TEACHERS MADE TO ORDER.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 287, 28 April 1911, Page 7

TEACHERS MADE TO ORDER.

To the Editor.

Sir,—With your permission, I should like to make a few comments on your sub-leader under the above heading, which appeared in Saturday's issue. In Wie first place, I think that both you and "Disgusted" are giving the public a wrong impression of the Board's action with regard to uncertificated teachers. Was your reporter instructed by the Board to take the names jif all uncertificated teachers, including those who had failed at their examinations and publish them? If so, the Board's action calls for the severest condemnation!. But if n« such instructions were issued, where was your blue pencil, Mr. Editor? In that case, it is you, and not the Board, who pilloried these teachers by publication of their names. Again, you say, "The ability to pass an examination was never, ndr will it ever be, any indication of a teacher's ability to teach."; Looked at in one way, the above dictum is perfectly correct. Mere knowledge, without the ability to put it to practical use, is so much mental lumber. As; you say, a teacher must have the ability to "impart knowledge." But, how is he to do this if he has not the knowledge himself. Now, Sir, you may not be aware of it, but there are scores of teachers in New Zealand to-day who possess no higher qualification than a Sixth Standard certificate of proficiency. In Other words, that is their mental boundary. But all will agree that the successful teacher must know more of his subject which he has to teach. To get this extra knowledge, the teacher, top, must be a student—aye, all his days, if he is to keep abreast of the times. And how is lie to prove that he has it? 1 can see no other way than by "passing an examination." Again, I say that does not prove his ability to teach, but, if the examination is fairly and properly ■ conducted, it does prove that he has the equipment with which to teach. More particularly does this apply to the study of methods of teaching and of the psychology of the child's mind. The doctor studies medicine. Even your barrister, I take it, had to know something of law to be the success he was. Similarly, a teacher must make a special study of the material he has to work on, namely, the children's minds. I know of one uncertificated teacher who has been in the employ of the Taranaki Education Board for some years. Yet that teacher does not possess a single professional text-book. No, Sir; the Board are not so much to blame as you and "Disgusted" would have us believe. They are quite right in insisting that all their teachers shall fit themselves for this, the highest of all callings. "Disgusted" implied in his letter that certain uncertificated teachers have been unjustly transferred to lower-grade schools. Yon yourself say the inspectors are the only persons qualified to form any idea of the "personal worth of teachers." Yet the Board, acting, no doubt, on the advice of their inspectors, is severely censured for transferring these teachers from schools that, presumably, had outgrown their' ability to handle successfully. Nevertheless, the Board is to blame for not giving uncertificated teachers longer notice that they were to sit for their examinations in 1911. The Education Department is more to blamo for not allowing uncertificated teachers to sit for their "D" in two or three sections. Indeed, it should be compulsory to take any of these examinations in sections. The students would then have time to "study" each subject' thoroughly. Under present conditions, each examinee must become a "sponge" and "cram." But I fear I have already trespassed too much on your space. Thanking you in advance for allowing me to state a few of the aspects of the other side of the case, —I am, etc., "D."

[lf the editor of a newspaper had to apply a microscope to every report appearing in his newspaper with a view to eliminating everything calculated to hurt the feelings of anyone mentioned therein, he would require to work 23 hours a day and generally have an unenviable time of it. The names of the uncertificated teachers wore presented to the Board, and we simply reported the matter as part of the ordinary business transacted at the meeting. Our correspondent's statements, interesting as they tore from the standpoint he assumes, in 'no way affect our eonclusions, nor answer the objections raised by our correspondent "Disgusted."—Ed. T.D.N.]