HIGH SCHOOL TEACHERS

New Zealand Times, Volume XLII, Issue 9629, 9 April 1917, Page 3

HIGH SCHOOL TEACHERS

TECHNICAL TRAINING STATEMENT BY HON. J. A. HAN AN. “My aim is to secure that as far as practicable only properly trained teachers shall he appointed in all secondarr schools -which are supported.-by public fund.” Such, aud the Minister for Education (the lion. 3. A. Hanan) to a “Times" representative on Saturday, -was the principle underlying his recent communication to the Board of Governor of Wellington College, asking that, as Minister for Education, be should bo given a voice in the appointment of their secondary school teachers. There was need, contended the Minister, for insisting upon the training in practical teaching of all students and graduates who might become junior assistants m boys’ and girls’ high schools. The tisk given to such assistants involved the control and discipline as well ns the efficient instruction of children at tno ndioteaent stage when their oHectivc management was most difficult; and tnat task demanded trained skill and strength of personality. A long course of training was demanded for primary school work; and, surely, in justice to the teachers and to their pupils an equally thorough preparation for their arduous duties should be required of secondary school teachers. Further, there was too violent a departure in the matter, or instruction and its method confronting the pupil who passed from the primary to the secondary school. This had often been pointed out, but the curious assuinptkm/ was made that all the adapt ation necessary should be effected ty altering the primary school course. That, to say the least, was a serious violation of teaching maxims. New instruction should be built upon that already acquired; and. if the primary course- was in itself a good one, the logical thing was to establish the desired continuity by adapting th© beginning of the secondary course to the closing part of the primary course. Their aim therefore, should'be to reduce, if not eliminate, the gap between the last grade of the primary school and the first grade of the high .school. “It cannot be denied (said Mr Hanan) that a number of teachers come into our high schools without technical training in teaching, and the methods which some of them tend to pursue arc the only methods with which they are familiar, namely, those which are prevalent among university professors and which obviously are poorly adapted to high School instruction. The pupils in the junior forms of secondary schools have to be initiated into the study of a foreign language, abstract mathematics and systematic science, and their whole attitude to these subjects ,as well as their future progress in the study of them, very largely depends on how this initiation is made. Hence the need for thoroughly efficient teachers in the lower forms or grades of the secondary schools. Yet high school boards have taken teachers who have not passed through our training college although there is ample provision, for the training of secondary teachers therein. ! “Since the war there has been an increased (dcnTand for efficiency in all walks of life, and this demand can bo satisfied only by maintaining efficient educative forces to mould the lives of the rising generation. Whatever elgp we may put np with in the way of inefficient craftsmanship we ought to recognise t.lio right of our children to be taught by men and women capable of doing the work well; and we must accordingly strive to accomplish this object.’’