Rangitikei Advocate. TWO EDITIONS DAILY. THURSDAY, OCTOBER 17. EDITORIAL NOTES.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXVI, Issue 10481, 17 October 1912, Page 4

Rangitikei Advocate. TWO EDITIONS DAILY. THURSDAY, OCTOBER 17. EDITORIAL NOTES.

OUR Education system is costly because it includes much useless wort and deals with young humanity on the Procrustes’ bed system. In Napoleon’s time it was said that every French soldier “carried a Marshal’s baton in his knapsact,” but no one suggested that therefore every soldier should be crammed with the knowledge required by a Marshal. Our education system, however, crams all alike, and it is obvious that there must he much waste effort and waste money. But while our system is costly it pays beggarly wages to those it employs and who are engaged in work which demands knowledge, skill and possession of most of the virtues and none of the vices. We observe that Mr J. Weston, a North Otago teacher in a paper read before Waitaki branch of Otago Educational Institute, made a forcible appeal for better pay for teachers. He pointed out that, of all civil vocations, the teacher’s is the most important, because his work enters, or should enter, more than any other factor into the formation of intelligence and character in the country’s future citizens, men and women. Mr Kelly maintained that “it is imperative that those who influence others should 'do £0 in the best possible way, with minds free from all unrest, or the possibility of disappointment, for a happy teacher produces happy children, and a discontented one produces someth'.ng else. The atmosphere of the schoolroom should be sweet and invigorating, made so by the free, joyous, and restful minds of those in charge of the young, who love nothing better than cheerfulness.” He contends this desirable —in fact, necessary state of things cannot be secured while the present uncertainty with respect to promotion continues to exist, and while payment on the basis of average attendance is the rule. He considers this method of measuring the rate of payment is barbarous and cruel, because though a teacher’s salary rises with an increase in the attendance, it is reduced when that falls off. He points out that “the salary of a postmaster is not regulated by the number of letters which pass through the office; nor is the salary of a stationmaster by the number of passengers that travel in the trains. One would enjoy seeing the look on the face of a postmaster or stationmaster on receiving notice that his salary would be reduced £BO because 5000 fewer letters had passed through his hands, or because hire tourist traffic at Christmas had fallen below normal. These, however, endure no such indignity. Wli3 r should the teacher.' 1 If by some outward circumstances a man or woman is deprived of nis or her emolument through no cause attributable to themselves, then I say the position is positively wicked, and ought not to be tolerated.” The remedy he suggests is contained in the following:—“A ; teacher is appointed to a school of ,

grade 3 at £l5O. He rises by £5 yearly to £IBO. Unless his school increases Tto such numbers as to raise it a grade, or unless he may obtain another school in grade 4, his salary cannot go beyond £IBO. Similarly with the maxima £3lO and £240. Now, these three barriers—or three rows of barbed wire, ?if you prefer to call them —resting on the one hand upon average attendance, and on the other upon the teacher securing a better school, are circumstances which have no right whatever to enter into a system of promotion, as both of these are altogether beyond the control of the teacher, and naturally produce dissatisfaction especially among teachers of country schools.” To reform this state of things, Mr Kelly proposes to sweep the three barriers away, and to' begin, “for the male teacher in Grade 3 at £l5O, and rise by £5 increments irrespective of . any appointment or non-apjjointmeut, to £260. The female teacher, who is willing to bury herself, so to speak, in the country, and to endure the loss of the social life enjojmd by her more favoured town sisters, will begin at £lO5 and rise by £5 increments to £l5O, and after that by £3 increments to £180.” The scheme, of course, also applies to other grades. THE fact that the attempt to include Eangitikei in the rating area of Wanganui Harbour Board has been defeated will be satisfactory to property-owners in the district, and gratifying to those whose energetic opposition has secured this result. There will doubtless be another similar attempt next year or perhaps later, but by that time developments may have occurred in connection with the Port of Poxton, and tramway extension which will make Eangitikei perfectly safe. It now remains to be seen whether the district affected by the Bill will consent to the expenditure of a very large amount of money on work which may not prove a success.