WOMEN TEACHERS.

Taranaki Daily News, 31 December 1919, Page 5

WOMEN TEACHERS.

THE ANNUAL CONFERENCE. By Telegraph. —Press Association. Wellington, Dec. 30. The sixth annual conference of the New Zealand women teachers opened this morning, Miss E. A. Chaplin, B.A. (Canterbury), presiding. In her opening address Miss Chaplin said that she 'was firmly convinced of' the need for national insistence on the observance of hygienic principles if the British race was to maintain its prestige among the peoples of the earth. The Department for children's welfare and special schools ih the Dominion had under its control on December 31 last 4497 children, many of whom were innocent sufferers of unfit parentage, and the number was annually increasing. Educationalists demanded the best possible equipment in schools and, above all, that the right individuals should be attracted to the profession, and no price was too high to pay for the right sort of teachers and environment. Education might greatly determine whether the intelligence of the child should remain stunted or should be brought to maturity. But a trained intelligence alone would not produce a worthy race of Britishers, for the trinity of mind, soul and body must be remembered. Thorough physical training and sound moral teaching by precept and practice must be an essential part of a successful system. It was for the weaklings that a better place v as needed in the Dominion educational system. The curriculum in schools was not made for sub-normal children and the teacher became weary of the attempt to drag them up to the average level. There was nothing so paralysing in its effects on the spirit of tha child as the consciousness of an inferiority which repeated efforts on his part failed to remove. It was resolved that in every town there should be a special class with specially trained teachers for children of retarded mental development, and that all such children should be drafted to these classes as soon as the necessity is recognised. Officers were elected as follows:—President, Miss N. E. Coad (Wellington); Vice-Presidents, Misses M. McKenzie (Otago) and E. Andrews (Taranaki); secretary, Miss E. A. Chaplin (Canterbury) ; treasurer, Miss Mabel Smith (Canterbury) ; committee, Misses D. E. j Edwards (Wellington), L. Morgan (Poverty Bay), C. Barry (Auckland), Ralston and C. E, Wardle (South Island).