THE TROUBLES OF A COUNTRY SCHOOL TEACHER.

Otago Witness, Issue 2436, 21 November 1900, Page 64

THE TROUBLES OF A COUNTRY SCHOOL TEACHER.

By One Who Has Been a Country Teachek.

As a rule, it would be as well for a young teacher who is in, or expects to be sent to, the country to give up all idea of severe * study. She may succeed in going through with it, but at a ruinous expenditure of health and nerves. She may console herself for thwarted ambition and unemployed faculties by the reflection that higher education is of little commercial value to a- female teacher in the colonies ; it will very rarely indeed increase her chance of getting a good appointment in the board schools. Of course, there are High Schools, but a' country teacher can rarely 1 hope to compete with town girls who ; have had High School and university teaching, and every other educational advantage, with possibly influence to back them at last. '' He who knows no foreign lan- I guages," said Goethe, '"knows not his own." Ordinary school committees reverse this ! dictum and think that a knowledge of a ■ couple of foreign languages and ot mathe- j ma tics disqualifies a teacher for instruct- ] ing children in "the three R's." Instances ! are not far to seek of committees refusing ' a teacher avowedly because his 'certificate '• way "too high." Let the young countryschoolmistress, then, content herself with j the very lowest literary qualifications de- • manded by the board — it is not necessary . that she should possess even a full "E " j certificate. Unimpaired nerves and diges- , tien and good animal spirits will be of far , more service than any amount of erudition i or first-class honours. Her lot will be cast ' amongst people who regard a Sixth Stand- j ard pasa as the summit of learning, and she may never have to teach beyond the Fourth cr Filth Standard. Health and good spirits on the other hand, are neces&aiy both for \ successful teaching and for enabling her to ■ withstand the work and worry of a country ] school teacher's life. ' ' Small farmers as a rule are a frugal class — they need to be to make farming pay, and it has been practically demonstrated that it is only small farmers who succeed. These must get all the profit they can out of their holdings, and spend as little as .possible on themselves. Hence .their food is often poor to a degree that would surprise any one unacquainted with their homes. A teacher naturally cannot expect any difference to be made for her, and must try to get accustomed to a diet of salt 1 pork, cabbage, -and potatoes, the. usual bill of fare for dinner on small dairy farms. If sheep are kept, the thrifty farmer selects the poorest old ewes for home consumption. As David Harum'says, "He eats all that he can'fc sell." What can be sold is too good to be eaten at home. I should like (or rather I should not like) to hear the lan- | guage of employees on large farms or stations if they were expected to sit down to the fare on which the hard-working small fanner Subsists. After a few years spent among the small farming class 1 am disposed to douot the truth of the con-stantly-repeated assertion that New Zealanders eat far too much meat, and that this is the cause of all their diseases, from cancer and rheumatism to toothache. Many farmers I know never touch fresh meal for weeks, even months together, and a little salt pork or bacon is made to go a long i way. Pig-killing, of course, means fresh i meat for a few days. The very sparest of ! \' spare ribs make a show at table, the flesh I having been all pared to make bacon. One may before taking to teaching have looked on pork with all the aversion of a Jew or Mahoinmedan, but soon finds that one must make up one's mind to like what is to be had or starve. Luckily, most farmers' wives make good bread and cakes, but these accomplishments are not universal, and most are too busy to have much time for niceties of cooking. Porridge is usually found to take too much time in the morning where there are many cows to be milked by a few hands. Breakfast then usually consists of fried-up potatoes, with bread and butter, and perhaps a little pork or bacon. In the more thickly-settled districts, perhaps, grocers' and butchers' carts from the neighbouring township come round once a week. Then, perhaps, a beefsteak is bought and fried for the evening meal, or a joint is cooked for Sunday's dinner, which coldly furnishes forth the repasts till next Saturday. Butchers naturally reserve their worst meat for country customers, and frequently the aforesaid beefsteak is about as eatable as fried leather. But one is comparatively fortunate if one gets fresh meat at all ; salt pork is cheaper and goes farther. An experience of small farm cooking makes one sympathise with the endeavours made to teach cooking to school girls, and discredits the argument that they can learn cooking in their own homes. But unluckily, the teaching of cookery must in any case be confined to town girls. Meaivwhiie, the hard-working school teacher who has to board out, must often choose between hunger and indigestion — she usually manages to combine both. Let not anyone imagine that on a dairy farm where 20 or 30 cows are milked, milk, cream, and butter can be had in abundance. Cream means money, and must all go to the factory. Often the poorest of the 'milk is sparingly reserved for home consumption. I have even known " milk " puddings made with water, as in cheap town boarding houses. But enough of poor food, which I have found the least of the hardships of country boarding out, though to outsiders it may seem to furnish more tangible grounds of complaint than other things really harder to endure. — People who know nothing of teaching usually think that the teacher's working day is over as soon as the children's. Hence they regard the teacher' as 'enjoying very easy times, and in many cases the housewife is disposed to claim the teacher's assistance in housework and minding children. A good-natured or yielding teacher may find herself soon installed as nurse and general help. Most will be ready to do ib&le tbjuuei likp fitearaiSL away dishes, if

1 not too much hurried ihemselves. If a girl wishes to be popular she must be ready to lend a hand at anything, and profess to bo enthusiastically fond of nursing babies. But one who does not feel disposed to let her -whole time and energies be absorbed by, those about her will consider that, paying enough to allo-^. a very good margin over what her keep costs, she has a right to the disposal of her time after school hours. Even if, at the risk of incurring ill-will, she is successful in resisting encroachments on her leisure, she will have little good of it. There are always the "children to be reckoned with. She may shut herself up in her room ; but a thin partition of board or scrim allows every sound to pass through' unchecked. Work and study are carried on under difficulties indeed with a houseful - of utterly undisciplined children and a) fretful, harassed mother, whose only idea of controlling her unruly brats is to scream j impossible threats at them the live-long j day. As a writer in a leading weekly remarked not long ago, the ordinary colonial child is, usually seen at its., very worst, when with its mother, arid the same children Who are docile and teachable at school are transformed into howling' little demons of misrule the instant they return to the maternal ! roof. Perhaps a teacher who takes an J interest in ichildren and child manage1 inent will try to improve the juveniles of • the household ; to teach them quiet amuse1 ments, and show them that they may spend .; time better than in ceaseless quarrelling I and uproar. But if she is not exception- | a Uy gifted with perseverance as well as with ', capacity for managing children, she will J find that she can do little. In any case to j effect much would mean an immense expenditure of time and energy. In the | children's homes she has no authority, and i their surroundings and habits all tell against ] her influence. Moreover, it is just those ! parents who are least capable of managing their children who are the most disposed to resent anything implying that the children's behaviour is not perfect. -Thus after ! a little, the teacher decides to let the child- • ren take their own course at home, and ! she spends as little time in their company as possible. 'At one house I was accustomed on wet Saturdays and Sundays to seek a temporary refuge in an unused and leaky shed a short distance from the house. 'Here I would take a book, and wrapped up in thick jacket and waterproof, and holding --an umbrella over me to catch the drippings from the roof, remain until so chilled that I was compelled to seek the warmer, if less peaceful, home. Less thoroughly wet weather permits of walks and rambles, but a large part of the time must be spent inside, and it ha.s to be spent in the exercise of constant endurance and self-control. After a few months of this &ort of life, one's nerves grow so irritable that one lives in j dread of letting fall a few sharp words that i would lead to a quarrel with one's enter - j tamers. Fqr there is nowhere better to go. One may make two or three moves, only to find that every domicile has special trials, while nearly all are sure to , offersome of the worst. One may c apply for another school ; but not till a year has been spent in the first. Then, for good appointments, the chances of success are small, while as to small country schools, -expei'ienee teaches that " 'tis better to bear the I ills we have than fly to others that we know not of.'" Perhaps after experience of all the possible lodgings available within walking dis- ! tance of the school, the teacher decides to try what seems better accommodation fari ther off. Then she must keep a horse, arid i ride eight, ten, or twelve miles to and from school in all weathers and along all roads. Children may stay at home in wet weather or if tuey are indisposed. Not so the teacher. Whether she be well or ill, whether it rain, hail, blow, ,or all three together, she must saddle her horse and ride to the school, perhaps to find only two or three pupils to teach. Her health may suffer from exposure and over- exertion, and being compelled to remain in damp clothing, but this is a matter of no moment except to herself and her friends. She may apply to the board for a residence, but this will 'usually either be refused or put on the list of works to be completed at ■ some future time — after the teacher is dead and buried or driven from the district. As a rule demands for expenditure from country schools are received with disfavour, and teachers who approach the board with anything in the nature of personal applications are regarded as a nuisance. Enough has been done in building, or afc least furnishing a school, and in paying a teacher : the fate of the latter nvhen appointed is naturally a matter of indifference to the board. If she loses her 'health and is forced tc give up teaching, there are plenty more to fill her place. Are not the Education Boards of Otago and Canterbury embarrassed by a superfluity of teachers — female, especially V Has not the Wellington Education Board just given notice of dismissal to over 40 of its teachers? If a female teacher here and there dies or becomes invalided, it is perhaps just as well ; her place is free for another who may be of tougher fibre. The lair of survival of the fittest may well be allowed to work unimpeded : the fittest teacher for such an appointment being the one of robustest constitution, strongest nerves, and dullest sensibilities. That in the meantime, while the less hardy teacher does not either die or retire, she is scarcely likely to possess the energy and brightness necessary for suecessftil school work is a contingency that) boards cannot be expected to consider. (To be continued.)

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