MODERN TASK OF TEACHERS

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27037, 12 May 1953, Page 12

MODERN TASK OF TEACHERS

CREATION OF SOCIAL VALUES

PRESIDENT’S ADDRESS TO INSTITUTE "The Press” Special Service . WELLINGTON, May 11. “In the creation of an educated democracy, complacent satisfaction with the degree of progress so far achieved can find no place,” said Miss Vera Hayward, of Dunedin, in her presidential address to the seventieth annual conference of the New Zealand Educational Institute in Wellington this morning. “So long as there is one child who has failed to obtain the precise educational treatment his individuality requires, so long as a single child goes hungry, or has nowhere to play, so long as the country fails to recognise and train and provide scope for every atom of outstanding ability it can find, so long as there are administrators or teachers who feel no sense of mission, who cannot administer and who cannot teach, the system will remain incomplete,” she said. “We are'proud of what has been accomplished, but we are not complacent. “In earlier days a teacher was regarded primarily as an instructor concerned with teaching fundamental skills,” Miss Hayward continued. “There are still some teachers who hold that opinion, but what we must do above all things is to persuade the child that learning is a good thing and that it is advisable when he leaves school to continue to learn. The tragedy of some teaching is that it drives a child from learning. The teacher’s work nowadays is a matter of assisting development and growth, and of satisfying the social, and psychological, as well as the intellectual and physical needs of children both in ana out of school. The relationships established by the teacher thus become of much greater importance. Because of this a teacher must be the kind of person with whom relationships of quality can be easily and naturally established and maintained. "To be himself a mature and balanced person he needs to work within a system that gives him scope for initiative, a sense of responsibility and some possibility of influencing policy and of affecting the atmosphere of the school. His professional relationships with his colleagues in the school, and in the educational system as a whole, are tremendously important, and very far-reaching. And what of teacher-parent relationships?” Miss Hayward asked. Parent-Teacher Relationships “Over the last few years, the rise of parent-teacher associations had been phenomenal. The link between parents and teachers is not a generalised interest in children, but a personal interest in a particular child, and this interest derives from different sources, the parents’ interest Is of an intimate and proprietary type. The parental eye is keen to detect the virtues and disregard the faults, but the teacher's view is more conparative and ' more objective. He sees the child as a member of the group, more noisy than some, more intelligent, less spoilt, or needing encouragement. A teacher has to spread his personal interest over a large number of children, viewing them with disinterested affection and not becoming emotionally involved in their success or failures. “This difference in the function and feelings of parent and teacher is often a prime cause of misunderstanding,” Miss Hayward said. “Some parentteacher associations or home-school associations are solely money-raising or social gatherings. There is great value in parent-teacher associations as adult education groups. In fact, now that teaching is recognised as being concerned with the intellectual, psychological, and physical development of the child, these parent-teacner associations are a necessity. In these groups parents and teachers have the opportunity and the obligation to learn together, and exchange opinions and views. Teachers need to remember that many parents project on the school the memory of their own school days, some of which may not be pleasant. They have had no opportunity of keeping abreast of educational changes, and may therefore demand an austerity of method and attitude which belonged to a previous generation. They assume that any real or fancied injustice of their own school days must still be in existence harming their children. The indignation which some parents exhibit over what appears to the teacher as a minor point of school discipline can orfly be understood in these terms. Such understanding enables the teacher to act wisely, and insulates him from undue emotional reactions. “Some teachers think that the task of the school is already difficult enough without adding to it the obligation to come to terms with the parents. This is very short-sighted. The link between parents and teachers already exists and cannot be denied, and as both have the 4 good of the child at heart, they will develop positive and good contacts, so that the influence of the school will be exerted with the support and co-operation of the parents. Co-operative Endeavour

“It is not only parents with whom we must co-operate,” said Miss Hayward. “Teachers are only part of our educational team. The Government, through the Minister of Education, the Director and the Education Department, education boards, school committees, teachers and parents are all working for one purpose—to provide the individual child with the best that the country can provide, not only because the child has eventually to perform an economic function in society, but because the child in his own right, as a personality needs education for his full development as much as food and shelter. In other words, to give him the opportunity for fullest development in mental and moral and physical health and in the knowledge and skills that are essential for individual happiness and effective citizenship. To achieve these things it is vitally necessary that all members of the team co-ordinate their work with knowledge of one another’s problems, and with understanding and tolerance. “Our education system can create social values, but only if all those enSi in education bring knowledge, and will to their task. To attempt educational reforms without a consideration of social values, is to embark on a course which must lead inevitably to disappointment and frustration. because the education system, in common with all institutions of a community, not only creates social values, but must inevitably reflect the values upon which the community is based,” said Miss Hayward.