DIRECTOR OF EDUCATION.

Wairarapa Age, 5 March 1927, Page 5

DIRECTOR OF EDUCATION.

MR. T. B. STRONG. MINISTER’S STRONG APPROVAL. The appointment of Mr. T. B. Strong as Director of Education, was announced yesterday by the Public Service Commissioner. The appointment is approved strongly by the Minister of Education (the Hon. R. A. Wright), who states that he is satisfied Mr. Strong will prove to be an efficient and capable Director.

Born in London in 1871, Mr. Strong came to New Zealand with his parents as a child, and the family settled at Waimate, where Mr. Strong received his early education at the District High School. He then attended Otago University. Like many ’other teachers, he secured the university degree of B.A. by studying while teaching at a public school, and ho continued at th® university for the M.A. and B.Sc. degrees. His first appointment in the service of education was as a pupil teacher at the Waimate District High School, and he served in several capacities as a teacher under the South Canterbury Education Board. In 1902 he took charge of the newly-established secondary department of the Wanganui District High School, and from that position he was appointed in 1904 inspector of schools under the Wanganui Education Board. At that time he was the youngest man who had been appointed to the inspectorate. In 1915 he became senior inspector in charge of the Wanganui Education District, and in 1920 was appointed to fill the new position of Chief Inspector of Primary Schols for New Zealand. Last October Mr. Strong was appointed Assistant Director of Education following Dr. Marsden’s selection as first secretary of tho Department of Scientific and Industrial Research.

Mr. Strong has had wide experience in administrative work in education, and he has worked as a teacher and organiser in all three branches of the service. As inspector and organiser in the Wanganui district he was the first to introduce the now well known Montessori system of instruction. He was also responsible for the organising teacher system, which met with the approval of farmers all over the Dominion, and has been adopted by tho Department. Mr. ’Strong was associated with the initiation and development of vocational training in agriculture, one of the reforms introduced in recent years. Since he entered the Department’s service he has introduced and organised the system of instruction by correspondence, and various other progressive changes and reforms.