School Committees.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume IX, Issue 1008, 6 December 1881, Page 4

School Committees.

The following, taken from the A T e«t Zealand Schoolmaster for November, ultimo, will be read with interest by ■our reader generally “ Some school 'committees appear to have strange ideas how teachers ought to be treated. This is especially the case in connection with the use of the school grounds. In country districts the school sites are generally from three to four acres in ■extent, and in some instances much larger. To teachers with small incomes, -a paddock in which to keep a cow or horse is a consideration, and one would naturally think that school committees would be pleased to see their teachers using any portion of the school site not required by the school children. But this is exactly what some committees strenuously oppose. AV e remember a case where a school mistress kept a cow on a public common near the school. The grass in the school grounds grew so rapidly that in wet weather the lower garments of the children were wet through. The mistress thought .she might put the cow into the school ground to eat off the grass, but she immediately received a letter from a member of her committee saying that the cow would be impounded if not taken out of the grounds at once. She then applied to have the grass mown, but the committee refused to do it. ■She offered to have it done herself, again the committee refused, and so this dog-in-the-manger committee continued to carry out their duties until ■supplanted by better and wiser men. A similar tale comes from the Patea district. Our colonial items last month stated that a school committee had called for tenders for the renting of that portion of the school grounds not used by the children. The master had a cow, and he tendered seven pounds per annum for the use of the ground, which tender was accepted by the committee. Seven pounds out of a miserable pittance of one hundred and thirty ■or forty pounds per annum for the use of land which undoubtedly belongs to the master so long as he is in possession of the school buildings I A committee with any feeling of self-respect, or with the least sympathy for the teacher of their children, would spurn such a mean way of pulling a few pounds out of a teacher’s pocket. When will some committees learn to give their schoolmasters a little encouragement? To hamper a teacher either in school or out of it is shortsighted policy, as everything which tends to dispirit him in his work will have a reflex action on the children, and can only damage 1 he effectiveness of the work he is called upon to do. {School committees who are generous, tolerant and sympathetic towards their teachers, are sowing good seed, an I they may depend upon this, that if the result appears long in coming, it will be the more valuable and lasting »ten it does come.