CORRESPONDENCE.

Waikato Times, Volume LVII, Issue 8061, 20 November 1906, Page 2

CORRESPONDENCE.

5 The Editor ia Dot responsible for the opiniona expresaed by correspondents.] DISTRICT HIGH SCHOOLS. i TO THE EDITOB. Sir,—A matter in which every citizen should take a keen interest oime up for ; discussion at the meeting of the Hamilton - West District High School Committee on g Wednesday last, when a letter was reoeivi ed from the Waihi Committee asking for 1 support in its efforts to separ, U the primary and second iry classes. The headmaster of the Hamilton High Sohool was in attendance and according to your report opposed the request of the Wain* Commute and offered some criticiaim on the subject, the main points of which I gather to be: -(1). That the salaries offered to the secondary as?istants are not sufficiently high to attract the men. (2). I'hat the salaries are not sufficiently hiu-h , to secure men of experience in school i maingement and teachers of high attaint ments. (3). The present system has been instituted to save expense. (-I). If the prtsmt system of low salaries and poorly , nuHlified teaohers be altered, district high , schools must be abolished. The position thus indicated is this: The State oannot .fford to pay high salaries for the teaohing . of secondary subjects. The only teachers obtainable for this most important stage of the child's education are those of inferior i attainments, and unskilful in the art of managing ohildren. Cheap teaohers of this low order o*n never be given independent control of classes; they must be under the eye of the master of the primary school, who will ever be at hand to train and to advise. If such a systom as this is altered (by separation and by paying for better men) district high schools must be abolished." A member of the committee remarked that the present system had worked very well in Hamilton and induced the committee to pass a resolution refusing to support the Waihi movement. Why ho Hamilton West Committee should think the present sjstain eminently satisfactory is not easy to discover. Surely it is that they are ignorant of its constitution, or they estimate secondary education at a very low value. Your publication of the letter of Mr Eben Wilson, AI.A, in Saturday's iFsue regretting the position taken up by the Hamilton committee, furnhhes those who are truly interested in seoondary education with miterial to warrant a deeper consideration of the subject. With regard to statements 1 and 2 I would ibserve (while admitting their truth) that they indicate a state of affairs far from satisfactory. How can any system of education be considered satisfactory where no inducement is given to merit ? We wish t) give our children a good secondary nduoition but we are unwilling to pay good men to train them. Dullards, mm of no worth or dignity, of no literary standing. of no experience in the art of teaching—suoh as are to be had even for a low wageare these the men wanted for the seoondary i classes—are these the men who though incapable of taking independent control of classes will yet do well if only placed under the supervision of the headmaster of the primary department? The truth is that such men have no b isiness to be teaching. They will b9 incapables whatever position they are in—whether under the headmaster of the primary sohool or whether working independent of him. But why is it that the State oannot aff >rd to pay higher • salaries to secure the services of capable ; teachers for high school work ' Surely a • un n of University education and long I experience in practical teaching, and such can be got, if the schools were one* . separated is a3 deserving as the master of ; the lower school ? In every country but I J New Zealand, he is considered the more I worthy, for ho is a more highly trained j j man and <jualiiied to take children on I . through the higher fields of learning, a j j task which our primary master oau seldom do. How, too, may it bo asked, ; j tho primiry uiastur going to supervise the work of the high school classes? In nine casus out of ten, he is cjuito ignorant of secondary subjects, and his so-called supervision is a somewhat questionable quantity. The fourth statement, that if this systtin of low salaries and poorly i|ualifled teachers be altered, the district high school must be abolished.is too weak to call for serious comment. Ai for the statemont made at the meeting and reported in your columns, " That the present system has bean instituted to sava j penße," I should like to observe, that far from being an economical .system it is a : most costly one. In consequence of having ' . trespassed so much on your valued space ; on this occasion, 1 will deal with tho j : economic aspect of the system in another j letter.—l am, etc., BEACON, j Hamilton, November 17,