THE WOMAN TEACHER

Southland Times, Issue 19518, 18 May 1922, Page 6

THE WOMAN TEACHER

IMPORTANCE OF WORK NOT FULLY > JUSTIFIED. (Per United Press Association.) In .thankisg the representatives of the N.Z.W.TA. for the gift they made her on Saturday evening, Miss Chaplin, B.A. (hon. secretary of the association), after briefly outlining the history of the association, which took birth about eight years ago, spoke of the beneficial effect it had exercised upon woman teachers and their work. Miss Chaplin, in discussing the latter subject —women teachers and their work—said that it had bee somewhat generally felt that their work did not meet with the appreciation that was due to it. Those who were in a position to know, however, knew that the women teachers had the best interest of the children at heart, and were doing their utmost, in their way, for the welfare of the country at large. ’They had tried to uplift and make the most of the best that was in the individual. Children were very important, and it was certain that they were not put in as high a place as they should be. The development of character played an important part in the development of the race. She did not think the State always realised how important the teaching of children was. Women teachers had not been free to do what they would have liked to do in the teaching of the children—what they felt would be better for them. If it were true that the best teaching for children lay along the lines of natural adaptability, the same belief should be applied to the teacher. In the primary schools the woman teacher had been held back. If opportunities were given her for development, she would develop, and that development would be good for the race. If she were cribbed, cabined, and confined, her natural abilities allow no expansion, it was impossible to get her best results. To give wider opportunities to the woman teacher to-day was but to be in accord with the spirit of the times.