WOMEN TEACHERS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXV, Issue 16606, 18 July 1914, Page 7

WOMEN TEACHERS.

NORTH CANTERBURY ASSOCIATION. ANNUAL MEETING. The annual meeting of tho North Canterbury Women Teachers' Association IVJV3 held on July 10, about sixty member.? being present. Tho annual report and balancesheet, which showed a very successful year's work, were adopted. The following officers v/cre elected : —President, Miss Chaplin; vice-presi-dents, Misses Spenco and King; committee. Misses Adams, Anslcy, Duncan, Harvey,. Lockwood, A. J. Menkes and Morrison; honorary secretary, and treasurer, Miss M. Smith. WOMAN'S SPHERE. Miss Chaplin, in a brief address, said that the world was coming to realise how far extending were the bounds of woman's sphere, but of all ■ the various vocations to which sho is called next only in importance to the home came the school. Woman must be where the children arc, and no right-thinking man dared dispute her influence,there or claim a superior fitness for the work. Nevertheless, woman was frequently denied the best use of her talents and was given but limited scope for her ability. The drudgery of tho profession," noble though it be, was hers by right, but the higher paths of responsibility— I to which her experience ought often to lead her—wore barred to her iipp roach • There were some districts in New Zealand, said Miss Chaplin, where women teachers of the h'ghest efficiency in the primary schools were debarred from positions higher than that of third assistant in a town school 1 They are free to bury themselves amid uncongenial surroundings and the strenuous work of a sole-charge school; and sometimes after thiis term of "hard labour" they were permitted to become assistants in town schools, where, they must he content to stay at hard and grinding class-work ti!! a kindly superannuation scheme gathered up the fragments. The education of the girls and infants was essentially woman's work, continued the speaker, but its importance had not yet received due recognition. Tho time was coming when ability and experience—even mi a woman—would enticlo her to a responsible position where her organising powers and knowledge gained in the years might' bo utilised to the full in the servi"e of the State. In the great field, of education there should bo full Ecopo for men and 'vomen, with no room for rivalry. Both • were needed; both should be remunerated fitly as becomo those on whose .fihrf.ldc.rs in great measures rc-ted (he destiny of the nation. Such iniquities as payment on average nt+>»ndarico. and the banging of the 'loor of in the faces of able >nd long-.mfferirg workers ought vpeedily to be put an evd to. In the r vojccted council of education or adidso!"e committee the State ourrht to

Trail its">Jf of tho pnetical help irl | nlvico of experienced tenehers of bo J :h and so conserve tho best ineres's of all the chi'dreh. ABOLITION OF LARGE CLASSES. " This is an age for individual thought, spaeeh and action. Eachono ovist bring out himself or herself. Perhaps this fact is as much marked in teaching as in any other line of life. With regard'to teaching, there is first of all ' the individuality of the teacher,' bub of equal importance there is to be considered ' the individuality of the child.' "■•■''■ One reads these words, then pauses, said Miss Morrison in delivering an adiress on " A Plea for the Abolition of uarge Classes in Primary Schools." The ideals expressed fire imagination, and, filled with enthusiasm, one enters the class-room, determined that this ;>hall be one's ideal. Fifty, sixty, seventy, eighty or even ninety scholars reply to the teachers " Good Morning,'' and back to one's mind rushes "lio thought, " tho individuality of the child.'' No! not even the magic wand of a Montessori could bring to full fruition the latent possibilities of all those souls. Was it because, for the last twenty years, teachers had taught such large classes that such a system should be perpetuated? The new syllabus of work. for the primary schools was now in use, and its keynote was, "Tho child must learn by doing." If pupils were to have their energies directed into right channels, said Miss Morrison, then no class should consist of more than forty pupils, for then, with closer, supervision and more thorough questioning of the individual and hot of the mass, each pupil would get such a. grip of the work that substantia! progress would be made in the senior department of the primary schools. It was an easy task to interest a large class. It was a', different matter to be sure that each child's mind was concentrated on its task. Thus in large classes the child had to submit to a rigid discipline, instead of enjoying that freedom which would ensue if tho teacher had only forty children to control.

A return should be given, said' the speaker, showing the number of teachers in charge of classes of forty, fifty, sixty and over, and then perhaps the question would receive the at + ention it demanded. It was seen, therefore, that children taught in largo classes did not receive that attention which was their due, that therefore they could not benefit as they should from the improved syllabuses of work that had from time to time been introduced, and that tho result must be that they would not prove such valuable citizens as they might otherwise become. OTHER PAPERS. Miss Alley read an interesting paper on modern methods in infant school work. The address, which was illustrated by rumerous crayon drawings, was much appreciated, especially by those engaged in infant schools. Another paper, which was very well received, wits read by Miss Vallance, upon the need of a women teachers' room in all schools. She stated that miblie employers are compelled by the Government to provide suitable luncheon rooms for their workers, but i teachers, though Government employees, had no such provision mado.