808 PROCEEDIXGS OF SECTION J. 



20.— THE PUEPOSE OF EDUCATION. 



By the Rev. D. J. GARLAl^D, late Archdeacon of North Queensland. 



Abstract. 



The aim of true education is to secure the social efficiency of the 

 future members of the State. The educational problem, therefore, 

 will be settled not in sections, but by establishing a system organic 

 to the whole life of the State. The kind of social individual who is 

 turned out is the true test of any system of education. This is not fully 

 recognised outside educational circles. A contrast in the growth of 

 educational methods with half a century back; then unsuitable, over- 

 crowded, insanitaiy buildings, severe discipline; to-day well lighted, 

 ventilated, and sanitary buildings, discipline no longer a terror. The 

 goal to-day to be aimed at is the training of the child in his whole 

 nature, phj^sical, economic, ethical. No one of these without the others 

 is complete. Each co-related and interdependent. The word mind no 

 longer limited to acts of memory. This facultj", call it what you 

 please, must be trained as a necessary and integral part of the daily 

 education. No casual or occasional method is sufficient, any more than 

 for arithmetic or gymnastics. Differences of opinion exist as to 

 methods of training the ethical side. These differences arise from 

 causes for which educationalists are not responsible, but they must 

 not wait till the churches can settle their squabbles. A solution 

 must be found by which the child's ethical nature will be trained 

 and developed, otherwise all our improvements in educational methods 

 are thrown away. The churches are inadequate in their machinery, 

 nor is it their exclusive function to provide the ethical training of 

 future members of the State. Notwithstanding the great debt owed 

 to the Church for its educational work for many centuries, the dav 

 has gone by for the Church to claim sole control of education, or to 

 fail to work in harmony with the State on the subject. Australian 

 thought is entirely against any return to any resemblance of education 

 under ecclesiastical control, but still desires some kind of ethical 

 training for the children. The problem has been solved to the 

 satisfaction of the vast majority of persons in the States of New 

 South Wales, Tasmania, and Western Australia. Progress of 

 democracy has altered the relations of Church and education to the 

 mcalculable gain to education, by permeating the State with a sense 

 of responsibility for the education of every child; but the State will 

 fail quite as much as ecclesiasticism failed, and prove itself equally 

 narrow, illiberal, and uninformed, if it is satisfied only with providing 

 for physical, economic education, and shuns, because of difficulties 

 which elsewhere have been overcome, any provision for ethical educa- 

 tion without which the other parts are inadeq^-ate. Face to face 

 with democratic powers and vaster democratic ideals, it is imperative 

 if we are to place the true interest and government of the community 

 beyond the reach of forces of dissolution and decay, that careful 

 provision must be made for physical, economic, and ethical training 

 of each individual in our community. 



