THE MONITOR SYSTEM.

Evening Post, Volume XXV, Issue 50, 1 March 1883, Page 3

THE MONITOR SYSTEM.

TO TH« EDITOR. Sir— l read with a certain amount of interest your correspondent's letter re th» monitorial system in our State sohools, The plaoing of one child in a position of authority over others in the same class has always besn unpalatable to me, and at variance with one's preoonoeirod notions of aohool honour i bus there are nAny objectionable customs wbioh oiroumstanoes r«nd«r necessary, and this appears to me to bo one of thwn. Teachers are constantly called upon to leave their olassos for a minute or two to themsolTes, for this, that, or tho other reason, and a necessity then arises for some one to hold a ohook over the playing of the mipe durinr the temporary absence of the oat. Usually the steadiest and most trustworthy mouse is appointed to that duty, and the olass gonerally recognises that he or she' holds dsputed power- front tho teaohor. Classes have been given diatinotly to understand that the ohild who acts as monitor is ondowtd with a oertain portion of the teacher's - authority, and that it is tho monitor's olear duty to take down impartially the names of unruly children. I think, under snob oiroumstanoes, the evil— for I admit the principle savours of evil— is rrdnoed to % minimum, particularly as all voluataijMUid unauthorised tale-bearing is stronoly discouraged in, I believe, all tho sohools of tho town and surrounding diatriots. Tha power delegated to snoh ohildron.too, is widdy different from that held by the prfepostor, prefeot, or moro modern monitor, of our publio and quasi-publio English schools, though, evon those institutions, I bolieve, when not abused, hayo their uses and their conveniences. I am, Ac, Pedagogue.