SCHOOL COMMITTEES.

Press, Volume LI, Issue 15268, 3 May 1915, Page 5

SCHOOL COMMITTEES.

TO TIIE EDITOR OF '"THE TRESS."

Sir, —"Secretary"' denies mc the gift of ■"sympathy," but 1 sympathise with committees so much that I have worked voluntarily and co-operatively with them, both in town and country tor more than t\venty years, and have been privileged to attend hundreds of meetings and sub-committee meetings. There is no need to waste ink discussing the intelligence of committeemen. Iso one has ijueitioned it; but "Secretary," like others hugs the delusion that "committees were singularly successful in their selection ol headmasters." He quite ignores the long sifting process, often a quarter of a century, through which these men. have to pass an ordeal of public opinion. Board of Education opinion, inspectors opinion before they found their names in the '"recommended ,, group of four or fire names. Then with a final veto power, unknown in every other profession, the school committee m effect said: —"You go to Sydenham, not tot. Aibans;- you second applicant go to St. Aibans, not Sydenham," and co on -a sort of yes-no system that always ended in a "Yes." Meantime in a low discord of back-door politics, all the strings, eocial, religious, political, wont humming a tune to which the teacher had to dsnee and pay to such an extent that our profession became a by-word of scorn—"only a teacher," to be pitchforked from public to Board, back to inspectors, back to committees, over and over again, at evM-y vacancy, "Secretary" himself reveals tne weakness of his system when he writes. "The committees made it a rule to promote members of their. own etaff when they had proved their wortn. What became of the members of other staffs who had a. higher standard of "worth"? And who ought to be final arbiter, the committee that knows but one applicant, or the Board and inspectors, who know them all? Evidently "no Irish need apply" was writ. ten over the main door of "Secretary's" school. In many cases this mechanical system of promotion pushed mediocre teachers into places unsuitable, or too high for them. Lastly, "Secretary" writes of this "most cherished of their privileges" as if the greater part of committee time was spent in making appointments. The vast majority of committees do not make one appointment in three years, vet they do not 20 on strike during the remaining two, but it is well-nigh impossible to get the city man to look at matters from the country standpoint. JLet me' urge "Secretary," whose heart is evidently in his work, to quit moaning over the loss of a useless privilege, and to initiate a grand forward movement that will convert all our schools jnto "happy hunting grounds" for children. —Yours etc., : J) , . J. ALLEY.