"TALES OUT OF SCHOOL."

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20384, 12 October 1929, Page 8 (Supplement)

"TALES OUT OF SCHOOL."

A .TEACHER'S NOTE-BOOK.

" Tho masters and mistresses of even the greatest schools aro not known to tho public as aro politicians, Lord Mayors and trades union leaders, though tho former shape tho destinies of the nation while tho latter merely alter the contour of our purses. 1 suppose tho reason is that tlio work of tho head of a great school is entirely constructive, and it is for destructive heroism that the public has tho keener eye." While the profession of teaching is generally acknowledged, particularly in patronising prizo day speeches, to be ono of the noblest in the world, the amount, of sincerity in this polite platitude can be gauged by the attitude of the general public to tho members of this professsiou. Miss Helen Sinclair, an Australian primary school teacher, has something to say on this subject, in " Tales Out of School," a delightfully informal collection of jottings from personal experience. " Those people who do not actively dislike teachers favour them with a peculiar regard. A few of tho more discerning ones among them eventually find out that teachers are human beings, but none of them, I believe, ever get over the feeling of the rightness of the phrase, ' Men, vcirien and schoolteachers.' "

This antagonism on tho part of the man in the street is all the more peculiar when it is considered that his success in life is due to this maligned class. " They do their best for him and push him into a. comfortable position in the bread-and-butter line and, once there, he spreads his feet and settles his tie, so to speak, and over the remaining years of his threescore and ten refers to teachers as a non-producing unit." The Ideal " Head." Miss Sinclair, however, is far too sane, good-humoured and impartial an observer of human nature not to appreciate the fact that there is another side to the*picture. Tho pedantic prig, lacking in both humour and humanity is, unfortunately, not entirely an unknown quantity in tho teaching profession. To this class belongs the lady who "does not enjoy howlers." She says she cannot sec anything iunny in a girl writing stupid things when her 'teacher has been at pains to teach her the facts. "If I were not afraid of her iro I should advise her to see a doctor about it." Fortunately, Miss Sinclair is not so superior or wc should not have beard of the small girl whose version of the 23rd Psalm contained tho statement that she would dwell in tho House of Bonis forever; or, of another whose list of town amusements included vaudeviles and painolas. " I think the mis spelling was unintentional: 1 cannot credit her with so much wit."

Miss Sinclair's ideal of a perfect headmistress deserves quotation: "She should be a radiant personality, her responsibilities should not so weigh upon her that in time she becomes over-serious and jaded. She should be strong enough to rule without tho steel being even suspected beneath the velvet; and strong enough to bo on all occasions natural with both staff and children without losing caste. She should bo buoyant and happy and able to meet, any emergency whether it comes on two feet or through the post " Parents and Teachers. All teachers will agree with the Punch dictum that parents arc the last people who should have children. Many »( the. " Tales Out of School" deal delightfully with the curious attitude toward the education of their offspring, taken up by parents who have not enjoyed the same opportunities. . A child who had been advised not to drink from the tap. for fear of disease germs, brought, the following caustic note: " Mis 1 *. —111 thank you to let my child drink how she likes ;it school. 'I am sure fam not going to give her one of my best cups to break. And, as f"r germs." J think if people go', a few more natural germs these days they mightn't have so many unnatural ones about. My child hasn't got any germs anyway: we are a health}, clean familv." Another woman was much annoyed when, having kept her little away from school to attend a funeral, she was told bv the teacher that a funeral was 110 place for a child. She wrote indignantly: "My child doesn't often stop away. It isn tas if she had .1 lot of pleasure." But most unanswerable of all. in its crushing finality, was the remark of Maiy's mother, as reported by Mary, who had been kept in for not knowing her geography. "My mother says she never learned geography when she was voting —and she got married." But, as Bernard Shaw savs somewhere, the world does not cease to bo serious when peoplo laugh, and for all her gay humour, Miss Sinclair docs not cease, to bo deeply serious and enthusiastic over her work. Slio knows, 100, tho value, of sincere enthusiasm as a stimulant to tho efforts of tho pupil. '* Ono cannot P re * tend about one's feeling for any school subject to girls: they know when a teacher really, loves it. and if her interest .arises out of a reverence for, and an abounding interest in n branch of study, they will rise to the occasion for it. even the dullest of them." " Delivering tho Goods."

Miss Sinclair strikes a deeper note still on the subject, of " delivering the goods. " In reply to the question whether the schools ' deliver the goods,' I say. most emphatically, 'Yes, they >1". 1 lien ask : ' Does the public nay for the goods that arc delivered V And the answer 1 give to that, is, ' No, it does not.' We teachers inculcate certain principles and set up certain high standards, and wo expect the moral support of the public. . At present the whole world parents, general public, newspapers, cinema companies—all seem to be daing their worst for the young people. I believe flie teachers represent tlio one section of the community that is consistently on their side, and we arc fighting a lone hand. There 'seems to be a conspiracy afoot to give the young the idea that an ordered life is'the last tiling to bo dosired—that pleasure and romance are to bo found only in the forbidden. Iho whole human environment of youth seems to emphasise only one aspect of life—t.lic animal. ft savs in effect: to err IS human; therefore do your share of it. or voti will be thought a back number. It is so easy to adopt tlio pose _ of tolerant broad-mindedness: it. requires courage to sav the unpopular thing. Miss Sinclair's little book should prove a jov and an inspiration to all members of her profession, to whatever branch o if. tliev may belong, for, as she borsch savs. it is not books on education that teachers'neect to know, it is human nature. And it is its universal oualitv of bumanih that makes "Tales Out of School * valuable contribution to educational literature. " Tales Out of School." by Helen Sinclair. (Angus and Upbertson).