THE BOY OF IDEAS

Evening Star, Issue 15761, 26 March 1915, Page 1

THE BOY OF IDEAS

SCHOOLMASTER'S CONFESSION OF WIIONG SCHOOL TRAINING. The average salary of assistant masters in England and Wales, said Mr J. V. Saunders at the. annual meeting of Assistant Masters in English t'econdary Schools the other dav. is cr*rlv slightly over £3 a week. Out of 5,000 salaries all but about .30 are under £3OO per annum. .Mr Saunders observed that there were, a certain number of boys for whom almost ail their subjects and methods were taught too analytically, lie had in mind boys who did not do even passable Latin exercises as long as they were in the sentence stage, but who were quite clever at translating Horace, and later could do passable. sometimes good, continuous prose; or, again, boys who had a real liking for, and appreciation of, English literature out of school, but were always near the bottom in the term's marks for English. That kind of boy got at his ideas in a way he did not understand, but of late years he had become more and more aware that that boy did get at ideas, though he seldom got marks and often failed miserably in easy examinations. Probably this "poetic" temperament was getting a better chance of education under the newer methods of teaching languages. Speaking in support of a. resolution in favor of universal military training in all schools, " whilst safeguarding the interests of conscientious objectors," Mr Somerville, of Eton, said that for the last 14 years "it had been a nightmare that the nation might have its throat cut in its sleep." The fact that we had France, and Russia, as allies had saved us up to now. The resolution was carried by a large majority.