Page 131 - Constructing Craft

Dr Clarence Beeby. Photo: Alexander
Turnbull Library.

When Beeby was promoted from Assistant Director of Education to Director in 1940
and Fraser was replaced by H. G. R. Mason it appeared that Beeby was the sole

driver of education change. However, this perception was deceptive as Fraser and

the new Deputy Prime Minister Walter Nash, according to Beeby, finally determined
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educational policy. Nevertheless, Beeby continued to advance the programme that
Fraser had set in place and increasingly art and craft became a focus for the
reforms which were inspired by the 1937 New Education Fellowship (NEF)

conference.

The New Education Fellowship Conference

Beeby played a major role in planning the NEF conference, which was held in the
four largest cities. Fraser agreed the government would pay the cost of transporting

the guests around the country and would act as guarantor up to £500. Schools were

closed during the conference; attendance by teachers cost a nominal one pound for
a week of lectures and enrolments reached 5,883. The importance of the

conference lay in the official sanction it gave to new ideas on educational practice
that were to become the feature of post World War Two education. A group of

distinguished overseas educationalists were invited to present their ideas.

Constructing Craft