TEACHERS AT SCHOOL AGAIN.

Taranaki Daily News, 15 January 1931, Page 6

TEACHERS AT SCHOOL AGAIN.

The brief report yesterday of the opening of the Teachers’ Summer School at Christchurch will have revived the very pleasant memories retained by many Taranaki folk < f the gathering held at New Plymouth last year. It is stated that over 300 teachers from primary and secondary schools have assembled this year, and that fact indicates- the favourable attitude of the profession. Exceedingly useful as is the work they do, teachers are compelled to live rather narrow lives. At. the summer school they have their opportunity to obtain intellectual stimulation, for the programme is a wide and varied one. If they went away from home for a week or so merely to rub shoulders with each other the process probably would be helpful, but, as most of us would do under similar circumstances, they would be apt to “talk shop.” The summer school gives them courses whose interest is technical—it is particularly fortunate this year in having as its principal lecturer Professor L. J. Wrigley, head of the Melbourne Teachers’ Training College—but it' also introduces them to subjects quite outside their routine scope, thus freshening and broadening their outlook. If there is a danger of the average teacher settling into a groove the summer school is just the thing to get him out of it and give him new ideas. It is obviously important that the teachers should have enthusiasm, for the country reposes a great trust in them. They have a part to play in moulding the future of the nation, exercising a powerful influence upon the intellectual development of the citizens of the next generation during their most impressionable years. It speaks well for the spirit of New Zealand teachers that so many of them are willing to give a portion of their 1 oliday time to the task of brushing themselves up. In one respect at any rate their outlook is not as bright as it might be. For very many months past the Minister of Education, who has bombastically'declared that he is the Education Department—its expert officers apparently do not count—has been threatening a complete reorganisation of the education system. It would be no cause for surprise if the Minister’s remarkable dilatoriness had discouraged the members of the teaching profession and they were inclined to mark time until he might make up his mind to a definite course of action. But they have shown that however the head of the department may vacillate they at any rate wil continue their well-doing. The 300 odd teacher who have gathered at Christchurch are to be congratulated on the resolution with which they. pursue the best ideals of their profession.