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Wellington Independent, Volume XXVI, Issue 3308, 2 October 1871, Page 3

Stephen i/curl Andrews, the New York PiHittirch, in his obituiivy of his wife, called her ' one ef of the veiled, obscured, hidden, great female men of the earth.'

THE NELSOY EDUCATION SYSTEM* ♦ TO ME KDIIO I OF THE INDEPENDENT. Sin, —While sU'osmen, politicians, and economists (nob to r.'y inspectors), raise their voices in prai?o of the Nelson education Bysfcem, no word is lu-u-rd from the man in some respects best able to judge of its working —the Nelson schoolmaster himself: as a sacrifice he patiently awuifes the knife and makes no cry. Yet the question " how does this system affect him?" is of some importance ; since much of its effectiveness as a system must depend upon its power to place him in such a relation both to his scholars and his munaging committee, as will evoke the maximum of his efficiency- j But first catch your hare; i.e., how can a , reasonable degree of efficiency be secured in < this vocation ? How this caw only bo done by j such tests of capability as will ensure a good man ; such judicious inspection as will keep the man good ; and bucU remuneration a 9 will retain him in the ranks of your teachers when you have got him there. The valuo of the two first entirely depends upon the last, for if the remuneration is insufficient you subject tho profession to such a competition from other pursuits as soon drains off tho best men; and in vain you raise tho standard either of attainment or ability. Let mo then, sir, take into consideration how far the Nelson system ia considered by its advocates to fulfil this important promiss. The schoolmaster in Nelson receives a fraction over 38s per week, rathor loss thnn a skilled laborer, if rather more than a hedger and ditcher—under certain obligations in tho way of appcaranco not incumbent upon either of them. As this is a subject not only interesting to tho teacher but to that, public which must be well served in direct proportion to the adequacy of his remunfivaiioii, I would wish, at tho risk of being tedious, to analyse his position a little more closely. The average of families, parents included, i 9 five; this, by division, allows about 7s. Gd. per week per head,—just what th> Kelson Government pays for its pixupejf children for food ulqno ; yet out of the parings of this amount a decent appoaraucc has to be maintained for all the family —the accessories of a respectable household supplied and ro« newed, and a provision for tho infirmities of old age made ! The result is that the teacher . is threadbare at every elbow, and if the pro- ! fession hero has not already become a more residuum of the starvelings and incapublcs of every other pursuit, I think all Nelson 1 teachers will agree with mo in saying it is mainly owing to the temper, judgment, and practical knowledge of teaching of (.he Nelson Inspector of Schools, ai;d it niny be safely predicted that the appointment of any other less moderate or judicious, would speedily thin the yanks of tho few good men left (of ccmreo, sir, I am one of these), as they could procure a more independent, a less wearing and better living by any tool whatsoever, from pen to plough. If- would appear then, that unloss tho new Education Act proposes to make a better provision for tho teacher than ho enjoys in Nelson now, it will not securo ila object — good education. But it is to the machinery of the Nelson system that its advocates most triumphantly point. This again, has been examined from every Bide except tho schoolmaster's, It might bo well then to hear what ho bus to say about ifc. I submit then that under the Nelson system of local election tho schoolmaster is a mere waif at the sport of every local partiznnship—political or religiouß —that every man he meets is, was. or may be, on his committee with powers of dismissal over him —that in many cases tho most eminent powers in teaching have not becm able to protect him from tho small animosities of a country district. If his duties are in themselves suflieienlly onerous, what is the wear of mind under constant jeopardies and anxieties o( this sort in addition. To increase this lattcv we have an intestine competition between the Nelson schools for the provincial scholarships ; suporadd to this the total insecurity of tenure; require at the same time unflagging fidelity under strict inspection, in addition to the moral responsibilities of the most harassing of occupations, necessarily involving an early decrepitude — require also a spotless character and blameless life j impose then a severe test of cupability and attainment before admission to the vocation; then give the wages to the successful I candidate, of a day laborer, and you have tho Nelson system. " Thus bad begins, but worse remains," for the uncertainty of the teacher's position impairs his efficiency in a direct ratio. He is the last man in the province to plant an oak —he grows annuals only, —he does nothing for permanence, he works for an examination ; he knows that at a month's notice may come the disruption of every tio in a given neighborhood ; ho is the mun of white pine fences and flax " fixings," anything that will last a month, How can it be otherwise? ho cannot afford the cheapest course, —solidity to last, — all he plants or builds may be another's —and this necessarily as a principle affects his teaching, and in course of time his character ; " hand to mouth," is his biography, unstable equilibrium is his condition, and he is ever casting about to find some cushion on which to fall. Yet his work must look well j to be specious at least, if not sound —plausible if not real; —mica to shine if not gold to weigh, —becomes the inevitable rule of a man so circumstanced. To reduce his status to all the risks of a lottery without any of the prizes must weaken his interest in his profession, at the samo time that it makes him cling closer to it —because it keeps him too poor to leave it — and thus makes it essential to him to appear eminently successful at tho same tinio that in an equal degree it disqualifies him for hoing so. No finer recipe could be written to make a man a cheat! In a word, an honorable certainty of position (under proper inspection) with a remu- | aeration in proportion to the qualities required and the important duties entrusted to him can alone secure a sound and efficient teacher, i.e., a good education for the people. It is nut surprising that no teachers' repre^ sontatives are proposed for the boards, that insignificant minority, the tenchore, having themselves escaped ministerial observation. la it too late to submit to ministers tho propriety of adding to their measure a system of payments by accumulations of wbiuh, as in the cuse of other Government officials, an annuity might be provided for tho teacher when weary and old with service. —I am,.&c., A Nelson Teachee. Nelson, Sept 19.