GRADE IV. SCHOOLS.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIC, Issue 13664, 5 August 1908, Page 6

GRADE IV. SCHOOLS.

To'the Editor ofl'thie '" Timaru Herald.". • ; .Sir,—As. a country teacher -trnable" to. be present- at, Saturday's meeting■ of. the Educational Institute,"l jrfsh.to."tike exception to. statements madelby ttfo'of:the speakers.: ".In your report of the .meeting Mr. Valentine :is made to say:—" There -was soniething.anomalous in givingan. increase of salary to a .teacher whose work was halved, by ; giving - an - assistant -when the attendance rose from 35 to 56, and the salary became .equal to that "of a man in charge", of, a'school of , 75 or 80. . It seemed tb'-Juifi .that a man whose .■work was. reduced should not at the same time get an inerease of j salary." -I have. yet to ' learn that ■ffhen' comes to assist at ahiavtlage . of ■ 36, a'.teacher's work ' is lessened. "Certainly, he' will. have fewer, classes' to.teach; bot ; fce .will,still work the same' hoarS.".and jtist 'as hard. Surely Mr. Valentine, does - not contend -that the. tea-cher'-inll: "slow .off''when he gets an w&irtain! There .<nil be'tue-Niufc* unionm j of-preparation and correction of work; £ni the' Inspector, will very. lightly demand .that more _ ground be covered by the-.upper classes than formerly. His work schedules will show tljat-the- upper classes are getting " over, more., ground and , that more' thorongHly"; because .they" are'getting, what they haye-long .b&en, denied, mora "attention. I am,-astonished at thefact tha.t,.Mr Valentine, ■ of all others, i.hould have made "ihe .' above statement He" is above' all" bias, and. his criticisms generally denote a full and accurate knowledge. ' , With regard to Mr. Lindsay's statement, that under the new. scale, a teacher with. BQT of an average got.no more than, a teacher with. 36, there is not so much to support his objection, as luigiic- appear at- hrsfc ught to the layman. In both these schools and x she should have charge of, : say, for the sake of argument—half the children in the" school, viz., those from Standard 11. downwards. The position then is, tliait tlie head teacher in the bigger, school teaches 4 classes containing 40 children, wliile the head teacher in the smaller school teaches just as many classes, though there are only 18 children. In botii-cases there: are. four classes and it is the number of classes that has most to do with the work in this grade of. schools. I contend that the conscientious teacher, with four classes containing 18 children will work just as hard as the teacher with four classes containing 40 children. Is it any fiarder for a.lecturer or. a'preacher, to talk to 40 people than to 18? The cases' are not altogether analagous," but] are to a large extent so. I feel that strong exception should be taken to Mr Lindsay's contention- ' If Mr Lindsay introduces another grade he will, assist in introducing the fatal-element of* payment oh- average attendance. I thought he and «TI teachers were againstthat. I .think it'rather hard, that teachers like Mr. Lindsay should be averse" to seeing the lower grade schools , getting assistance because they themselves are not getting a corres- , ponding ''lift.". However, the nex scale

men who are. most in need of it, and thecarrying of it into' eJi. ci, wiii rnaiK an important epoch in the. histoiy of thehijtoerto negitcied country teacher.—l' am etc., -• . COUNTRY TEACHER. REPLY BY MR' VALENTINE. Oh being ■ shown this' letter in' type, Sir "Valentine said he regret-ted that the writer was not . present at the; meeting; it would have improved the-discussion-if-the meeting . had • been. less unanitrious. He would be'glad .to meet "Qountry Teacher." and talk' the matter over - with him. • The difference between them was "a difference of opinion. His. own opinion, and he believed " the opinion - of' the majority, was that it was unreasonable to reduce a man's work'arid at the same time increase his pay. No matter what might be'said about taking up more work with fewer children, plus supervision of the .rest, it was obvious that it must be: easier to teach about half the number of' children in half the number of classes. No. one at the meeting took the opposite- view, therefore he the-more regretted that this critic had not b?en present at the meeting.