“TEACHERS—AND TEACHERS.”

Hokitika Guardian, 10 March 1925, Page 4

“TEACHERS—AND TEACHERS.”

SIR- TATJi ADDRESSES STUDENTS. CHRISTCHURCH, March 7. Roth the Minister and Sir Tate visited the Addington Trotting Grounds where 300 students of the Normal Training College have for the past week been undergoing a course of physical instruction, yesterday afternoon. A line display of massed drill was given l>y the young men and women, under the direction of their instructor, Mr Webb, after which an adjournment was made to the tea kiosk, for the addresses of the Minister and Mr Tate. Ml' Tate infused into the advice he gave the students a delightful strain of humour and apt illusions that aroused their enthusiasm greatly. The teaching profession, he remarked, was no place lor old people, no matter what their age. (Laughter..) It was their business to keep young, been use the young man or woman, with the for-ward-looking e.ves, who saw “ around the bend,” was going to do most good. The old adage that “ the good die young ” had been sadly misinterprets: by the general mass of people. r lbi good died vOuiig because the gods kepi them, young, even if they reached linage of ninety. He often thought that some teachers should he superanHuat ed before they left the training college for they seemed to he both old. An other adage had it that “Mho drue: fat cattle should himself he fat, ' Tin same applied to the teaching proles sion, for who taught young peoph should himself be young. lie urge* upon them the need of keeping i “young outlook." and ol eultivaliu: an invincible optimism, even if tliei labours took them 10 miles past Mai

ho. (Laughter.) He considered that a training college was the most interesting place in the coutrv. It "Us ail institution, in fact, that Shakespcaic had mentioned in those lines in Macbeth in which he said, “Happy prologue to the swelling act of an imperial theme.” The analogy was complete. The students were in the prologue stage, and the swelling act would come when they were engaged in tile education of the young people, who, like the present day citizens, were trustees to humanity in the confederation of peoples which they knew as the British Empire. Their job was to raise the quality of citizenship, and while tho .Minister, the Director of Education, and the principal of tho training college might d» important work in the promo-

tion of that ideal, it all depended upon the teachers, who were the people ill the “ firing line.” Snell was the swelling act of an Imperial ideal. They had also to remember that Lin* education system was practically only in the dovecote of its progress. Education in New Zealand had been greatly advanced upon the conditions that prevailed when lie was in New Zealand 20 years ago. In those days, works on school management could comiortably have been accommodated on a shell. Now they formed a great literature that axis steadily building lip. “Homo of the girls In*re to-day will not always he teachers, if .1 am ally judge,’' remarked Nlr Tate amidst laughter, “or if the young New Zealanders are any judge—(’laughter) hut the young men should take warning not to he satisfied with the qualifications they hold now. There arc great developments in education, and wo are on the edge of great changes. The men ought to keep themselves abreast of these c hanges. I here is no room for the sell-satisfied teacher. | don’t think there is anything more pitiable than a young teacher who i>v*s to :• country distriit ;*.s soon, as he leaves the training college, and then settles down to the jog-trot life of an ordinary pedagogue, with no intellectual curiosity. Tho progress ol education has liven greal in the past 25 years, and will he just as great in the next 25 years. Mr 'lata concluded by giving the students advice that lie considered would he helpful lo them when they began the practice of their profession. He urged upon them the need ol extending their interests beyond their schools, ol taking part in every uplilt movement in their district. They had not to satisfy the Board or the inspector. Like Garfield, the hardest people to satisly .should he themselves, and if at the end of a week's work they could “* look themselves in the face” with the sincere consciousness that they had done all they could to conform with their host ideals, then they would have accomplished much. A hurst of applause followed the conclusion of the address, and the thanks of the students were neatly expressed h.v the president of tho .Students’ Association, Nlr A. Simpson, and the vicepresident, Nliss Jean Ilav.