew-baiting and failure to understand the strength of religious convictions, Hitler was trying a very interesting experiment in national education. He was making it hard physically as well as intellectually. He was giving it a sense of social obligation. "We want both things in England, though not on Hitler's lines," said Sir Michael. "Sir Oswald Mosley is 37 years of age. Plato was much older when he wrote 'The Republic.' A later work of Plato, 'The Laws,' is likely to be much mure heard of in the future than in the past.. Its educational programme is much more exciting than Sir Oswald Mosley's." What was needed was a way of integrating scientifically, artistically and spiritually the training of the body to grace, health and self-con-trol, with the training of the mind to precision, coui'age and honesty. , "We shall have to find some better way of selecting our elite than competitive examinations," said Sir Michael. "Examinations are like massage—tonic and stimulating, but not a substitute for outdoor exei'cise." Sir Michael Sadler, who is retiring at the end of the year, has been master of University College since 1923, having been formerly ViceChancellor of Leeds University.