Page 130 - Constructing Craft

idea that the welfare of the individual was inextricably linked to the collective wealth

of the nation. This became evident when, on becoming Minister of Education, the
emphasis in education shifted from training children for adult vocations through
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formal learning to viewing education as having ‘intrinsic value in its own right’.

Peter Fraser. ‘Education must teach us how
to live.’ Photo: Alexander Turnbull Library

Dr Clarence Beeby
Dr Clarence Beeby’s background as an academic in educational research informed

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his approach to the changes that Fraser sought. During his teacher training he had
been inspired by the lectures given by Professor James Shelley at Canterbury
College on the importance of the individual in education. Shelley, in turn, had

developed his thinking on education through studying the works of the British

educationalist, Sir Percy Nunn and the American philosopher, John Dewey. By the
time Beeby was appointed to the post of Executive Officer of the New Zealand

Council for Educational Research (NZCER) in November 1934 he was steeped in
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advanced educational thinking.

Constructing Craft