TRAINING COLLEGE

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVIII, Issue 136, 6 December 1944, Page 6

TRAINING COLLEGE

END OF YEAR'S WORK

CONTINUING STUDIES

The importance of the continued study after student teachers had completed their college training and had entered the teaching service was emphasised to students at the Wellington Training College at the year's break-ing-up ceremony today by the Minister of Education (Mr. Mason) and the principal of the college (Mr. P. C. Lopdell). The cermony, at which the chair was taken by the chairman of the Wellington Education Board (Mr. W. V. Dyer), was attended by membe.rs of the board, representatives of the Education Department, and the Mayor (Mr. Appleton). As has been done for many years, college and choral singing was a feature of the ceremony. Alter thanking the staff and students at the college for their co-operation in the achievement of the year's, success and progress, and the Education Department for assistance in many directions, Mr. Dyer said that one of the pressing problems facing • the board, and one which was likely .to become still more difficult as more men returned from service, was that of accommodation for students, and the board hoped for help from the Minister and the Department in solving that problem. There was an urgent need for a hostel, particularly for the girls. The college had worked under more favourable conditions than had prevailed for some years, and its work had been correspondingly more effective; fewer students had been withdrawn for military purposes and the staff had undergone little change, said Mr. Lopdell. It had been possible to carry through the full programme of studies,and activities. BRIEF TRAINING YEARS. It was essential for teachers and governing authorities to form new concepts with regard to training colleges said Mr. Lopdell. They had to accept responsibility in regard to teaching training in college and in service. Full recognition of those functions among teachers would assist the colleges, and particularly the probationary assistants, by protecting them from undeserved criticism. The New Education had made teaching a more difficult art, requiring greater preparation and training for entry to the profession and more reading and inspirational guidance within the profession. For the training of the student teacher American authorities considered four years to be necessary. In New Zealand, with a two-year training, they had to compromise; they could not achieve a satisfactory standard of education in the subjects of study of the college curriculum, nor could adequate training be given in the art of teaching. The solution of the problem lay in fostering in the students the ideals and attitudes that would ensure continued study. The college gave teachers only a preparation for entry into the profession. The college had endeavoured to give students contacts with cultural influences outside the college, said Mr. Lopdell, and in no field had there been greater success than in music. Particularly were they indebted to the Director of Broadcasting (Professor Shelley) for his assistance. Mr. Lopdell thanked the staffs of the college and the Normal School, the students' executive, office bearers, and students for. their co-operative effort towards the success of the year. COMPLEX AND RESPONSIBLE. j The Minister, in a friendly talk to the students, said that teaching was becoming more and more complex, and parents were becoming more and more dependent upon the work of the teacher. To educate a child so that it would grow up with a sense of responj sibility towards all, to be able to give a lead and take a lead, was a much bigger job than teaching a number of subjects. The taxpayer of New Zealand paid a great deal for education— about five million pounds a year—and it, depended upon the teacher whether the money was well spent or not. The people of New Zealand might pay even more when they saw the good results .that followed that expenditure. Students left the college imbued with the great interest of their work, said Mr. Mason. The great question was whether they would retain that interest in ten years' time, or whether they would look back upon their training as something they had finished with. On that would depend their success or failure, and he commended to them the various facilities whereby they could keep fresh their interest and outlook, as by continued contact with the expert college staff/ which he hoped would be enlarged, and with inspectors, by refresher courses, courses of special study and reading, towards which special facilities were provided by the professional periodicals, Education Fellowship publications, the Country Library Service, and the Training College library. Telling was not teaching, said the Minister. The world was full of people telling others how much better things would be if only they were left to arrange them for others. That was the cause of the hubbub of the world today, but telling was without power unless it led to realisation of the ideals within one's self.