Military Service For Married Teachers

Dominion, Volume 35, Issue 263, 5 August 1942, Page 6

Military Service For Married Teachers

Si r —in discussing the question of military service for married teachers the college authorities very naturally stressed the importance of having expert teachers for secondary institutions. As an ex-primary teacher, i should like to emphasize that the part played by male teachers in primary schools is of equal importance, includ-. ing as it does, not only grounding in school subjects, but the training of the boys in particular to meet lifes problems. , . The aim of education is not merely the attainment of certificates or the assimilation of knowledge, but the solution of conflicts, the guidance of instincts and emotions, and the practice of self-expression, and self-con-trol. The subject matter of the curriculum is of less importance than the development of personality reactions which will promote a happy and effective life. To keep all this in view is greatly stressed in the training of our student primary teachers, and when we realize that most men entering the profession do so from a genuine love of the work, and are selected specially for the suitability of their personality, we should,-I think, also realize that teaching is not just anybody’s job, which can be done equally well by substitutes. No woman, be she ever so efficient, can guide young boys from the man’s standpoint. Juvenile delinquency is a grave problem, but much can be done to solve it if young children have firm -and sympathetic guidance, and I, for one. plead that their teachers be restored to them. It is very unfortunate that our Government should lag behind other countries in estimating the needs of the children on whose shoulders it will one day fall to help make the world a better place than we have been able to do.—l am, etc. —EX-TEACHER. Wellington, August 2.