EDUCATIONAL REFORM

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 146, 15 March 1919, Page 8

EDUCATIONAL REFORM

l NEED OF BETTER TEACHERS 6 3 ' WHY OBTAIN THEM AND HOW (For The Dominion*, by 1?. L, Combs, JI.A.) No. 11. j As remarks tho Hon. J. A. Italian in his 1918 report: "It would seem the trite-st of truisms that tho educator should be !. educated." In other words, a sine quo non of tho art of imparting knowledge it knowledge to impart. Does the teaching profession possess itf Let official figures speak: "Of 451G adult touchers, 3245 (over 70 per cent.) show nc evidence of education beyond tho standard reached at a, secondary school by a pupil of lli or 17." . In other words, though we would shrink in alarm from permitting a medica. . student in his second year to try his 'prentico hand on their bodily ailments 1 wo are prepared to yield up bound alio 0 captive our children's minds to people oi " even less enlightenment. s No wonder that a relatively uncultured r calling is found slow to grasp the signi- • ticance and to assimilate the outlook oi !' new progressive tendencies in education, - .No wonder that syllabi brought up tc ; date are the substance of things hopei ;> for rather than an evidence of things r existing and safely to be believed. !> Professional Standing Based on Diploma v A medical profession abreast of tin '• latest science and art of healing can V. secure ideally aseptic and hygienic con--1 ditions in the hospitals. These, buildings *' havo become tho concrete embodiment oi s tho most fastidious refinements of a spic c and span vocation. Tho schools, on 'the - other hand, overcrowded and ill-cleaned, s reflect tho relative standing of thoso who n ply their trade within them. The . ref medy is obvious. Tho prime requisite - of truo reform is an influx _ of y?' ln S r> teachers who, by virtue of native ability, t training, and education, can raise the proi\ fession to a level commensurate with its :i -opportunities and responsibilities, ihc e cultural status these, new entrants must . obtain must bo a university diploma. At i present a bare ten per cent, of the ' B!l( '' u s ing profession possess anything of the s kind. Moreover, the diploma commonly j held, the Arts degree, cannot by an.v s stretch of imagination be regarded as the ) equivalent of tho doctor's. The securing % of it leads the student astray into subt jecls that only remotely react upon his . daily work. It gives no guarantee of Anything equivalent to the medical student's clinical experience. It lends it- . self, as every correspondence college knows, to unmitigated cram. Even so, ! official testimony is. that it mnkes oil an average a better teacher of its recipient. f University Senate v. Teaching Profession, What a real diploma, concentrated npon tho field of a teacher's activities and needs, would givc-a. diploma, moreover, certifying also practical competence of n scientific order for educational work— the New Zealand University Senate cannot seem to realise. The Senate is niiilo aware that: wo need university schools of law, medicine, mining, and music, but the nutting of education on a parity with 1 tlieso is repugnant to its conservative consnience. Verily unlucky Ciiuloiella, Education, suffers from a plethora of obdurate stepmothers. One hopes tor tho time when such a diploma will, bo file indispensable prerequisite to nnpointiviont to ft position in our schools. Til tho interim for the tenchers it ]i ns ~" n ' least, for those of a. younger growth-Uio Department should institute refresher courses on a lavish scale. One might snirL'est, to bo concrete, that at least every four rears a should, for a. period of six months, remove to a college and go thronirh one of these courses. An enlarged edition of tlio summer school with the at present itinerant instructors perliinnenHy mobilised Ihevoin would gne th« nucleus of such a coljege. . But the best done with an teaching bodv that includes thirty Tier cent, of teachors (?) "with no certified educational status,•; that, is "the present low minimum of educational requirement'," will still leave the new era to be inaugurated by a bodv of yoiiTlß teachers yet to summoned to the scholastic colours. / For. one thing an institution. like an individual, has habits To resist and transform tlio somewhat unenlightened habits of current instruction must be tho task of people never under their yoke. Needed—2ooo New Teachers, 'i'hvit is why the present writer has persistently advocated the influx en masse of some 2000 young teachers to our schools. Coming by twos and threes tlipv will be overwhelmed and submerged bv the entrenched majority already m possession. Entering together with a common and modernised conception or thair lifn work they will be able to lcavtm tlio old lump. To those who regard a J preposterous ,tho obtaining in a single year of such a number of entrants to teaching the writer would reply .only an unprepared state of public opinion can make it so. How long did it take to mobilise and send abroad at tlio rate ot 3000 a month the very flower of our manhood > Send them traincd-sond theiu, 100 to a work of death, and through the gatis of death. If the recent awakening to the defects and potentialities of our schools is a. hopeful augury, tho will to a "new model" teaching profession is already hero, and adequate finance can find a. whv. Already there are four training colleges susceptible in connection with our city schools of a considerable extension of function. One or two more, particularly a country school training college, might be set up at such centres as Wangaiuii or I'almerston. Instructors appointed thereunto with university stains might preparo students for a diploma plausibly insinuated into that anticuiatol mechanism, the collective intellect of tho New Zealand University benate A reshuffle of positions taking place, the best, tho most enterprising, of present teachers might be brought into close contiguity to these tainiiiff colleges. The elements of the practice ot the art would bo ncquircd from them in the same manner that painting is learned in a renowned studio, by the stimulus ot a master's presence, the observation and adaptation of his gesture to one's individual needs and temperament. How Allure These 2000? A final question needs answering. TJnless yuu ore going to conscript these -000 apprentices how will you get them to apply? Clearly by making teaching a desirable life occupation, by paying decent salaries, bj. not over-taxing with unduly large classes the nervous system, bv providing buildings at once dignified and hygenie, by assuring professional initiative and standing lo the at present harassed shuttlccocks of three separate controlling bodies. If these things be done, instead of the present absolute deari'h of entrants it will be possiblo to select from prime material. The promising pupil marked out for u tcacher s career will be looked upon as receiving the scholastic blue ribbon. The rivalry of the best and brightest will be focilssed upon this goal. It will be the despair of the culls and rejects of our secondary schools. What teaching can bo nobody at present knows. It will not so much bo reformed as revolutionised once the mediocrities barred, the supremely able minds at present in our high schools and university colleges are induced to enter it. Mind upon mind, like flint on steel, striking off flashes of insight into life, ils meaning and its duties—that is 111.! true educative process. Once the flou'or of Ihe opening intellect of this coiinlry enters upon the .(caching calling, j educational problems will solve Iheniselvs. Wnys and moans, if not those suggested. then others, must bo found of alluring into this, the greatest and most difficult of vocations, tho elite of tlio nalion's young manhood and womanhood.