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In A Changing World j A Jackson ONE the folJowinr is ffl A Jackson supervis or principal of the Newmarket schools given at a recent of the Rotary Club of Newmarket The concluding part of Mr Jacksons talk will be published next week It difficult nowadays to know where to begin talking about education It appears from dis cussions one hears that there is a feeling of uneasiness with the present educational system of Ontario I am reminded as I begin to choose my entrance into the subject of an Ontario farmer from whom once asked direc tions during my travels through the province He pondered time on what he should tell me and finally said If I were going there I wouldnt start from here anyway A wartime experience comes to mind also in this connection It concerns a negro in a certain In fantry division who drove his jeep through a troop area at treat speed When asked where was Roing he replied simply dont know where I am going but I am sure as heck going am reminded of him when think of education Are we not going at great speed without be ing sure of why or where There has been and is proceed- fug now a revolution in educa tion That part of it which I would like to consider today concerns the gradual change in mans nature which leads to a change in his ideas of what so ciety should be Such an evolu tionary change has been happen ing in the last hundred years On the social side we have seen the gradual though not total elimination of class distinction in the democracies This though it has Increased the numbers of the has reduced to nothing al most the numbers of the idle On the scientific side we have progressed from pick and shovel labor to the electronic control of complicated industrial processes On the human side we have pro gressed from whipping madmen and chaining prisoners to group therapy of the mentally deficient and the institution of planned rehabilitation programs in places that may some day cease to be called penitentiaries When we are apt to get gloomy about the present situation of mankind cowering as it does beneath the Hbomb we should remind ourselves hat in the past hundred years mankind has abolished slavery has abolished public flogging has ceased to ex ecute criminals in public and has for the most part eliminated sweated labor The world around us then is changed How has the educa tional process changed in order to cope with this new world How has it changed from within of its own volition and how has it been forced to change from without by external social pres sure If is at this point that we must investigate what has gone be fore We must know it seems to me what the original scheme or basis of education was before we can discuss how it has chang ed We can scarcely talk of ad dition and reformation unless we know what the original looked like The educational system of the democracies and it is under stood I hope that I talk only of the Western democracies begins in the mediaeval period in that long period from the spread of Christianity from Rome to Lu thers reformation Mediaeval education was based on rhetoric logic and philosophy It was a static kind of education admin istered by the was ir religious and blasphemous to question the premises upon which it was based It was to put it perhaps a little too simply a continuing training of how to die since knowledge of the physical properties of the world was so limited as to make it difficult and even inconveni ent to live This education did however produce notable com pilations of and some fine working rules for the application of such knowledge It also inculcated a great rever ence for and obedience to the teacher qualities which are not likely to be scorned by anyone in the century I have no doubt that many would like to see a little more the spirit of acceptance and code of obedience carried over from the Dark Ages into our present age of enlight enment This static form of education was changed at the Renaissance when there came a rediscovery of man Through studying the Greek philosophers who had been neglected by the church it became fashionable to consider man as lord of creation As Hamlet put it What a piece of work Is a man How noble in reason How infinite in faculty In form and moving how express and admir able Jn action how like an angel In apprehension how like a god The beauty of the world Since man was now interested in himself it became only natur al for him to be interested in the world the flesh and the devil Since he had previously only been concerned with heav en the spirit and God these new renaissance ideas expanded the curriculum How widely the curriculum was expanded we can see from reading Sir Thomas Elyots fa mous The Boke of the Gover nor In this invaluable century work Sir Thomas tells us that a young nobleman should by the age of seven be able to speak Latin as fluently as he speaks English By the age of 14 he should have read all the clas sical authors having learned Greek also in those seven years At he should be put to lo gic at rhetoric history and a study of the theory regarding the creation of the world cos mography including military studies as part of the latter sub ject At he should be in structed in philosophy poetry and drama At he should be put to the law 22 he should go on a grand tour of Europe at the end of which education he was ripe to be married when we have no doubt his education really began I should mention also that among these academic subjects the physical side was not to be neglected Sir Thomas gives full instructions for a youths train ing in wrestling hunting hawk ing dancing and the proper management of the carving knife What strikes one about both the mediaeval and renaissance curriculum is how vocational it was The monk who followed the curriculum of church educa tion was fully equipped for his life of quiet contemplation and only monks were so educated The knight and the laborer learned from experience and didnt waste their time on book learning The young nobleman or es quire of the Renaissance was trained to lead a life of courtly idleness in between periods of fighting for his king abroad and for his legal rights to his estates at home His whole education had seen to it that he knew what to talk about at court and how to talk about it had seen to it that he was physically hardened to sustain the rigors of summer campaigning in a suit of heavy armor and had made it impos sible for him to be duped by lawyers in the endless litigation which properly marriages brought in their train The century saw the he- ginning of scientific thought and the began to recognize the importance of technology Even so education was still limited to people who were in the upper classes and it was those people who blazed the trails of empire and governed that empire once it had been es tablished This is the basis then on which our present system rests What great changes have hap pened to make education fit in with our new democratic con cepts of who can be educated and why The first obvious thing is thai our present curriculum is com pletely overcrowded We have gone hogwild in trying to fill our children up with courses ranging from the most arrant technology to the most abstruse academic disciplines The ex pansion of knowledge has been partly responsible for this but it is more due I think to a lack of uniformity amongst our stu dents Under our present so ciety we can all become prin cipal of Varsity or Queens or general manager of the Alumin um Company of Canada the premier of Ontario or for that the Bishop of How is it possible for our pres ent educational directors to plan an educational system which is vocational for all these people in the same school Looked at in its simplest form the proposi tion is absurd but we have not looked at it in its absurdity and have tried to meet the situation by multiplying the number of courses This has resulted in the kind of situation which Stephen described so well in an essay called Education Eating Up Life Fifty years ago people learn ed to read out of a spelling book at six years old went to school at and taught school for money on a thirdclass certificate at After that two years in a sawmill and two at a medical school made thorn doc tors or one year in a sawill and one in divinity fitted them for church For law they needed no college at all just three sum mers on a farm and three winters in an office Now it is all changed Child ren in school at six years old cut up paper dolls and make pat terns They are still in high school till 13 learning civics and social statistics studies for old men They enter college at about or take prerequisites in various faculties for nearly years then become demonstrat ors invigilators researchers or cling to graduate scholarship like a man on a raft At thirty they are just be ginning years too late They cant marry till its years too New Conservation Authority Embraces 950 Square Miles Represents 35 Municipalities Page The Newmarket Era and Express Thursday Feb Metropolitan Toronto and reg ion conservation authority organ ized this week for the earliest pos sible assault on regional conser vation problems and program The merger of four former in dividual watershed authorities the new body represents 35 rnun- containing nearly million population The regional authority embrac es 950 square miles from Lake Ontario north to a line just south of Orangeville and Whitby it ex tends from Brampton to Ajax and from Mono Mills to Holding their initial meeting in North York council chambers last Wednesday under the chairman ship of A H Richardson the Me tropolitan conservation authority named Eric Baker vicechair man The executive will also in clude chairman of eight standing committees named as well at this session Four of these committees to be known as watershed advisory boards respectively embrace membership from the four form er conservation areas the I lum ber the Don the CreekHighlandPetticoat Creek and the Etobicokc- The chairman of these watershed ad visory boards are Toronto Alder man Dr J Kucherepa from late and die ten years too early This is an exaggerated view but there is more in it than we perhaps would caxe to admit We cannot deny tluit prolifera tion of subjects in our schools or of the specialists in those sub jects which make it impossible to root them out We cannot deny either the excessive time spent in school a by those who could do the work more quickly and by those who never could do the work and for whom in public school the teacher is a babysitter and in high school is a special constable Amongst all flurry of subjects Canadian children perhaps do not spent enough time on funda- I mental learning They should learn to speak well write well spell well and think well This lack of concern with fun damentals is the most serious drawback which our educational revolution has produced It has also worked in an opposite way because it has in fact induced a greater concern with superfici alities whieh should not be al lowed lo obscure the issue the North York Deputy- Reeve H Honsberger from the Don C R Scarborough and Mimico Councillor Hugh Griggs from the Etobicoke-Mimi- co The authority chairman pro tern Mr Richardson is the one nomi nee of the minister of planning and development to the regional authority He is Chief Conservat ion Engineer ViccChairman Mr Baker is a former chairman of the Humber conservation authority All but three of the 51 members of this new regional authority were present at the initial meet ing which named its executive and standing committees accept ed assets of the four former au thorities and authorized retent ion of personnel who have been engaged by the former authorit ies The full authority will meet at North York council cham bers on Thursday February 28 to consider the budget and author ize early action Meanwhile the executive was granted authority for interim financing up to 115- Citing the need for budget approval at the earliest possible date Dr stated unless it was provided soon the author ity could not function this year to meet the needs of the district municipalities Warden Leavens Bolton cited the need for retain ing the present field staff who have been kept on by and Don authorities These trained personnel could not be readily re placed he stated The Metropolitan Area needs a ventilation of green belts vice- chairman Baker told the author ity It is still possible to acquire a green holt in the area it is no longer possible to do so in the Don We should clear the flood plains and in doing so let us be as businesslike as can Temporarily the new Metropol itan authority will take over the headquarter offices at Woodbrid- which have boon occupied by the authority The Common Isabel Colville MuslcA Foundation Stone I was very much interested in Mrs A Stevens article Music Blooms in last weeks Era and The average sie of the Canad ian family during was persons Newfoundland of all the provinces had the greatest aver age size at persons Travel between Canada and the United States by rail through bus boat and plane in the first 1 months of showed an incre ase of per cent over Express because it recalled our experience when we came to Pleasantville To me a childhood without music is a tragedy My earliest re collections of music arc my grand father singing Scottish ballads to me and my father singing Irish ones Consequently I spoke with a fine Scottish accent on some oc casions and a good Irish brogue on others depending on which person I had last been singing with As all my relatives love to sing soon had an astonishing report- which after all these years is still fresh in my memory When I started to school I was rejoiced that we had a singing period oc casionally My first teacher was a Methodist and one of her fav orites was Dare to be a Dan iel and she and that hymn were so firmly welded together in my mind that I never thought of one without the other Some teachers in my public school lift had singing others had not but in Perth collegiate had a fine singing teacher and an excellent glee club which was the joy of my life The teacher was a Frenchman and we learned all the lovely French Canadian folk songs for which Ive always been thankful There was never a time in the past when music wasnt part of our home life just as it is today So when we came to and there was no music in the schools and no way for the child ren to enjoy group music Archie and I tried an experiment We contacted the parents and ex plained what wed like to do and the response was encouraging In a short time we had over thirty children coming every Saturday and a chorus and rhythm band were formed and this led to a chorus and orchestra of grown as well We had fun in our grown up groups hut it was nothing to the joy we had with the children Our living room on Saturdays was a sight to see with orange boxes for seats and instruments of many kinds- We gave some concerts and made enough money to buy cost umes and music but best of all those children now grown up with children of their own tell me they never have forgotten what I they learned at those practices joy of Round that we laid a few musical fount dations Now there is music ill our schools and Miss Armslronj is doing fine in this line and child need starve musically listened recently to Dr as assisted by Harry Mossfieh and Leo Barken he brought lightful music to the Children in these days have means at hand to develop any they may have Just now th Kiwanis competitions arc on am what a chance they present fo children and young people to gair experience to come up others and from that competition and from the adjudicators verl diets to assess their progress Then we have had the series and what an opportunity that has been for students as as we older people to hear best in music The last featuring James worth the whole price of the sea sons tickets and more The executive has done a marl vellous job in bringing such right to our doors Its up to us to take advantage of it Music is as has been said of some thing else a many thing It teaches one a love the beautiful it enlarges one horizon for it knows no of race or creed it opens doors f friendship music lovers gather it builds ones character beauty patriot ism love and religion For no can love music and not learn til know and love Ihe great music the spirit Like the Bible is the best seller in the world the greatest paintings so greatest music has been written round religion A life without music it be just the love of it or the abi ility to express it is a life one foundation stone lacking let us help wherever and howi ever we can to lay these musical foundations They are a must CELEBRATES BIRTHDAY Mrs Lou Ritchie celebrated birthday on Wednesday Feb She received many love cards and gifts from her lives On Sunday Mr and Mrs Walter Miner Toronto visiteq Mis Ritchie We have the ATTENTION FATHERS All fathers of Scouts Guides Cubs and Brownies are requested to attend the annual meeting oil Monday March at 8 pm in knowing Scout Hall Sale STARTS FRIDAY MARCH 1st SUPER KEM TONE Less 25 per cent GALS 615 820 Less 25 percent 4oo lor 3oo 4oo Discount for 3oo cash AT AT AT PHONE TWining 54112 WE DELIVER Revere Stainless Stee Galvanized Ware XXX Waxes and Polishes toreWideStock Reducing Sale Terms Strictly Gash Applying to all goods presently in Stock Goods now on order or Special order goods Regular Prices FMhy Oval U Less per cent Main St Newmarket GLO QTS Less per cent GALS 795 Less per cent PHONE TWining 54112 WE DELIVER Supreme Aluminum XXX Pyrex Ware Stanley Tools