COUNTING OF HEADS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 77, Issue 107, 8 May 1934, Page 5

COUNTING OF HEADS

MODERN INSTITUTIONS EDUCATIONIST’S WARNING ADDRESS TO TEACHERS “A STEREOTYPED PATTERN” ( Per Press Association. ] WELLINGTON, May 7. Professor T. A. Hunter, vice-chanceb lor of the New Zealand University, addressing the Educational Institute Conference, said there was a tendency in modern democratic institutions for the counting of heads, and a great tendency to pay respect to payers of dues. Influences in teachers’ organisations, as in others, were continually working in that direction. He referred to the need of finance to endeavour to obtain as many members as possible, and the fear of competing organisations. There was a danger in the popular election of officers, because those officers, being elected on a democratic vote, were liable to pay too much attention to the authority of numbers. Consequently, the democratic institution tended to mediocrity. The institution should set up the stand that people had to qualify before they could become members. The idea that people had to qualify implied discipline in the organisation, and a member should be made to feel that he would be supported only if his cause were just. • Another danger of popular institutions was inbreeding. In modern times teachers above all should be cautious of the influence of habit and regression. If teachers mixed only with teachers there would be a tendency for the development of a stereotyped pattern. “I say quite seriously that teachers should not spend their holidays with other teachers,” he said, “Develop other interests in life: In sport, in hobbies, in art, and in public life.” Professor Hunter said that educationists had to fight against the idea that education was rcstriccd to training that would enable people to earn a living in the narrow sense of tho term.