PRIMARY EDUCATION.

Evening Post, Volume LXXVI, Issue 42, 18 August 1908, Page 3

PRIMARY EDUCATION.

CERTIFICATED!

READY FOR RESPONSIBILITY. CONCERNING THE MAN. (By Ex-Teacher.) No. II "What better," remarked that learned person, Cicero, magniloquently, "what greater service can we of to-day render to the Republic than to instruct and train the young!" The "arrived" certificated young teacher of our day, glorying in his consummation, and panting to start on the road that leads to his golden ideals, feels the glow and cries, "What better!" Impatiently he yearns with a great yearning to lay his hand to that task his inclination has set before him, and for which he has gone through the mill of protracted concentration of study. Earnestly, and as thoughtfully as his native ability and preparation qualify him, he longs to take the young ideas and lead them to the full and proper development of their faculties ; to set their feet on the road that terminates in desirable citizenship. He sees in himself a moulder of nations, he knows himself a fountain of wisdom from which nono shall ever be i sent thirsty away. And so he drifts into fancy, and dozing over that very excellent guide-book to scholastic achievement, Compayre's "History of Pedagogy," he dreams dreams; and born of his whole-souled aspirations is a vision of the Years with a dazzling meed for his greatness. .APPOINTMENT. To the young teacher the achievement of a certificate is a matter of self- | congratulation ; but having satisfactorily passed through the ordeal of the quaint ! system of appointment as at present obtains under the New Zealand Education Department (and which will be dealt with in a succeeding article), to' administer a vacancy in town or country, he walks superbly; for is not this the first milestone to success? It may be a subordinate assistantship in the largest or larger schools, or mayhap — given a certain maturity — the sola charge of a centre of learning where the salary is under thirty shillings a week, and the aggregate number of young intelligences might be counted on the fingers on one's hands. Nevertheless, be it town or backblock, he faces his furrow with a glad heart and bubbling enthusiasm. The soil is to be turned up to the sun of enlightenment to be made fruitful, and behold! the husbandman. An earnest and conscientious officer, he administers the syllabus to the best of his ability, making light the obstacles of environment or such like disagreeableness, and believing fopdljr that the authorities have discriminating eyes on him for promotion purposes. But he has not reckoned with the department's scheme for promotion; and soon experience conjures up spectres of disquieting probabilities. CLASSIFICATION SCHEME. Generally speaking, promotion goes by classification; and again, generally speaking, higher degrees of classification are obtained by mere' length of service. To illustrate : There are five classes of certificate — A to E, inclusive, and each class is divided into grades Al to A 5, in descending ord»r of merit. Other 1 things being reasonably equal, when occasion for appointment aiises, to take the a\ erage certificate, aD2 would probaoly be preferred before a D 4, and so throughout the different classes. And the unreasonableness of the system is evident when it is known that length of service primarily decides a man's classification. Clause sof the regulations governing the classification of teachers states inter alia: "Xo teacher shall be placed in Division 2 until he has been at least eight years a teacher in a public school." And this "notwithstanding , anything in the preceding clauses!" Not j an inherent or cultured literary attain- j ment firstly; secondly, that tremendous j and all too important factor in this "noblest of professions" — personality, with the keen understanding of child- | nature combined with tho gift for "teaching;" the.^o aro minor considerations. The least shall be greatest; it is mainly a matter of time. If one grow old slowly enough the future may still hold its guerdon. THE WORM IN THE BUD. Meanwhile, for what has the young teacher spent himself ? What is the reward for his sacrifice of many vacations to the embellishment and further equipment of his scholastic faculties? Promotion — even when at intervals it overrides clause s—when5 — when it comes to the great majority of the "middle-salaried" servants of the department (those who earn from, say, £100 to £215) comes ■with but heartbreaking, slow speed. Slowly ambition falters, and steadily enthusiasm wanes. The path to the success of the high places is crowded with an elbowing throng who started on the road years before. There is no passage through or over or round the throng. There is nothing to do but wait, work, and wait, unless one is a genius or born under favouring start. Meanwhile the years are passing, early middle-age approaches, ana where is the foundation for a shelter of peace and comfort in the future ? Thus the canker spreads, the glamour wears off. A HOPELESS CAREER. For the many men teaching is clearly a hopeless career. It is a profession where happy prospects are too uncertain, and whose prospective gains are altogether incommensurate with the undoubted monotony of methods adopted, with the unceasing wear and tear on body and soul, and the gradual but regrettable obsession of ordinary individualities brought into close and continual contact with children and children's ideas. It would be no proof to the contrary to cite exceptional cases where the foregoing did not apply. Uncertainty of promotion ; an illogical scheme of promotion ; salaries disproportionate to work carried out and •energy supplied ; such salaries which will not allow, even to the most provident, any surplus which may go towards the sinking fund, the provision for old and incapable age ; an unceasing monotony of duties in time becoming mechanical — all these (and there are others) are sufficient disadvantages and deterrents enough of themselves to frighten off the glad and young would-be scholastics whom the service requires, and, nowadays, requires and implores in vain. THE GRAND RESULT. The average business person sells his talent in the highest market to the highest bidder. For the further advancement of his market value he accelerates and augments his talent in the orthodox fashion. The greater the responsibility, risk, sacrifice, so much greater this price. But he is not to be bought for life, body and soul, for a meagre £130 per annum, to strike a high average, and a paltry pension when the rack of schoolwork has prematurely aged him. The warehouses bid for him, the legal and medical professions call upon him with at least liberal chances, and to-day he is going, going over in shoals. Faintly the long vacations and short — assessed in mere numbers — hours of a teacher's life lure, but lure in vain. For tho young mag hap come to rocogniio or bo.

I lieve that once in the service his individuality is constantly threatened, his independence imperilled. He foresees the danger of his becoming a slave to that system whose administration saps his whole energy and brings the grey and nerveless years sooner than is reasonable. As a teacher, too, his social status will be accounted negligible, and, finally, the profession has come to be looked on as a belittling occupation. Tho average teacher's everyday dealing is "with petty things of interest only to his children and a few women assistants," and he has no inclination for the larger social questions. And so, narrowed by his environment ,with but a one-eyed interest in life, he draws at least the disregard of people who matter. Is it any wonder there is such widespread dissatisfaction among the male members of the "noblest profession on earth," and that the defections are so regular? And the task o* moulding the future citizens is main!,, and will be, in the hands of faithful "and patient women, and that strange "soldier of fortune," the uncertificated. Which aspect may remain for later discussion.