TRAINING COLLEGES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21142, 28 March 1932, Page 13

TRAINING COLLEGES.

Sir, —I havo never read such a series of inaccurate and misleading statements as recently, when I read the report of the University Council on the training of teachers. The proposal, put forward in all seriousness by the registrar, was that the university should take over the administration of the Training Collego for the purposes of economy. It is a. wellknown fact that per capita university education is the most expensive in tho country, and the Training Collego at present is staffed cheaper than an ordinary secondary school. How can there be economy under the university ? The report itself suggests that the college bo taken over at. its present cost, and then proceeds to show that university expenses will bo less. The Training College lecturer, already overburdened with all-day lectures, should act in his spare time as a professor, say, in English. What an insult to the present holder of the chair at the university 1 How can such a suggestion bo taken seriously unless further expense be incurred ? Again, the report states that tho Training Collego lecturer in music, in his new spare time, could conduct university lecturing in music. "What an ideal to advocate for a professor of music at a university, and what an impossibility! The report states that such an amalgamation will avoid duplication of lectures. But where is tlie duplication at present? Even in English, geography and history the two courses arc radically different. Tho university course is not suitable even in content matter for tho training of teachers and its ami is something totally different from the aim of tho college courses. Tho young teacher is not receiving instruction in English, history and geography as university subjects, but instruction in tho teaching of these subjects to primary school children. What does tho academic atmosphere of the. university know about such things? The Training Colleges teach art, physical education, hygiene, agriculture, general science, nature study, kindergarten method and school method of all kinds. Does the. university intend to incorporate all these subjects ? If not, where is the economy ? Tho troublo is that tho university finance is threatened and it is endeavouring under a camoudago of economy to retrieve itself by commandeering (lie Government moneys allocated to the professional training of teachers. The young teacher in training receives a considerable amount of .practise teaching in the primary schools of the city, and this needs a very considerable amount of organisat ion and administration. That any present university officer has time for this, or experience, or knowledge, of the requirements would come as a supreme surprise tu the writer. Tho very statement in tho report that by using larger classrooms not at present in the Training College, but at the university, economy could bo effected, shows tho tendency of the university authorities to confuse education with lecturing, to favour mass production as. against individual development, and indicates the danger of associating the training of teachers with the uniA. 8.C..