TEACHERS' APPOINTMENTS.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1536, 4 September 1912, Page 5

TEACHERS' APPOINTMENTS.

Sir, —I' have watched the ■ progress of events in connection- with' tho recent 6chool appointments, and notice with pleasure that in your issue of August 29 you deal with the matter editorially. The whole difficulty seems to-be voiced in your concluding words: "For they (the city .first assistants) cannot now qualify without loss of salary." To my mind, the transfer of a man from a city assis-. tantship, in "which' position he teaches from 50 to 60 children, all in ono class, and possibly with the help of a'pupil teacher; where he ha-s little or no responsibility outside his own class, to the charge of a' school in, say, Grade VI, should be a substantial promotion. In this latter position he would gain such a wealth of experience about such matters as country school committees, applications for material and repairs, disadvantages obtaining in certain localities, odium attaching'to one who stands his ground because he knows he is in the right, and many petty annoyances as would test him to the extent of-finding out what he was made of. and, perhaps, making a man of him. Seven years only in' such a position will accomplish' this, in the average mRn, though some good men have to serve a much longer term. But why docs not-such a step as this menn-nn increase in salary? Because, when the Teachers' Salaries Commission sat in inOt, many city assistants who were on the spot, looked so well to their immediate interests that their own salaries worn raised to such nn extent a? to make very , few positions worth .th'eir seeking. It now remains to raise first assistants' solnries 41100 a yenr, and they will liave yet another grievance: viz'.', that city hradmajterships arc not worth going for. Give.them but another .GlOClft a year and the Inspector-Generalship will be beneath' their notice. Mynom de plume'ia a Latin one. From it you will. learn that a lengthy' sojourn in tho, country has made it rusty. This, however, is not wholly the fault of city assistants, for, owing to the advantages accruing from the case with .which they are enabled to attend a university college, they have often intimated to country teachers, their willingness, for a con?ideratiori, of course, to' improve our scholastic status in this or in any other direction. —I am, etc., : DOXINT KUSTICORUM.