The Wanganui Chronicle. "Nulla Dies Sine Linea." THURSDAY, MARCH 30, 1922. ENGLAND'S EDUCATIONAL WEEK.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXVI, Issue 18444, 30 March 1922, Page 4

The Wanganui Chronicle. "Nulla Dies Sine Linea." THURSDAY, MARCH 30, 1922. ENGLAND'S EDUCATIONAL WEEK.

Following their usual and self-sacri-ficing custom, the Christmas holiday season saw great gatherings of teachers, not only in London, but in the north of England. Year after year English teachers give up the better part of a fortnight to a series of educational conferences, with results which cannot be other than beneficial to the nation. At the gatherings which terminated early in January, the leaders of the profession, university professors, and the rest, summed up current opinion upon psycho-analysis, intelligence tests, history teaching, mind development, and other problems whicn are interesting teachers. At the same time, members of learned societies, such as the Classical Association and the History Association, were in conference, and a large exhibition of educational books and material was held. It is not possible to pass on to Overseas people all the good thought and enthusiasm pur into circulation as the result of this ten days’ whirl of educational ideas, but a London correspondent gives us a welcome sample. From this we gather that the Intention underlying the joint conferences was to consider education, first as a ’'mission,” then as a “science,” and lastly as an “art," the keynote of the concluding addresses being that the teacher must have the spirit of an artist rather than of an artisan, and create his own effects in his own way, rather than copy mechanically the methods

of others. The placing of education upon this high plane was timely. During the world war the educational profession profited greatly by tne lavish expenditure of public money. It is in great danger now that tbe Geddes axe is seeking what it may destroy. Indeed, as Sir Henry Newbolt, the poet, wittily said, British education is in danger of foundering upon “the Inchcape Rock,” for Lord Inchcape is another member of the Geddes’s economy commission. Elementary education, which used to cost £20,000,000 a year now costs £77,000,000. A likely economy is a cut in the salaries of masters and mistresses in the secondary schools, fixed at a minimum of £l9O and a maximum of £440, under the Lord Burnham award. Necessary as public economy is, most Englishmen hope that it will not be necessary to save in the direction of teachers’ salaries.