R.S.A. REMIT ON SUBVERSION

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27395, 7 July 1954, Page 14

R.S.A. REMIT ON SUBVERSION

TEACHERS’ JOURNAL REPLIES

“UNWORJHY REFLECTION ON PROFESSION” I "The -decision made last month by | the Dominion council of the New Zealand Returned Services’ Association to ask its member associations I for details of subversive teaching is just another instance, though a particularly glaring one, of the vulnerability of teachers to attacks from outside the profession,” says a leading article in "National Education,” the journal of the New Zealand Educational Institute. “What the teacher says. and does is quite naturally a subject of great interest to parents concerned with the educational progress of their children, and also to others more generally concerned with education. It is right that they should be interested, but it is unfortunate, both from the point of view of heir understanding of educational policy and also from the point of view of the teacher's reputation, that so often their knowledge of what goes on at school comes to them at second hand,” the article says. J "Garbled accounts of school work may not matter very much if parents have the opportunity of talking to teachers either individually or at ' parent-teacher meetings. An incorrect ’ report of a teacher’s behaviour, on ‘ the other hand, can be most serious. ’ A parent is less likely to go direct to the teacher with a report of this i kind. He is more likely to consult | others, so that an unfounded accusa--1 tion can gain wide credence without ,! there being any opportunity of denyE ing it.

“Just how far such an accustion can go without coming into the open is shown by the fact that allegations of subversive teaching in schools can reach the Dominion council of the R.S.A. with sufficient force for it to ask the associations to ifivestigate without there having been one complaint made officially about a teacher,” says the journal. “The institute welcomes an official inquiry following a properly laid complaint, though it has strong reservations about the manner in which I these inquiries are sometimes conducted. Nevertheless, the machinery is there to be used by anyone wishing to complain about* a teacher and it is infinitely preferable to have a charge laid in black and white rather than have rumours and talk that can damage a teacher’s reputation without giving him a chance to reply or that can, as in the present case, cast an 'unworthy reflection on the whole I profession. . . "To some extend this deplorable ‘ vulnerability of the teacher must be ‘ accepted as one of the hazards of his position, but a- little forethought on the part of the public, both as individuals and in organisations, could niake his position a lot happier,” the article concludes.