THE EDUCATION COMMISSION

Lyttelton Times, Volume CVI, Issue 12570, 3 August 1901, Page 2

THE EDUCATION COMMISSION

TO THE EDITOR. Sir, —As a graduate of the New Zealand University I Wish to enler a strong protest against the finding of the Commission, “ that' it is unnecessary that the Department should issue to a graduate of the University a diploma higher than the present 0 certificate.” Because, forsooth, tho two teachers oh the Commission have been content to remain at the low status of’a D: certificate, this is henceforth to be considered ah adequate test of tho scholarship of any .primary, school master! The: man who has spent his money and give* his time in: the pursuit of learning- that he might raise the standard of our educational system, is how to find advanced over, him Hie man .who has been content to draw liis salary, 'take his ease, - arid* talk much of. the value of technical education, and the training : of hand and eyes I suppose I ."belong to an“bld fashioned school, but I have always thought that the better educated a teacher is the more' capable he should be—other things being equal—of educating the ytnmg. . I do not mean merely to instruct; it is your uneducated man who does that, for the knowledge and facts at his command -are limited, and he does not. eee, things dh their true proportion. T belihve that there is a Gradiiates’Association here', in our midst. I would suggest that they should see to it that Such a slight on un-iyArnty. Wotk should not he passed unnoticed.r-r-I am, etc., GRADUATE.

TO THIS EDITOR. Sir, —I must not write about the school mistress. Henceforth she is to be extinct like the Dodo, or to exist only in a fewisolated cases where the loneliness and hardships of *back- country life and the poor salaries attached to unenviable positions will leave her free- to roam in pastures imeoveted by that lordly creature man, who now is to be enticed by paths that are pleasant, and salaries that are tempting to save the teaching profession from becoming the spoil of the women. The Commission hath decreed it, therefore, attend all and give; ear, to use the term “ mistress ” is ■ offensive to the ear of her lord and master io ( whom she should be amenable. Henceforth she shall bo called “ First Female” and “Assistant Female.” Hear a mother bringing a child to school: “ May I see the “First Female?” Can you please tell me if we are back with Adam and Eve in the Gwden of Eden?—l am. etc., ' PUZZLED.