The Evening Star. WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and Echo. SATURDAY, JANUARY 19, 1901. TO TEACH THE TEACHERS

Auckland Star, Volume XXXII, Issue 16, 19 January 1901, Page 4

The Evening Star. WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and Echo.

SATURDAY, JANUARY 19, 1901. TO TEACH THE TEACHERS

Tor the causo that lacks assistance, For the wrong that needs resistance, 7or the future In the distanoe, AM the food that we o&n de.

It is not a little surprising- that it should have been left to the young-est-born of our University Colleges— the Victoria College of Wellington— to discuss the establishment of a Chair of Education. So obvious is it to everyone that a knowledge of the art of teaching must be at the foundation of every successful system of education that one wonders the question has not been raised before this in the Duneclin, Christchurch, and Canterbury Colleges. Care has been taken to have the various branches of science and art represented by professors thoroughly versed in the particular subjects they teach, and qualified to maintain the standard of knowledge abreast of the times. But the University never seems to have remembered how nmch more important to our national education it is that those who have the training of our youth, especially in their early years, should be made competent for the work. The suggestion for the establishment of normal schools to accomplish this object has not come or been associated with our University; and, generally speaking, the modern science of pedagogics has been entirely ignored by the very insituation, which, as the head of our educational system, was bound, one would say, to take the lead in the matter. We in New Zealand have been so proud of that system, that it is most strange to find we have so long neglected the very point on which its real efficiency mainly depends —the training of the teachers. What shall it profit us after all that we erect costly schools in our cities, scatter teachers broadcast throughout the country, and equip the institutions with all the most modern machinery of education, if the preceptors ere wanting in. that intuitive faculty or special training that will make them teachers indeed? A system of that kind may look very fair and flourishing without, and unfortunately its fatal defects are not at all likely to be recognised by the public generally; but those who understand more clearly what edu-

cation actually means know that it is not in the nature of things that it can be a true success or result in such a training oL' our future citizens as is aimed at.

No one imagines that Hie mere establishment of a chair of education in our University will remedy the evil arising- from inefficient leathers. But it will be an important step in that direction. It will signify a recognition in the highest educational quarters of a reform that is inevitable here sooner or later. Lt will give a prestige and initiative to a movement that has been too long delayed, lt will set a standard and indicate a goal to be reached. That done we may trust that the rest will follow, and that in time there will be established among us some reasonable system of training for our teachers. The true preceptor, like the poet, is born, not made; but it is equally certain that there is no man or woman, however richly endowed with natural gifts as a teacher, who will not rise to greater proficiency and usefulness with the aid of practical training in the profession; and even those who have little natural gift as teachers may have what faculty they possess greatly strengthened under proper instruction. To acquire knowledge is one thing; to impart it quite another, but not a less important, matter. That It should be necessary here to emphasize such a truism is evidence of the neglect of teaching as an art with which we have certainly 1o reproach ourselves. It is the consciousness of that neglect which prompted Mr Blair, the Chairman of the Wellington Education Board to bring up the question of a Chair of Education in connection with the Victoria College. Others than Mr Blair share the apprehension which he expressed regarding the future of the teaching profession, and will therefore watch with interest the reception which his proposal meets with when it is discussed at the next meeting of the College Council.