Tuapeka Times AND GOLDFIELDS REPORTER AND ADVERTISER. WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 16,1874. "MEASURES, NOT MEN."

Tuapeka Times, Volume VII, Issue 417, 16 December 1874, Page 2

Tuapeka Times AND GOLDFIELDS REPORTER AND ADVERTISER. WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 16, 1874. "MEASURES, NOT MEN."

Judging from the tone of the Press in certain quarters, the management of our public schools by local Committees is now on trial. Their unfitness to discharge the duties assigned to them has been broadly insinuated ; their incompetence to elect teachers has been publicly asserted in an article recently published in the " Otago Guardian ;" aud scorn ha.3 been freely poured on the examination of teachers, and covertly ab the examiners themselves. At tho time we read the article, we were at a loss to account for such a production, and certainly differed entirely with the writer about the examination of teachers, and the fitnes3 of tho examiners. We are bold enough to assert that the standard for teichers with us is equal to any south of the Line, so far as we have had an opportunity of examining them, and we have looked into all that has came in our vay, as published in the "Educational Gazette." The part especially which tha writer excepted with a disdain, whbh bespeaks a tyro rather than a wide experience of 1 educational matters, we hold to be essential to any such examination— viz., to read with correct punctuation and emphasis a passage, from No, 6 "Royal Reader. This is an attainment by no means so general, even amonggraduata in colleges, as to be pooh-poohed by their. Men who have been afc home in Plato's Republic and Aristotle's ethics, and who onld construe Plautus and scan Horace, lave not been able to read decently Millon's epic or Shakespeare's plays. But to return :it is tho management of Committees that js specially obnoxious to onr critics. That "graduates" in our Univemties should have to "stoop" "to be examined by School Committees when they are fit to occupy a much higher place than a side school, is the bitter bolus at which onr ! critics make such, wry faces ; and when they have submitted to the examination, to be rejected because the local Committees prefer a man of less attainments as a scholar, but with more skill as a teacher, combined with fair scholarship, is a thiug not to be borne. Such an act bespeaks utter incompetence on their part, and an titter want of reverence fur learning. But who are the parties laishiy the outcry ? From a report submitted by Mr. Hislop to the Education Board at its last sitting, the probability ia a high one that it is some one writing in the interests of two fledglings from the Otago

University, so called, who, anxious for a temporary appointment in the Government schools, had lodged applications as candidates, each at a separate) place, and had been.Tejected, because the Committee in each case .preferred a teacher by profession to one who was only a teacher for his own convenience. Now, we cannot help thinking that this is a case of great cry and little wool. It would be hard to say that in these casesthe Committees acted unwisely. That for the special purpose for which they required their man they did not select the fittest for the place. A proper decision could only be given in this instance by proper proofs of professional fitness ; and further, some weight ought to attached to the question, How long are we likely to enjoy the services of the candidates 1 That School Committees are not perfect, is only to say that they are human ; but it must also be borne in mind that they have not perfect men to deal wifch. Discontented, disappointed, arid crotchety tcachera have frequently of late been pouring their complaints on the community through the public press, and complaining in a very unmanly strain^about every petty difficulty that occurs ~k,o tticm- in their professional career. Now, when we read such productions, for the most part anonymous, our ppinion. usually is that such men are not Jit for the profession. There is in them, a want of that moral courage that meets with fortitude the difficulties incident to the calling, and the example likely to be set by the teacher as regards manly bearing, &c, anything but beneficial to the pupils. They may bo proficient or otherwise in the stock attainments of a school teacher, but we hold them deficient in those attributes of true manliness that does more to mould character than the three It's, or all that can be added to them from the intellectual stand-point. What rendered the late Dr. Arnold so efficient in the profession was his manliness more than his attainments, though his attainments were great. When sucli men pour out their complaints through tho public prints, by a querulousness that is natural to women of the weakest typo, the public would be very foolish indeed to listen to their plaint. The fitness of lodal Committees in our public schools must be measured by other standards. But we may return to this subject again.