TEACHER AND CHILDREN

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 62, 7 December 1920, Page 8

TEACHER AND CHILDREN

1 : EFFECT OF PROMOTION BY GRADING LIST. "Tho new system of promotion strictly in accordance with tho grading list is an excellent thing for tho teachers in a material sense, but a vorv bad tiling for, tlie children," said a well-known educationist yesterday to a Dominion reporter. "Anyone can see what it would lead to. A position carrying .£lO a year more than a teacher is getting will be sufficient to causo him (or her) to apply. Someone gets it, aud so causes a vacancy. The board concorned has at oiico to take eteps to fill that vacancy, and every teacher in tho next grado below will have a go for it. This is going to mean perpetual change and short terms of service, unloss a teacher refrains from applying for transfer or pomotion on health or sentimental grounds. "I don't blame tho teachers for agitntin" for some such freedom of movementrbut, to my mind, the children must suffer for it. So sooner will tliey bogin to get used to a teacher and his mothods and moods (for teachers are as moody as nnv of us), than he will be oil' somewhere elso at the bidding of a .810 rise, fl nd'another will liayo to take lus place. Take the case of a sixth standard-when the children aro going for scholarships and proficiency ccrtificates-if, say, three or four chnnges were made, would it not affect tho continuity of studies, or rather he way in which thow studies were npp cached? I don't think thero is any Suubt about it. The chi dren are going to par for tho aggrandisement of the teaclier as from Juno 1 next. ,