Advice To Teachers

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29385, 12 December 1960, Page 10

Advice To Teachers

Sir, —“Raspberries” is not fully informed. The older primary teachers are divided into two classes: the chosen, who can do no wrong and thus need not worry about the proper marking., of work, and those others who have been thrust into the outer/darkness and can -do no right. Promotion and honour shall never be their portion, so why should they strain their eyes? Rather do they look elsewhere for increased income and a proper place in community life. As for the younger ones, some, being products of what is described with heavy humour as our education system, cannot spell, and many others are concerned only with deserting their posts at the earliest possible date either for that trip abroad or fqr that scholarship in a country that is ironically called the leader of the free world. If parents complain to schools, it is their children who suffer.—Yours, etc., YOURS, ETC. December 11, 1960. \ Sir, —Speaking of “window dressing,” shame! Fancy being upset by a telephone! I know of a senior teacher who, dashing back into the fray, punishing a sixth form which had “played chicken” on him. returned after a breather to a model form which had in his absence been complimented by an inspector. His action in continuing where he had left off, in front of the astonished, unobserved “adviser and colleague” was somewhat DE-grading! I recall my form, all s.c. failures—did nothing all year, showing an inspector bulging books (previous year’s) while one caricatured him; and a teacher 30 minutes solving an impossible geometry problem before the “colleague” remarked, “Unfortunate choice.” Tension? Poppycock! So, “Raspberries” should join the ranks; we need the help of sterner stuff and more mature years training bebop babies. He will, naturally, be provisionally graded, maybe drop a little, salary, endure a little migraine, but think.—Yours, etc., HAPPY DAZE. December 10, 1960.