Page 134 - Constructing Craft

for those who were later responsible for implementing the ideas that emerged from

the conference.

After the Conference

Australia and New Zealand responded differently to the new ideas about art and

craft. In Australia, for instance, implementation was quite slow with most
development taking place after 1940 and in some states there was even a return to

a more structured approach in the mid-1950s. It is likely that the presence of Beeby
may have advanced art and craft more rapidly and more fully in New Zealand and

the more unified structure of New Zealand’s education system may have also made

the implementation easier. Nevertheless, when Beeby became the Director of
Education in 1940 he was confronted by the disparity between the enthusiasm of

academics and teachers for the ‘new freedom’ in education, particularly in primary

schools, and the level of support that the Department of Education would or could
provide. The department had barely changed since the 1877 Education Act and its

main purpose was to support local control by distributing the statutory capitation
grant. Beeby, with the help of G. E. Overton, Chief Inspector for Primary Schools,

and D. G. Ball, Senior Inspector of Schools and later Chief Inspector for Primary
Schools, planned to change the role of inspectors so that they could give more

assistance to individual teachers.

Beeby kept encouraging educationalists to think about change and he maintained

the rate of change as rapidly as resources would allow. Despite the paper shortage
during the war he enlarged the Education Department’s magazine, the New

12
Zealand Education Gazette, and personally wrote editorials such as ‘Why crafts?’
He adopted the idea of training specialist teachers from Philip Smithells, the first

superintendent for Physical Education, and applied it to art and craft in schools.

Constructing Craft