MINOR TRIBULATIONS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20716, 8 November 1930, Page 1 (Supplement)

MINOR TRIBULATIONS.

BY KOTAItE.

OPINIONS OF SANDY.

" I see," said Sandy, that my little list of human boils is becoming something like Gilbert's catalogue of people that never would be missed. 1 suppose that people like you and ine are down on somebody's list too. That's quite right. Any man or woman that is not objectionable to somebody has probably no more drive or personality than a haystack or a yard of sausages. " But there are some folk that distinctly come under the Noxious Weeds Act, and there seem to be enough of thorn to warrant my mixing my metaphors a bit. And anyway this sort of thing hurts nobody, because one of the first marks of a bojl is that it does not know it is a boil. In fact, your true boil is usually conscious only of virtue. The trouble is with other people. It seems that selfishness is at the root of this trouble as it is at the root of most things that harass the life of man in society. • " The school-teacher has his tribulations. Apart from the normal trials inseparable from his function as the guide, philosopher and friend of the rising generation, and member of a Government service with a multiplicity of masters, there is that ever recurring interference by a certain type of parent. " It may bo the father who is naturally persuaded that his very common or garden offspring is different from all others of the young of the human species and demands different treatment. Probably he is right, but not in the sense he imagines. Or there is the parent that likes to assert his dignity as a citizen of the Commonwealth, one of the great sufferirig public that has to pay for the schools. The chance to bully someone better educated than himself is one of the few pure unalloyed joys that life has to offer.

I met a young teacher a year or so ago who had just received a letter threatening him with all sorts of unpleasant things in which a stock-whip figured largely, if the' writer's son and heir did not secure proficiency at the forthcoming examinations.

At School. " The present Marquis of Normanby, whose family was once closely associated with New Zealand, and who was at one time a schoolmaster, was visited by a mother who was doubtful whether to entrust her darling to his care because she was afraid that perhaps he might have to mix with boys not of the pure blood of Vere de Vere. The husband of the lady had been recently raised to the peerage for the usual vague services that a fortune made in pork enables its possessor to render to his party. The Marquis listened to her discourse on the necessity of special care in inquiring into the social position of the boys in his academy, and courteously replied that ' as long as your son conducts himself well, I shall make no inquiry as to the antecedents of his parents.' " A marquis or a potenial marquis could do that of course. The average teacher is unfortunately at the mercy of this type of parent. But not altogether, I'm glad to say. A famous headmaster in a Southern city, who was justly proud of his school and its scholars, had a similar experience which he met with a skill worthy to rank alongside the Marquis'. His pupils came from an area almost wholly occupied by skilled artisans. It is from this class in the community that the keenest and brainiest and best- 1 behaved children usually come. I know my friend would not have changed his scholars for any the most fashionable district could have offered him. Tendencies.

" A lady of some social pretensions met him one day and announced that she liked the tone of his school and understood that tho children under his care made better progress than in any other school in the city. But the children her boy would have to associate with were impossible, quite impossible. She would have to send him to a school where bis schoolmates would be more select, more refined. She was sorry, but there it was. " ' Madam,' he replied, ' if your brat is anything like his mother I wouldn't have him within a mile of my school." " By the way, I see that Mr. Butchers' book on education in New Zealand has managed to stir up a few hornets' nests. It is too long to read straight through, but I have dipped into it where I was specially interested and I have been astonished at its range and thoroughness. -" I was much interested to see that he notes a steady tendency to establish class schools in New Zealand. He finds that there has been a persistent move in this* direction since the secondary schools were thrown open to everybody. He says that old associations are being broken down. Christ's College, which was for many years on very intimate terms with the Otago Boys' High School, is establishing new affiliations and intimacies; and many old boys of the Auckland Grammar School are sending their boys to Kings. There's not much happening in educational circles in the Dominion that has escaped his eagle eye. In Conclusion. " I must get to tho end of my list though. I have plenty more candidates, but I must content myself with mentioning two. There is tho person who never gives up anything, certainly not a seat in tho trams, and the person whose selfishness takes the form of giving up things unnecessarily. The man or woman who is perpetually looking for occasions of selfsacrifice that simply embarrass the unfortunate in whose interests the sacrffice is made should certainly bo on the list. Pessimum corruptio optimi. I don't know anything harder to bear than a needless martyrdom allegedly in your interests. It is a form of self-indulgence really. That is some people's way of enjoying themselves. But they never think of the unfortunate that has to accept the unnecessary sacrifice. It doesn't do much good to them.

" And*l spoke about the tram 3. Have you ever seen the woman with a stalwart boy beside her, forbidding him to give his seat to elderly women or women carrying infants ? I nave seen it too often for my peace of mind. You know the sort of thing. ' Keep your seat, Johnnie. You've paid for it.' And a very uncomfortable Johnnie has to choose between his own decent instincts and the maternal command. He ends by obeying the voice of authority, though his face shows that his soul 13 humbled to tho dust. And you can be quite sure ifc is tho same woman that fills the car with caustic comments when she has_ to stand and there is any man or child within range occupying a seat. It's a queer world."