MISFITS IN TEACHING

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 433, 15 August 1928, Page 13

MISFITS IN TEACHING

HUNDREDS OF CHILDREN SPOILED UNSUITABLE PROBATIONERS ‘•There are middle-aged men who should never have been teachers. They are misfits in the teaching profession and they are spoiling the education of hundreds of children.” Urging that probationers who showed no talent for teaching should be 'weeded out-’ at once, Mr. E. C. Banks made this statement at to-day’s meetj ing of the Auckland Education Board. ; I-ie declared that the inspectors had 1 not the heart to get rid of men who • were married and with families. They I should have been weeded out before they got those responsibilities. ! The department wrote about ‘'unsatisfactory” probationers and Training College students, suggesting that the board might again instruct head teachers to furnish full reports on their probationers and that the principal of the Training College should be asked to report promptly when a young student showed unfitness for the profession. “Do not the teachers now furnish reports?” asked Mr. 11. S. W. King. Mr. G. Brownlee said that there was too much laxity in the sending of reports. “The proportion of unfit is very, very small,” said the chairman, Mr. A. Burns, who declared that if misfits were admitted to the profession it must be through the oversight of the department’s officers.. Mr. T. U. Wells said that great care should be taken to see that the careers of unsuitable should be stopped as soon as possible. “Isn’t there a possibility of teachers showing a weakness later on?” asked the chairman. “Some of the teachers have been kept on too long. We should give the probationer the opportunity to find some other work in life.” It was decided to comply with the department’s request.