Pickering College - Voyageur Yearbook (Newmarket, Ontario Canada)

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THE VOYAGE UR Education For What ? by Jtlsvph lyltiflllllly. ILA. fflxonj Headmaster fReprinted from the Canadian Bookman, AprilfMay, l939.j URING THE CLOSING YEARS of the great war there was founded in England an organization known as The New Education Fellowship. The objecf tive of the founders was to bring together in an international organization all those who were interested in educational improvement and reform throughf out the world so that every individual-whatever his nationality, race, status or religion-should be educated under conditions which allowed the full and harmonious development of his own personality, and led to his realizing and fulfilling his responsibility to the Community. The founders of the New Education Fellowship were convinced that one of the most effective ways of avoiding another international war was by the improvement of educational practices and techniques throughout the world. The emphasis of the sofcalled new education was on human personality and its values. It advocated no specific educational panacea but it did insist on maintaining an international outlook. Sections and groups were formed in practically every part of the world. Educational magazines were published in a variety of -languages, and most significant, gatherings of educators met in a series of world and regional conferences organized on an international basis. Many of the particular reforms advocated by members have become current educational practice. Altogether it looked at one time as if the dream of the founders might become a reality and that education might in very truth be one of the major forces in the construction of a new world. Disillusionment, however, has set in. Educational leaders in all parts of the world are less confident about the success of their efforts. In some countries the N.E.F. and affiliated organizations, along with every other type of voluntary association, and proscribed. It seems almost that the height of -cynicism has been reached. The last issue of the New Era fthe official publif cation of the organization in England, is given over to a series of articles under the general heading Air Raid Precautions for Children. The editor comments: We make no apology for the matter and manner of this number of the magazine. The protection of children in time of war must, obviously, be planned scientifically, lovingly and in the fullest detail. Cur hope that such plans can then be pigeonholed does not absolve us from the duty of making them. Thus vanishes the roseate dream of the early twenties. 'What has happened to the N.E.F. in England is symptomatic of what is happening to liberal educational thinkers the world over. A few years ago it could be imagined that the dreams of educational reform were within sight of realizationg tofday the voices of educational liberals, as well as liberal thinkers in all other areas of human thought and activity, are drowned by the clamant shouts of demagogues of all kinds, advocating their own particular remedies 23

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THE VOYAGE UR 5? fm 5, f fflflgeir Qgrzzriuus ,gflliajesiies King fgenrge VI. zrnh Queen Zilizzxhetlq '77 I-A-1

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THE VOYAGEUR for the world's ills. And most of these cures involve the subordination of human personality to the supposed goods of supernationalistic, racial or class movements. The educator apologizes for his position, as his profession becomes a tool in the hands of the unscrupulous, perhaps he dare not even apologize, but must meekly conform to some type of totalitarian philosophy. Nor is it only in far away countries that these tendencies are evident. In our own midst there are those who are demanding that Canadian youth should be given education and training not dissimilar from that in use in the dictator states. These potential fascists emphasize the necessity of order in the modern state. They demand more and ever more udisciplinev for our youth. They seem determined to deprive our young people of the opportunity of developing as free citizens in a free society, and are already marking out the general lines that all youthful thinking and activity must follow. It was a very wise observer who stated, that if and when fascism came to this continent it would come in the guise of saving democracy. This process has already begun. Selff appointed saviours are even now preparing the way for such a movement. There does not seem to be any serious question, that the issue is already joined. The forces of democracy appear everywhere to be in retreat, educators by their very indifference in the face of the struggle seem to acknowledge their own failure in the past and their inability to do much about the future. It is not to be argued that democracy, as a political instrument, has been an unqualified success. Far from it. We are now at the end of a tenfyear period which has seen the greatest depression in the world's history, and the only relief in the gloom of the industrial picture has been a certain slight upfcurve occasioned, in large part, by the increased expenditures of the nations of the world on armaments. The research group of the Canadian Youth Congress recently issued figures indicating that there are in Canada approximately 400,000 young people with' out gainful occupation. Of these there are many who have gone through the formal educational process, who have now come to the age of maturity and are approaching what should have been some of the most productive years of their young lives, but who have never had the satisfaction of a permanent job of any kind. These young people are denied the legitimate satisfaction of economic security, of marriage and home life. Of almost 15 ,000 young people who took courses of a sort designed to train them for employment under the DominionfProvincial Youth Training Programme of 19374938, some 22 per cent. only were fortunate enough to obtain employment. Able and willing to work, most of them desirous of serving their country, their families and themselves, through the medium of some useful occupation, these thousands of young people, insecure in the present and uncertain and hopeless about the future, form admirable material for the preachments of those who subtly argue that economic security can be obtained by following their doctrines, even though such doctrines mean, ultimately, the sacrifice of those intangible but nevertheless very real values on which our democratic society has been built. fContinued on page 32, 24