WOMEN AS INSPECTORS OF SCHOOLS.

Thames Star, Volume IX, Issue 3064, 10 December 1878, Page 4

WOMEN AS INSPECTORS OF SCHOOLS.

The following plea for the appointment of women as Inspectors of, Schools appears in a letter in the Spectator :-— Sir,-r-Having many friends amongst teachers, may I be allowed, in reference / to your article on "Girl Graduates," to say how gladly a female inspector would be received, especially in girls' and infants' schools. Inspectors have two distinct duties to perform. The first and

most obvious is to procure information as to the condition of the school; me second, and no les* important, to give helpful advice and sympathy to its managers and teachers. First, as to procuring information. Those who have not been present at school examinations probably cannot realise how often little children are, what the teachers call, "upset" by a strange man. I have seen many school examinations, the majority conducted by the kindest of men, but have rarely known an exception to the rule that some children do badly from sheer timidity. (This is perhaps a comforting reflection in the nineteenth century, when a shy child is becoming

rare. But the species can still be met with on a school examination day). A good deal of this nervousness would, I believe, disappear, •if a woman were the examiner. Again, how invaluable the nursery language natural to most women would be in an infant school! Imagine how unused an Oxford or a Cambridge man is to talking to little children I Indeed, those of us who are in the habit of

hearing sermons preached to country congregations, must be struck by the fact that most of the words used are perfectly unin-

telligible to the majority of the audience. Educated men appear hardly able to realise the very limited vocabulary of the rustic. Then as to special subjects— needlework, for instance. Our men inspectors may be divided into two classes —the avowedly ignorant and those who profess knowledge. The avowedly ignorant are by far the least mischievous, for there is, some honor among teachers. But alas! for the; men who go in for understanding the subject. Some, I think, would be wiser, if sadder men, could they hear the remarks on their supposed knowledge when their backs are turned; Truly a little knowledge is sometimes not only dangerous, but really harmful.' I have known needlework teaching in schools'much injured by the visits of the inspector. Instead of the instruction given enabling the girls to be really useful at home, to mend Tommy's knickerbocliers,.,or to make , baby's /frock, some needlework gymnastics, were devised, bearing much the same .relation to useful work as ornamental nourishes do to a good , handwriting. However, the standard needlework in the code now puts an end to the freaks of individual inspectors. Domestic economy again which, it is to be hoped, is now coming to the front, is another •- subject on which a man ctfn hardly examine.satisfactorily. The management of a sick-room, cooking, ( &c.,— these are matters quite beyond the prd. vince of a mani unless he is a doctor or cook,'while they have been familiar to aH fairly educated women from childhood!