ART IN EDUCATION

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXI, Issue 18785, 19 May 1923, Page 4

ART IN EDUCATION

No more striking pronouncement in regard to modern educational requirements has been made than that issued by the Education Commission bewail-

ing the failure to develop the aesthetic side of life in our young people. Authorities in their efforts to improve systems have had in view only the utilitarian aim of education. The study of classics has boon almost elim-

inated from school curricula to make room for science. Too often education has been made to conform with technical training only, but of la to the staunchest supporters of science, the most determined opponents of the classics, are beginning to feel that there is still something lacking in our methods of education. There is

something in boys and girls that wants developing to enable them to reach the full stature of humanity. Outside the limits of regulations laid down by school boards and committees, by Cabinet Ministers and Governors, much may be done by the Society of Arts and Crafts which is now holding its annual exhibition in the Sarjeant Art Gallery. It has no unduly ambitious aim, yet it feels very surely that in an unobtrusive way it is helping towards that development of the i aesthetic side of life to the needs of which attention is called by the Edu- ; cation Commission. The environment of beautiful surroundings has nothing but a good influence on men and women, and such an environment has much more than a negative influence on boys and girls. An appreciation of works of artistic effort, even, the criticism of them so long as it is genuine, will do much towards developing the aesthetic faculty, and the artistic control, of the craftsmanship in the technical work exhibited shows how advantageously aesthetic and general education may proceed hand in hand. Unostentatiously for some years now the Society of Arts and Crafts in Wanganui, under the inspiring lead of Mrs Izett and Mrs George Sherriff, has been doing the work which is advocated by the educational authorities. The Society may 'well be satisfied with the Exhibition it is holding, and is fully justified in asking for the attention and support of the Wanganui public.