EDUCATIONAL NOTES.

Waikato Times, Volume 98, Issue 15341, 15 September 1923, Page 11 (Supplement)

EDUCATIONAL NOTES.

MAKING A CITIZEN.

(By "Dominie.")

"Adult Education and Society" was the subject of a lecture of the Archbishop of York at King's College, London, given under the auspices of the British Institute of Adult Education. Sir Donald Maclean presided, and Viscount Haldane, who is President of the Institute, was also present and spoke. Sir Donald Maclean, in speaking of the work of the "sea libraries" which the Institute had provided for the use of seamen, said the remarkable catholicity shown by the sailor iri his choice of books would be a credit to Mayfair. Education, or rather knowledge, he continued, was wanted more to-day than almost anything else. Society here and all over the world was moving towards the absolutely unknown. No man, whatever 1 his experience and knowledge might be, could foresee the future of Europe six months hence. There was no doubt about the danger; but get rid of ignorance, and the way, though hard and difficult, might be trodden with reasonable safety. Linked up with knowledge there must be unselfish service—not merely national service, but international service. Time was when the Church gave a grudging assent to progress, but that could not be said of the leaders of our Church to-day. An Educated Society. The Archbishop of York said history gave some glimpses of what an educated society might be—of its stimulus and its charm. Such a society lived in Athens in its best days; perhaps it lived in some of the great Italian cities of the Renaissance. It seemed to him to have lived for a short time in the professional life of the city of Edinburgh at the beginning of the Nineteenth Century. In all these cases these educated societies rested upon the slavery of serfdom of the multitude of the people, or were confined to select and privileged classes. "Our task," he continued, "is much greater, much wider, much more noble and difficult. It is to make the common crowd an educated society."

The necessity for this was mainly in the sphere of government. We were living in an age of industrial democracy. We could not betoo often reminded of the claim of the worker that there should be something in his industrial position analogous to the position he x possessed in the life of the State; that the man who was politically a free citizen could not rest when economically he was only a dependent, and that there ought to be in his control of the industry in which he was engaged something analogous to the control which was given to him of the community to which he belonged. That that stage must be reached sooner or later seemed certain, and it was obvious, therefore, that an uneducated industrial democracy might, in spite of high ideals, shatter the material basis on which our common life must rest. An uneducated democracy must ultimately lead to anarchy, or to the tyranny of an individual, olass, or clique. It should be plain to all, as it was to Plato, that the fundamental problem of the community was the training and education of its citizens. There must be an appropriate training for them at each stage of their lives —for adults as much as for children. Adult education, instead of being regarded as a by-product, must be the centre of the whole educational system. The Ideal School. The aim of all education among the people was to arouse, sustain, and provide for interests which were responsive to the great human values of truth, beauty and goodness. Children should be taught to leav".c the elementary schools with an insatiable curiosity. The ideal elementary school would have the smallest possible classes and teach the fewest possible subjects by the best possible teachers. It was the worst economy to spend enormous sums on elementary education and then to make it useless by declining to spend a little more on Its continuation. With regard to the public schools, how many boys left them without real mental, aesthetic, or spiritual ideas? More effort should be made to find out and develop whatever leading interest the boy had, and to make that the lever of his education. Viscount Haldane said the Archbishop's address opened the prospect of a better public opinion. There had been much controversy of late about the word sovereignty. The source of sovereignty was really public opinion; and therefore if they could make a great and noble public opinion they would have a great and noble instrument through which would work the sovereignty of the Throne or of the King in Parliament. Was not this cause of the enlightenment of our democracy a cause worth striving forHe thought it was; because if there was really a progressive party in this country, alternative to the Government of the'clay, it must be a party based on this higher form of education.

EXEMPLARS OF EMPIRE.

The Imperial value of the personal influence of the school teacher was emphasised by the Duke of lork m welcoming delegates from all raits of the Empire to the Imperial Educat on Conference, which he opened at the Board of Education. The Duke said. "Education, provided we take a wade view of the subject, is more vital than anything else to-day. To my m tod. and in my recollection, its most important aspect is the personal influence of the teacher. Even the injunctions of Boards of Education can never be so potent a factor, and indeed must be subsidiary to the teacher's personality and example. His or her example in school and out of school can point the way to that healthy development of body and mind which can teach the boy or girl to esteem the playing of the game greater than the winning of the prize, and to .put the honour and safety of tlic community before the success of the individual. Events conspire to make us all Imperialists to-day. It is well, therefore, that the children wlio are ' growing up in this and other nations of the Empire should realise the full meaning of the Imperial partnership and should be reminded that they arc destined to inherit a great trust". In addition to two delegates from the Irish Free State, two representatives from Northern Ireland were also present.