Sta,—I was the more interested in the article by Dr.
Dunsheath on "Industry and Education" because it did recognise the need for some other factors in life than technical education, important as that is. He said: "it would be a fatal mistake to conclude that only ,such knowledge is necessary—for besides vocational ability, judgement and common sense are universally in demand, and it is the cultural subjects which, above all, bestow these prizes both on the individual and the community."
Even this slight reference to what I deem to be the fundamental need of our social life comes as a ray of hope (from such a source) that there are glimmerings of discernment in the body politic as regards the kind of policy now required. It is because of mass production and the exces- sive refinements in the dilution of processes in our industries that we find the restlessness, dissatisfaction, and sense of frustration amongst masses of people who are quite at a loss to understand what is the cause of their trouble. This condition has been accentuated since the old craftsmen were destroyed by mechanisms, for these workers and creators of a complete article, who used their hands and their intelligence in the job, were contented men compared with the robots of the present age.
Hence there is a need to restore this lost sense of satisfaction, mainly by a new form of combination in continued education, which will link up technical instruction with such other cultural subjects as literature, music and the graphic or plastic arts, as well as with hobbies and recrea- tions that will ensure the training in unison of body, mind and spirit.
While the London Polytechnic follows this policy in part, some of the New Ycruth Centres are starting more near to the right method, as their recreational side is more intimately linked with the cultural through the agency of drama, music in various forms, folk dancing, and survey work for local history. It is on these lines that the new youth movement should be associated with the proposed extension of technical and con- tinued education.—Yours, &c., H. T. HAAISON. Thornby, Walford Road, Uxbridge.
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