BACK TO THE RANKS.

Auckland Star, Volume LVI, Issue 53, 4 March 1925, Page 11

BACK TO THE RANKS.

SOME MIXED REFRESHMENT.

IDEALS AND REALITIES.

(By "PED.")

Mortimer when in town stays at our boardinghouse. During recent weeks he has been the butt of many a jibe from other boarders, who have expressed desires for reincarnation as school teachers, and has borne them all with that long-suffering air so typical of his alleged profession. Unknown to us, there was a lady of the same vocation as Mortimer also in holiday residence under the same roof. She, with that desire so peculiar to her species, had successfully concealed her walk in life until a fateful advertisement, discovered in the breakfast newspaper, summoned her to a "refresher course." The details of the advertisement broke down her reticence. "Females!" she exclaimed, as she looked witheringly over the_ page. "Females indeed! It's a positive insult! A junior typiste is advertised for as a young lady. Young ladies are required for shops 'and show rooms, and we—we, if you please, are called females—not even women. It's disgusting!"

She stalked out of the room with a burst of indignation, and the ardour of a young man at her table was so dampened that, for the first time, he hesitated to follow and provide the usual gossip for our small social circle. Indeed, the expression of his face changed a3 does that of one at a seance—he had received a warning. Mortimer merely shrugged his shoulders, rose with a resigned look, and remarked: "Mac, I am going back to school again as a pupil. If you love mc, avoid all conversation on the matter."

Thus, during the fateful week, was the subject of education avoided, despite my frank curiosity. Certain gems of sarcasm dropped from the lips of the still indignant "female," but Mortimer remained dumb. Only by his moods at meals could I gather the effects of his novel experience. At times he would be depressed, uncommunicative; occasionally he would sparkle in a manner suggestive of alcoholic refreshment, though I knew him to be a 6trict abstainer. However, Friday night broke the spell of his silence. As we eat on the dimly lit balcony, contentedly smoking away the mosquitoes, Mortimer ventured into the realms of "shop." "Mac," he said, "I'm very much wiser than I was a week ago." I smoked in silence, well knowing that my friend wished to unburden his soul.

"Yes," he continued, "I have been a teacher for over twenty years, and a pupil for one week. I am sorry for many of the children during those twenty years. They must have endured much. If I have inflicted on them what has been inflicted on mc, then I owe'them an apology."

Refreshed ana Depressed. "But I thought you had been through a refresher course?" I commented. "I have, mo3t emphatically. I have been refreshed and depressed, enthused and confused, implored and bored, till I fear I may become an educational Bolshevik."

This outburst astounded mc. Mortimer is more frankly a conservative, and I visioned strange impressions of proceedings by such an august body as an assemblage of .pedagogues if he were bo radically affected. I pressed for the *of his past week, and I got it. "I'm convinced," he said meditatively, "that it is the easiest thing in the world for teachers to become kids again. The effects of long , association must leave their maxk. Just cast your mind back, Mac, ifco your schooldays; think of the times you. played the wag; think of the righteous indignation of your master, and the painful proceedings subsequentoto it. Well, during the past week I've seen staid, even pompous teachers wagging it, and taking a. keendelight in their way of doing so. I have seen 'schoolmasters and mistresses tpo, drawing ridiculous cartoons of those teaching tihem, and scribbling secret notes io one another. I was trained to suppress this, and to whack children who transgressed in such a way. Xobody was -whacked last week." "That's a pity," I ventured. "It is. A demonstration of the correct method of administering corporal punishment would have ibeen a thorough 'refresher.' But that is a mere side/line. Titere are other features of this grea.t conclave that have made a decided impression on mc. Mac, I am convinced that I am a failure in my calling."

I began to see a great hope for humanity in this statement. Mortimer had often -shown mc those confidential. reports of inspectors who visited hs school, and wttio wrote praises of ihis organisation, of the tidiness of his playground, and of hie intelligent' methods used in the teaching of history. These lhad impressed mc that (Mortimer must be one of the shining lights in the scholastic -world, but as he pointedly emphasised, a remote recording angel who compiled a cold assessment called a grading list did not indieaite this on the ladder of educational proficiency. Still, to hear him admit himself a failure, when in days gone by he had confided to mc ihis superiority as a teacher over those placed much higher than himself, gave mc the feeling that he might bo far from alone in this idea. I foresaw much good for humanity, for teachers, as a class, had always impressed mc aa such examples of immaculate perfection. "Wlhere'e the breakdown, Mac?" I asked.

"There are several," he said. "Fortunately, there were suggestions for repairs, but I'm doutufcful if I am good enough at repairing. You see, instead of talking (which a teacher regards as bis main occupation), we were talked at by a number of important persons among our members. These people were regarded as expeufcs in their special lines, but if I spend as much time as they did in wandering round their subjects and getting nowhere in particular, then I must miss very badly. I suppose I do so, but. like them, I don't notice myself doing it. Then too, I 'heard heaps about what is done in England, and how America is so far ahead of us. So much did I tear that my troubled mc. I felt tha-t I was personally to blame for our backwardness. Then it dawned on mc that several politicians toad extolled our educational advancement. I want to organise a 'refresher' for jtfioee politicians. They know less than I do."

Was it a Failure. "So then, your much vaunted course was a failure?" I queried. "Oh no, Mac; far from it," came the reply ' "It was often very emphatic ou our failings, but there were times when to mc it was inspiring—a real uplift, with the unfortunate spectre of as Teal a crash in the background. When you had a Teal, human, inspiring man in charge, as -*ye had for much of the time, one felt that there were f esr beigbXa po

which he could not attain. One felt *hat under his guidance much oould be done for the rising generation. We were urged to experiment. I felt full of zeal for experiment. I envisioned several beautiful ideals -that I would forthwith, put into practice. Then some callous individual, grown both grey and thin jtihaAched in tflie service, must mention the rigid demands of the syllabus, and the cold judgment of immediate results tnet brings those grading marks which have become the veritable golden calf of tihe profession. I saw my promotion being risked, so determined to warteh someone else experiment first, and ccc whether the reward was worth it. It doesnU sound progressive, does it- Still, till I am sure that those who grade mc realise themselves that tihe fruit of experiment takes long to maiture, I can't afford to take the chance. When I heaa- of all that is done in other lands, when I realise 'how free from trammels the teachers there are, I become dispirited. But ours is a dispiriting wall? of life, as weH as one which can only progress through unbounded enthusiasm. Just one example, that was forced on mc during the week; then 11} drop tie ■subject. At the conclusion of our lectures there was carried a unanimous motion of appreciation of the value of the course. Yeit, every headmaster to whom I sipoke. and I spoke to fully fifty, impressed on mc tfoe fact that he had wasted much time that he, himself, could have employed more valuably elsewhere. I -saw visions of bowling greens. There you are, then. My chief problem for tthe week is, are we earnest or are we hypocrites?"