12
Friday, January 16, 1976
TRAINING YOUTHS TO THINK FOR THEMSELVES
The training of young men and women to think for themselves
and to make decisions based on their own observations and evaluations
should still be the main aim of education, the Director of Education,
Mr. Kenneth Topley, said this evening.
"Such young men and women will be assets to any society which
cherishes freedom of thought and speech," Mr. Topley told the gathering
at the Speech Day of St. Paul's Co-Educational College and the official
naming of the school hall in honour of the late Sir Robert Kotewall.
The Director continued: "It cannot be denied that such
training can be given through the teaching of the so-called 'academic'
subjects.
"The mind is trained by the method of study, not by the content.
This is not to say that the content can be ignored. It has to be kept
as up-to-date as is possible at the school level or it will not find
acceptance among the students as worthwhile material upon which to
exercise their intellectual powers.
Mr. Topley stressed that it must relate to the real world
outside the classroom. Properly taught, however, the "academic
subjects have just as valuable a part to play in preparing the young
to take their places as adult members of the community as have the
more obviously society-oriented subjects of the curricula.
He said: "Preparation for life as adults in the wider community
outside the school is important and this importance should be recognised in
what we teach in our classrooms and in the opportunities we provide
in our extra-curricular programes.
/INTO