AN UNPOPULAR PROFESSION. The Dearth of School Teachers.

Free Lance, Volume IV, Issue 164, 22 August 1903, Page 8

AN UNPOPULAR PROFESSION. The Dearth of School Teachers.

THERE must be some reason for the growing unpopularity of teaching as a profession. From all parts of the country comes the cry that the demand is greater than the supply. This being so, in many cases the unfit have been given the position that should be filled by those with greater attainments, and the educational standard is consequently permanently lowered , for, once having admitted the incompetent, it is rather difficult to remove them. To an outsidei the position of a teacher presents a glowing picture. He works fewer hours than most men, he gets infinitlj r more holidays than the man of any other profession, and, having assimilated learning sufficient to instruct the young idea, his labour is a species of mental mechanics. * * * No one who has merely regarded school-teaching as a critic or spectator can have any idea of the physical and mental strain required to control a class of youngsters who would much rather not be controlled. The pupilteacher who is drafted from the ranks of the schoolboys or schoolgirls has a very hard row to hoe, and the constant application and severe work probably leads others to shy clear of the profession. There is little enough to attract the best brains to the profession. The possibility of becoming, after severe mental exertion of the most hum-drum kind, a teacher in a leaky school-house, approached through a boggy yard, and for a stipend sufficient perhaps to keep the lower grade of the profession In clothes and board only, is not enchanting. * * * Theie aie plums in the profession truly, but, like those in the boardinghouse duff, they are few and far between That the number of schoolchildren is rapidly increasing is evidenced by the fact that new schools are being called for all over the country. New teachers tclLI be wanted, amd they should be tha best that can be got. It is an unfair thing to set a pupil-teacher a full-day's w ork as soon as he joins th-a ranks of the teachers. He might very fairly attend a training college, where his profession would be taught him. * * * There appeal to be as many female teachers as are wanted. The dearth is in the male supply. Th^ teaching profession should be the mosfcsought - after by those having the best gifts. Those possessing gifts should be encouraged by more liberality on the part of the power* that be- — a system of special training and, aibove all, schools well and truly built, and with plenty of firewood m the back-yard. * * * There is no superannuation fund for teachers, and old age and infirmity are not provided against. If it is the desire of the powers aforesaid to make the education of the youth of this country of paramount import/ancej the disabilities now presented, preventing our besi>equipped youth from entering the service, should be removed. It would also pay well to pension off some of the incompetents who cumber ground on which better men should stand.