The Daily News. SATURDAY, MARCH 4. THE TEACHERS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 253, 4 March 1911, Page 4

The Daily News. SATURDAY, MARCH 4. THE TEACHERS.

We in New Zealand are proud of our a free, secular and compulsory system of | , education. The benefit of any system s is not in its set rules, but in its applica- t tion to useful ends. The schoolmaster is c the person who applies the system, and j who, although he may have genius and , initiative, need not use them. His con- ' formity with regulation, a hard and fast ' standard, and blind obedience to the builders, repairers and renewers ot the \ system, is his duty. To make the best i of any system which initiators and con- ' trollers are constantly altering requires men and women of very special qualifications, people who do not undertake the : tremendous task of training the young idea as a stop-gap but who are compelled to embrace the profession for sheer love of the work. If it were possible to recruit to the teaching profession only those people who earnestly loved it, the matter of salaries need not worry the educational administration. There are few instances on record where specialists, who loved their specialty better than the cash it would command, have abandoned it because it did not pay. But the teacher is in a peculiar case. If he intends in the first instance to become a good teacher, the training he must undergo, the self-abnegation necessary, the discipline he must conform to, fit him not only for teaching but for other walks of life, and so in New Zealand, where the system is in a constant state uf change and experiment, many excellent teachers leave the profession seeing little chance of stability or progress for themselves. The New Zealand teacher is more or less a mannequin, who is expected to jump w.hen the stage manager jerks the string, and it is because he has to jump hard and constantly, and for much smaller pay than he would receive if he sold his talents in a better market, that he so frequently does sell them olsewhere. Whatever system is in vogue and however much it is varied, the best results are unobtainable if the servants of the system are not first-class, and if we admit that the majority of school teachers of the present day are born teachers, who could not help being teachers whoever pulled the strings, we have still to admit that too few of them are attracted to the profession. We have heard quite a deal lately about uncertificated teachers. A certificate does not make a man a better teacher any more than a diploma makes a man a better lawyer or doctor, journalist or parson, and it is likely enough that there is a just proportion of good teachers among the uncertificated group as there is anions; the other group. But nearly all modern systems in a very cast-iron, manner insist that he who practises a profession cannot reach the topmost rung of it without documentary evidence to say that lie is capable., If only certificated teachers are capable, it follows that the uncertificated ones should not be permitted to teach until they have gathered in the necessary papers. The fact that too few folk are coming forward to work at a poorly-paid profession is the reason that the Department is obliged to give the poorest places to those who have not had the necessary time or inclination to undertake a certain course in which initiative and real knowledge do not count. Indeed, in order to reach the giddy height to which an odd domine may aspire, he has to remain a grown-up schoolboy with the examination fetish ever before him. Having carefully assimilated the pecks of facts qualifying him for a place and having been care-, fully moulded to the system, he is so frequently called up to re-mould his j methods that he must be a very chameleon for change. Undertaking the most arduous work either man or woman can undertake, his real teaching ability is not necessarily the passport to ! promotion. It has lately been shown that the average salary paid to men teachers in New Zealand is £2Ol 10s 7d. There is a very small proportion of schools whose headmasters obtain large salaries, and if these Salaries are bunched and deducted from the total, the average schoolmaster will be found to be instructing the future citizens of the Dominion for a wage, easily earnable by a mechanic. If the very special talents required by a school teacher are assessed at such a low value, it follows that as time goes on people possessing such talents will not bury them in the schoolroom, but will place them out at interest. We are aware that during the past few years there has been an increase in the salaries paid, necessitated by the diminution of recruits to the profession.' But the frequent inability of the Department to fill vacancies with people who are ticketed as qualified is still an indication that the profession is unpopular. We know also that many parents inspired by the idea that a son or daughter who becomes a teacher has "position," insist on such a career for youngsters who have no capabilities except the one recognised as the most valuable by the Education Department —parrot learning and success in passing exams. If the educational system of New Zealand is good, it is only because the teachers are good. Tf we boast about our system we boast nbont our teachers, because they arc the most important part of the system. Tf we treat the most important part of the system as a boxful of mannequins, whose utility is based on their I mechanical ability, pay them inadequately, generally overwork them, and practically warn their brothers and sisters to keep out of the profession, we are not doing the children of the Dominion justice. We shall be able to find much money for Coronation sprees, arches, water-power for non-existent industries, big buildings for oratorical ministers to ■ men, and other luxuries, but we shall In' unable as far as is at present evident to allraef (o the teaching profession men and women who love the business and . see a reasonable chance of dying outside an old people's home.