South Canterbury Times. THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 1881.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2691, 3 November 1881, Page 2

South Canterbury Times. THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 1881.

All friends of Education will be pleased to see in this district an Association of Teachers. As we understand it, the South Canterbury Teachers’ Association is founded, with the view of promoting the mutual intercourse of Teachcjrs ; to enable them to exchange ideas, and discuss freely various subjects in connection with their profession. All these aims are most laudable, being of a strictly

practical kind; and, if the Teachers are alive to their own interests, the success of the undertaking may be regarded as certain. There are two or three subjects which may present themselves to the Teachers as peculiarly ripe for discussion—matters bearing , upon their own personal comfort and welfare. Need we explain that we refer to the position of Teachers as seryants of many masters. Yet, as the sincere friend of the Teachers, we trust they will avoid altogether this topic, and derote themselves to the wider field for discussion which their work presents. For the removal of grievances, the eradication of abuses comes not from within but from without ; and the Teachers may rest assured that in proportion as they prove efficient in the discharge of their duties, they will enlist the sympathy of the most intelligent people, who will become impatient of petty tyranny and ignorance among those who hold sway over the teachers. It is therefore to the task of making themselves efficient that the teachers should at once earnestly address themselves. Scholarship, experience, and technical skill may be and are largely acquired by the means provided by the State—in normal schools, Inspectoral guidance, &c., but these, nor any known agency in fact, can ever accomplish what may be dona by the teachers themselves, by mutual argument and criticism. The promotion of efficiency among the teachers will of coarse materially influence the character of the instruction imparted throughout the country—and there is a further good work peculiarly within the scope of these Associations. They have the opportunity of moulding the instruction itself as well as influencing the mode of imparting it. For, should the various Associations combine in reviewing the subjects in which they are by Statute required to give instruction, their remarks comments, and suggestions, could not be lightly passed over by the authorities. There are scores of men and women whose names adorn our New Zealand Teachers List—who possess high culture, and undoubted, well-proved skill; who have had long and varied educational experience, and have displayed the utmost zeal and conscientiousness in their work—and their number is constantly increasing. The opinions of such persons are deserving of respectful attention, and should they unite in condemning or approving particular subjects or methods, from a conviction that they are useful, practical, and desirable, (or not as the case might be), we are inclined to think the authorities in the Empire City would hardly venture to disregard such an opinion, but would let it have weight with them in framing and re-framing the regulations under which Teachers work. We are aware that there are conflicting opinions on one or two points, among members of the profession. The Syllabus is pretty generally considered to be too heavy, too diffuse, and generally unfair. Too much has been made of the teaching of science. The array of subjects under this comprehensive head is appalling and appears inconsistent in connection with primary education. On this point, for example, the teachers should be accorded a fair hearing. It is not difficult to lay down the law, but the lawgiver may well enquire, now and then, of those who have to administer it, how it works in practice. To say that we wish the local Association success is to use a hackneyed form of words, but in this case it is the utterance of our heart as members of the community, folly realising the importance of the teacher’s office, and quite alive to the necessity for the promotion of a sound and satisfactory system of National Education.