TRAINING OF TEACHERS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 11724, 5 August 1901, Page 4

TRAINING OF TEACHERS.

-■.""'.' —' —. **. • , With one clause in the report of the Teachers' Salaries Commission there will be very general agreement: that hardly any sacrifice is : too great for the colony to make on behalf of the sound training ' of its : young teachers. We may -with j comparative ease make -salaries and conditions : sufficiently . reasonable to attract to the teaching profession the intelligent men and women which the work demands. But unless we train them soundly ; effectiveness is lacking and we can never hope to obtain 'the best possible results in our increasingly expensive schools: We have repeatedly endeavoured to call attention to; this vital weakness of our system and trust that ; this phase of the educational question will not be allowed to drop now that i it has been officially and authorita- J tively recognised. : The most suit- ' able modern method for training 'i teachers is a technical point which ] must necessarily be decided upon by i

experts. But whatever is decided the ground for decision should bo effectiveness and ", effectiveness only. In the commercial battle which civilised States are waging one against the other the training •; and , equipment of our industrial legions cannot begin s too "early. It must' be commenced in the primary- schools, where capable teachers must economise and direct the energy of their] scholars! However earnest a teacher may be he ':'.is sadly handicapped un- s less versed in the best system of infusing knowledge and : maintaining discipline. ,To make him so is a branch of the ; educational ; system which will repay its cost a hundredfold. '