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The New Zealand Railways Magazine, Volume 10, Issue 10 (January 1, 1936)

Mile-posts of Progress

page 9

Mile-posts of Progress.

Each first of January the earth girds up its loins for its annual race around the sun, and as that is 92 1/2 million miles away and the earth must “keep its distance” on a well-defined elliptical course, there has to be some fast travelling to complete the circuit in the year allowed.

What makes the going still stiffer is that the sun himself sets out on a stately tour of 150 million miles every year, and the earth and other courtiers of the solar system have to trail along in attendance.

So, what with rolling round itself at a thousand miles an hour or so, keeping up with the sun in his inter-stellar travels, and also making a complete circuit of that same sun before the stroke of midnight on the next 31st December, this old globe of ours certainly has its work cut out to keep to schedule.

But what's a couple of million miles a day to the earth—when it's used to it? What happens on the earth during these travels is more to the point; for the years are the mile-posts of human progress that carry the story of mankind to date.

Education has been the greatest source of material advancement. It has had its ups and downs, but the upward movement has prevailed, until now the course is set for steady progression along well-tested lines.

The days when people drifted into the teaching game more by accident than by aptitude have gone by. No runaway sailor now gets a job through a friendly school committeeman; and a taste for chalk as an article of diet no longer gives prestige for pupil teachership in a State school.

Instead, the younger generation have the benefit of skilled tuition from their earliest years. Truby Kinged and Plunketed babies graduate, as their years go by, through model kindergarten, primary, intermediate, and secondary schools, to the highest branches of knowledge in technical and professional occupations, and they are guided all the way by scholarly, trained and graded teachers.

The profession of Education follows an idealism which ensures a wide and free spread of new knowledge as it becomes available. Revision is constantly carried on to relate new facts to former beliefs and theories.

Educationists have “seen their most cherished traditions knocked higher than Gilderoy's Kite”—and have been glad of it!

There is no “hush-hush” policy in the modern advancement of learning. It stands for a systematic, instead of a haphazard, approach to any problem. It rules out blind-alley methods, and its principal achievements are attained in the clear sunlight of knowledge above the clouds of guesswork.

The applied results of education are seen in all business affairs, and the Railways, in particular, have been apt pupils in learning the modern lessons of transport.

Four main mile-posts stand out to mark the principles of operation on the route of modern progress:

The first: The conviction that nothing happens by chance. This overrules a foolish dependence on the blind goddess “luck.”

The second: That to accomplish anything of value there must first be a clear understanding of the objective. This saves time and avoids waste of thought and material.

The third: That individual good is best served by those things which are for the public good—a valuable corrective against anti-social practices.

The fourth: That “the game's the thing”—bringing the spirit of sportsmanship into all the relations and activities of life.