COUNTRY SCHOOL TEACHERS.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 7385, 7 June 1895, Page 2

COUNTRY SCHOOL TEACHERS.

The newest objection, and perhaps the funniest, against the school system as it is reaches me {" Civis" in 0. D. Times) from a oountry district. The writer, bailed down, explains his grievance thus :—

A great change has come over the teaching staff in Otago during the-lastten yeare. Prior to that time most of the teachers were males ; but things ara altered, more especially in rural districts, where school attendance is small. The teaoher* ara exclusively all female, whioh is rather a mixed blessing, I acsure you. Now, along with taking the employment away from men, these girls are a great source of annoyanca and unrest while in tho district, for you oan imagine the havoc one of those sweet Normal girls oauses among our unsophisticated 'country youth. No doubt it is great fun for these girls while in dull places to have a group of admirers on which to practise their ooquettisharts; and practice tbem they do to the utmost of their power. And than, it. is soamusing, each ohap thinking he i 3 the •* right one," and confiding his joys and troubles to the captivating holder of a certificate. Soon the dream is over, for after spending twelve months in one place she thinks it ia time sha had a change—she lias "exploited all the available hearts in the distriot; so she applies for a fresh school and gets it perhaps a hundred miles away froui her former residenoe; so her poor rustic swains are left in the lurch and in a frame of mind far from enjoyable or enviable. When she settles in her new school the same process is gone through again; and as changes take plaoe weekly all over the oolony, matters are in a rather mixed condition.

It is a question of national importance, he continues, and muat be looked at from a national point of view. The flirtations of these damsels ara unfavorable to the increase of papulation and the spread of close settlement. Young mt-n are discouraged, and take years to recover, the country meanwhile going to the dogd. "If you have any cor.ooin for tho welfaro of tho country paople," hesays, "you will ventilate this grievar.ce, and I am sure the Education Board will pay more attention to one of your notes than if we rustics were complaining for a decade." On that point I have my doubts, but I have no doubt at all about the iojustice of alleging against young women teaohsra in country districts that they are averse to marriage, or have more than their sharb of the ineradicable feminine tendency to flirt. Is it desired tbat a'l teachers of the dangerous sor<rnould bo members of a celibate sisterhood and wear a veil? Or should {he Eduoatioa Board when appointing j, teacher " exclusively all female," ,Bend with her a duenna in charge of h. o r morals and matrimonial interests f of this I bso nothing fcr it but to trust to "Mature, as we do now.