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The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 76

The Inadequency of the Present Provision for the Training of Teachers

The Inadequency of the Present Provision for the Training of Teachers.

Since the meeting of the Council last January the most noteworthy event from the educational standpoint is the Conference held in Wellington. For the first time in the history of the colony, there met in conference representatives from the three bodies that have most interest in primary education—members of the Boards, inspectors, and teachers. One of the chief results of the deliberations of that Conference is the abolition of the rigid individual standard pass, and the substitution in its place of a scheme implying a certain degree of freedom of classification in our schools. It is not my intention to refer in any critical spirit to the new regulations which are now in our hands. Time alone will show how the details of the system will work in actual practice. It is our duty to welcome with joy a change that the leaders of our Institute have been working for during several years; it is difficult to construct, it is easy to criticise; and now that we have the principle affirmed, we can leave the adjustment of details to the future.

Now, what will this change mean for us, the teachers of New Zealand? Will it mean a relaxing of effort, a diminution of work, a less strenuous striving after success? None of these things are implied in the change: but this is implied that greater responsibility is thrown upon the shoulders of the teachers, with possibilities of much harder work and of more careful educative effort, but work and effort under much better conditions. We see in the change that the Department is prepared to place more confidence in its servants than has been the case in the past: in fact, it is willing to give each man under its control the opportunity of working out within certain prescribed lines the powers that he possesses as an educator. But, while this aspect may have its important bearings on the work and success of the teacher, one must not overlook the duty that devolves upon the Department of seeing that its teachers are properly equipped for their work. It is the right of every teacher to be well-trained; few can claim to themselves the privilege of being classed under the category "born teacher"; the great majority have to he made. This "making" implies a slow process of careful work directed towards those ends that experience teaches are necessary to secure success. The young teacher must not be left in the early years of his career to the chance of mere haphazard method. Years of blundering means years of discouragement, page 6 and discouragement is perhaps the most potent factor in crushing energy and in paralysing effort. It is necessary also to combat the idea, still held by many, that anyone can teach without any preparation. In the past the man in the street considered himself quite competent to teach the teacher, quite competent without previous thought or training to educate the young. That there can be any such principle as the application of ideas to the work of the schoolmaster seems to these people an absurdity, and that ideas so applied are verifiable and capable of systematization is beyond their comprehension. Hence the "craftsman" idea of the schoolmaster's work, and the unwillingness to admit it a place beside that of the doctor and the lawyer. Failures in other directions—sticket ministers, ladies and gentlemen of reduced means—seek refuge from the buffets of the world in some retreat with the word "Academy" printed over the door. These people think that they have only to speak to be heard, only to talk to instruct, only to open a book to set all the powers of the mind to work, only to wave some magic wand over the head to stir the brain cells into keen activity. In regard to no other profession do we find such opinions held. No unskilled man is allowed to practise the art of healing, no "bush" lawyer permitted to plead in our Courts. The field of operation in the one case is the human body, in the other principally dry parchments; but the teacher has to labour upon that subtle entity, the mind. Surely, then, his is the work where the most skill is required, and which demands the longest period of probation. It is with this period that I wish to deal particularly in what I have to say to you. I notice that previous presidents have touched upon the question of training only incidentally; I wish to give to it the whole time at my disposal, because I consider this a question of paramount importance. First, I will touch upon the historical aspect, and give you a necessarily brief survey of what is done in other countries. I will place alongside of our system those of other lands, in order that you may see our deficiencies by the method of contrast. I will then outline a scheme which I consider within the bounds of possibility for our colony—a scheme which will lack only one requisite for its attainment—money. You remember how John Buskin, in an eloquent passage at the close of "Praeterita," asks what Britain and France might have been had the Christian faith been held by both nations in peace in the pure air of Heaven. We may equally speculate upon the great future of this nation, if we can only by united and concerted effort intercept some of the gold that finds its way into the national waste pipes, and direct its flow into the coffers of the Minister of Education.

In France the Normal Schools sprang out of the very turmoil of the Revolution. Both in the seventeenth and the eighteenth century the opinion had been held that it would be useless to open schools, unless good teachers had been previously trained for them. The need for these found expression in the report of Lakanal, in 1794. He wrote:—"Are there in France, are there in Europe, are there in the whole world, two or three hundred men competent to teach the useful arts and the necessary branches of knowledge according to methods which make minds more acute and truths more clear, methods which, while teaching you to know one thing, teach you to reason upon all things? No; that number of men, however small it may appear, exists nowhere on the earth. It is necessary, then, that they be trained." The result of this appeal to the National Convention was the establishment of the Normal School at Paris, a school that was to be the type and standard of all others. Men from all parts of France were to congregate here were to go forth to the provinces and establish other schools of training, each subsidiary to the great central school. A great scheme this, although somewhat imperfectly carried out. It built public instruction in France on a sure and firm basis.

About the same time Herbart was labouring in Germany in the cause of proper educative methods. Mere lecturing did not satisfy him. "Education could not merely be taught; it must be demonstrated and practised." Daily for an hour he took the best of his young men and trained them to continue the work he had begun. They became inspired by his enthusiasm, and permeated with his method. Hence the teaching of the Swiss reformer Pestalozzi bore more fruit in page 7 that country than it did elsewhere. After, Jena, the German, following the lead of Queen Louisa, Stein, William Humboldt, and Fichte, placed all hope of national reconstruction in the establishment of a thorough system of national education. The first care of these reformers was the establishment of training schools for their primary teachers. Of the success of the German system nothing further need be said; the Prussian schools stand to-day in the front rank. In Denmark, where education is far advanced and educative needs are kept in the foreground, training schools are recognised as a necessity. State Normal Schools have been established in Fonia, in Jutland, and in Sieland. Here the student passes through a prescribed course, determined by his future aims as a primary or as a secondary school teacher. This distinction is notable. We seem to recognise that some training is required for the primary schools, but for the higher work in the secondary schools no qualification is needed, except a University degree implying certain attainments in arts and sciences. There is no greater anomaly in any scheme of higher education than the English idea that an arts course can give a man the power of imparting his knowledge to others, and that it implies skill to train the faculties of the mind. The people of Denmark are wiser than we are. They insist that the higher a man intends to go in the profession the more thorough shall be his training. Turning to England, we find a great stir in recent years among educationists in regard to this matter. The contentions and arguments of the leaders for reform are well expressed in an article in Vol. 2 of "Special Reports on Educational Subjects," by Mr. J. J. Findlay, formerly Principal of the College of Preceptors' Training Department for Teachers in Secondary Schools. The author laments that "the immense majority of teachers in England have resisted any proposal for devoting time and money to the study of education." Evidently the circumstances at home are somewhat parallel with our own. Teachers in New Zealand are afraid that schools for this study will be established at their expense. Hence we find that at the annual conferences both at home and abroad, while there is much discussion on grants and standards, on examinations and scholarships, on the system of passes and on freedom of classification, there is a strange silence on the necessity for a closer study of the fundamental questions that underly the work of the teacher. It has even been argued that teaching is not a profession, and that, therefore, no preliminary study of principles is needed. England, however, is awakening to her responsibility in regard to the early years of her future teachers. There is a strong demand not only that the primary school teacher shall pass at least two years in the serious study of the essential principles of his profession, but also that the secondary man, as in Denmark, should be required to undergo the same course. Once the only qualification needed for the master whose duty it was to guide and to manage sixth-form boys was the education of a gentleman, implied in an Oxford or Cambridge degree. It was an easy matter for an educated man to enter a schoolroom and control, guide, and direct boys at the most unruly age. Experience and repeated failure have disproved this theory. Conspicuous successes there have been—men who by a kind of intuition and by consummate tact have found little difficulty in successfully coping with all the initial difficulties of the schoolroom. The history of such men as Arnold, of Rugby, seems to contradict the assertions of those who plead for training. But this conclusion is premature, for a close study of the lines and the work of even the best will show that for years before success came many of our noted schoolmasters were mere empiricists, who were learning their business at the expense of their pupils. The headmaster of the Carlyle Grammar School has cleverly satirised the arguments of those who, from isolated cases, conclude that early training is unnecessary and even pernicious. He says: "There is little trace in the lives of even our greatest schoolmasters of any consciousness that questions in regard to the fundamentals of education need consideration. In intellectual ability and force of character our great schoolmasters will bear comparison with the leaders of any profession; but for want of the scientific spirit, and of any comprehensive and systematic study of the theory and methods of education, they have been too often but brilliant amateurs. This is in part the secret of the as- page 8 tonishing argument so often brought against training, that it destroys originality and tends to produce a dull adherence to a narrow groove. Our best schoolmasters have been conspicuous for freshness, force, and originality, and they have been untrained; therefore, let us avoid training, or we shall lack originality, freshness, force!" Starting from a consciousness of the failures of the past, Mr. Hardy pleads for some system to replace the haphazard method of previous years, some system that will tend to break down the amateurishness that has hitherto characterised the profession. It is evident from the 1899 Code that much has been done in Britain to meet the demands for training, and further reform is not far distant. Last year, when legislation of a far-reaching character was being enacted for the extension of University work in London, it was suggested to establish a Faculty of Education side by side with the Faculties of Science, Medicine, and Law; and it has been pointed out that the resources of London offer an unequalled field both for research and for professional training in education. No one will deny that such an innovation will mean an incalculable gain to the teacher of Britain. Such a college will become a centre of educational method for the whole Empire. It is not beyond the dream of possibility that the best of our teachers of the future, instead of playing the role of Macaulay's New Zealander, may find their way to the lecture-room of a London Professor to study the fundamentals of their profession.

One important change in connection with the training schools is being advocated by educationists at Home. The student has under the present arrangements to struggle at the time that he is in training with his arts and science course, and to prepare himself for his departmental examinations. Consequently the main aim of the school is often lost sight of, and the greater part of the time is given to preparation for examinations, which work naturally occupies an exaggerated place of importance in the student's eyes. We find that the Normal School student often looks upon the time given to the practice of teaching as so much waste, and that he will by all means in his power try to secure leave of absence from the hours given to that work. There is much need for reform here. The arts examination and the University course should be finished before the student commences his course of training. Then a year devoted solely to the history of education, to well-defined methods, and to practical application of theory in the practising schools, ought to be sufficient to lay the foundations of a successful career. Under our New Zealand system, this year of his life is usually spent by the young teacher in walking the streets of our town, waiting for something to turn up. Habits of laziness and indifference are easily contracted, and great must be the confidence of the authorities in the moral stability and the firmness of will of our young men when they thus cast them adrift at the threshold of their careers. When the degree has been gained, and the arts course in a sense finished, the student is at a critical stage, and needs some outlet for his energies. This is the proper time to enter the training college. Get together in these schools twenty or thirty young men, and, independently of the influence of the Principal, each one's outlook becomes widened by contact with his fellows. All, of course, become imbued with the spirit of the head, who is a master in the art of education: one from whom radiates an enthusiastic desire for improved method, improved machinery, and unattainable ideals. Grandeur and simplicity are his characteristics, and these qualities presuppose elevation of character and singleness of aim. But apart from this personal influence of teacher upon taught, the students breathe an atmosphere of healthy rivalry that is found only where largo numbers congregate. They discuss, argue, compare, note, eliminate the bad and imperfect, assimilate the good and the true. The horizon of the narrow, mechanical, rule-of-thumb pupil teacher is no longer limited by the shadows of the schoolroom. He now sees that he has entered upon a profession which offers a life-struggle for something that can never be reached, As in all art, so is it in the art of teaching, A man's reach should exceed his grasp, or what's a heaven for"? The student-teacher in learning this has got something more precious than if he were endowed with ability always to top the percentage table in his Board's annual report.

page 9
With your indulgence, I shall now outline for you the best system of training with which I have come in contact. I find it in the Province of Ontario. We are led to expect something striking and original from a people who make and administer a regulation of this nature: "Every Public School teacher shall attend continuously all the sessions of the Institute of his county or inspectorial division, and in the event of his inability to attend shall report to his inspector, giving reasons for his absence." We expect much, and we are not disappointed. Perhaps the most valued feature of the system of this province is the stress laid open the necessity of giving all teachers right up to the University Professors a thorough training in the science and art of teaching. "No teacher of a High or Public School receives a permanent certificate who does not possess qualifications of a threefold nature—(1) scholarship, (2) a knowledge of pedagogical principles, and (3) success shown by actual experience." In order to carry out this programme, splendidly-equipped Normal schools have been established, where students go after they have completed their University course. In this matter of training the system is most searching. Let me quote from the report: "In the establishment of training schools it is assumed that the different grades of schools—Kindergarten, Public Schools, and High Schools—require teachers of different qualifications, whose professional attainments should be gained at institutions specially provided in each case for the purpose. With this view there have been established in Ontario the following training schools for teachers:—
"(1)Kindergarten, including the local schools of this kind, where the training is given for assistants' certificates, and the Provincial Kindergartens connected with the Normal Schools, where the training is given for directors' certificates.
"(2)County Model Schools, where all public school teachers receive their first professional training, and from which third-class certificates valid for three years are awarded.
"(3)Provincial Normal Schools, for the further training of Public School teachers who desire to obtain second-class certificates, and which are valid for life.
"(4)The School of Pedagogy, for the training of those who desire to obtain certificates as first-class Public School teachers, assistant High School teachers and specialists in one or more of the six departments of Classics, Mathematics, English, Modern Languages, National Science, and the Commercial Course. This school also gives the professional training which, with the necessary scholarship and experience, enables its graduates to obtain subsequently certificates as Public School inspectors or principáis of High Schools and Collegiate Institutes."

This scheme commends itself as a complete and thorough one for all professional requirements. The authorities seem to have made the acquirement of a First-class Certificate a matter of the greatest difficulty. Recognising that a man may take a University degree and even go through a course of training, and yet fail when given sole charge of a school, a permanent certificate is refused until the Inspector has reported that the teacher is capable of continuous and effective work. The lowest grade certificate is valid only for three years. If the holder fails to work for a higher, or gives unmistakable evidence that he has mistaken his calling, he must retire and give place to a better man. Compare this with our system: a pupil teacher may show no capability for the work he has undertaken; yet he is permited to continue, much to his own discomfort and to the disadvantage of the school that may be unfortunate enough to get him afterwards as an assistant. In Ontario not only are the incapables weeded out, but there is a chance for the capable man to work his way to the highest position in the profession. Nearly all the inspectors are men who commenced at the lowest rung of the ladder, and who, having climbed themselves by slow degrees through all stages, are capable of sympathising with the men still engaged in the drudgery of the lower schools. Who will deny that this is a good plan? Should not our Primary School teachers look for promotion to the Secondary Schools? Some people are still antiquated enough to consider that there is a great difference in kind between the work of the primary man and that of his fellow-worker in the secondary page 10 school. In Canada the difference is considered to be one in degree only—in fait, in literary and in scientific attainment. Given that the primary man has the necessary scholarship, he is the one who has the first right to vacancies in the secondary schools. As has already been said, each department has its own training colleges, but there is no difference in point of method. All grades up to the University are controlled by the same central authority, and thus overlapping and isolation are prevented. The results of the system are thus summed up by John Millar, B.A., Deputy Minister of Education. The system of education in Ontario is worthy of a free people. Its fruits are not difficult to discover. Among the boys and girls of the backwoods, as well as among those of the largest cities, there is a hungering and thirsting after knowledge. To equip the children for the battle of life by giving them a moral and intellectual training is the laudable ambition of the parent in every part of the province. An enterprising, industrious, and law-abiding population controls the destinies of the country. Proud of their province,! hopeful of the Dominion, and attached to the British Empire are the people of Ontario. No narrow patriotism characterises the inhabitants of Canada. The educational problem has been worked out in such a way as to destroy largely the evils of bigotry and intolerance. To this cause is attributed the success in welding together people of different nationalities and of different religions." And let it be noted that great emphasis is laid on the fact that the schools are under the care of men thoroughly equipped by years of training to carry out the high ideals of the promoters of the system. We in New Zealand may or may not be on a par with this favoured province of Canada. All that I wish to emphasise is this, that education in Ontario is built upon the foundation of a solid and systematic training of all teachers, primary and secondary. It seems to be axiomatic that any system of education that omits such provision cannot be productive of the highest possibilities. Ontario teaches us that training is the first thing to be provided for in any national scheme.

In Australia each colony has its own regulations for the control of the primary schools. All, more or less, depend upon the pupil teacher system for a supply of trained teachers. I have been in communication with the several Boards, arid will summarize for the Council the replies I have received.

The inspectors of Queensland seem to be well satisfied with their present supply of teachers. The only regulation bearing upon training reads: "Head teachers are required to give special attention to the training of their pupil teachers; in the instruction and management of a class." General-Inspector D. Ewart, in his last report, refers to this very matter of the supply of teachers. He strongly favours the present system, and seems to imply that it is well suited to the needs of his district. He writes: "There are no adult teachers to be had for the mere picking up. They do not grow wild in the bush, They are not to be found wandering about in the ranks of the unemployed. They have to be made, and to grow, and to be waited for. We have made them out of pupil teachers all the time, and we must continue to make them that way until a better way is found; and a better way will not be sought for till the present way fails. Three of the eleven inspectors are natives of the colony, and ex-pupil teachers of our own training, and they are not less valued than their brethren for attainments, school masterly skill, activity of mind and body, judgment, tact, worldly wisdom, and common sense. The directness of the training of the pupil teachers in the actual work of the schools, according to the ordinary conditions of colonial life, seems to peculiarly fit our needs, and to make up largely for the want of a more philosophical training, and I confidently appeal to the best of the teachers who have come to us from the training colleges of the home lands if they have not bad to let go something of what they were taught is scholastically correct in order to meet their work here." As long as the Chief Inspector holds these opinions, Queensland remain without her training colleges.

In New South Wales the pupil teacher system is supplemented by partial training in the colleges. There are two such schools—the Fort-street Training School and the Hurlstone Training School for Female Students. Into these page 11 schools are received annually three classes of candidates—namely:Scholarship (Candidates—" Thirty pupil teachers whose term of service has expired, and who have obtained the highest marks among those passing the entrance examination. Half-Scholarship Candidates— Twenty pupil teachers whose term of service has expired, and who have obtained, after the first thirty, the next highest marks among those passing the entrance examination, and are prepared to pay half the cost of their maintenance while in training.Non-Scholarship Candidates Other pupil teachers who have passed the entrance examination, and are prepared to pay the whole cost of their maintenance while in training."

The obvious criticism on this system is its limitations. Looking up the New South Wales reports for 1898, I find that there were under the Department 608 pupil teachers, while in the two training schools referred to above there were only students, all of whom had won scholarships. Thus only a small percentage of the pupil teachers of New South Wales receive any training outside the years of apprenticeship.

In the days of Gladman, Victoria led the way in respect to the teachers she produced. Many of the young men who had been trained in the Melbourne School found their way to New Zealand, and received some of the best appointments. Their training was manifest from the skilful and efficient manner in which they conducted their classes and schools. When depression came to Victoria, teachers suffered with the rest of the population, and the training schools were crippled. In the days of prosperity provision had been made not only for a large central Training College in Melbourne, but also for district training schools, not exceeding twenty in number in various parts of the colony. The pioneers of the system seem to have made most elaborate provision for the training of the young teachers of Victoria—a system which has not been realised in its entirety. It is intended, however, to open a Training College at the commencement of this year for the faming of pupil teachers who have completed their course. The present regulations will then be superseded, and a new order of things established. A point to be emphasised is this, that the authorities recognise strongly that the pupil-teacher system is most inadequate for the equipment of efficient and capable teachers. The Victorian inspectors voice this belief in their reports. Mr Frank Tate wrote in 1895: "The schools should be sowing seeds of fuller, broader, gentler life and be fostering them, should aim at turning out children on the road towards becoming cultured men with beautiful manners and noble instincts, men who are capable of sound thought, and who are imbued with high ideals of life and life's work. Now, schools can only do this when they are staffed with teachers who are educationists, not school shopkeepers, who are professional men and not mere artisans, who are shepherds for love of the sheep and not for the sake of the wool and fellow." Again, at the third annual Conference in 1897 we find him advocating that arrangements should be made for a steady supply of trained professional teachers, and at the conclusion of his report for 1898, as Inspector of Schools, he respectfully draws the attention of the Department to the following points:—
"1.There is need of some special training for young teachers in the work of the country school prior to their appointment to the charge of such schools.
"2.Many teachers would benefit materially if they could occasionally visit approved schools under the direction of the inspector.
"3.The magnitude of the inspector's routine duty leaves him almost no time for what could be made his most valuable work, viz,—Giving stimulus and direction to teachers' ideals and methods."

In South Australia the schools seem to be be staffed with men who know their Business. Some of you will remember how enthusiastically Mr. White, of Dunedin, spoke of the Adelaide schools when he returned from Australia three years ago. Now the beginning, the middle, and the end of the South Australian public school system was one man—the late J. A. Hartley. Satisfactory as was the system of training for the colony, the Inspector-General yet supplemented it by giving his Saturday mornings to lecture on method to teachers, young and old, who assembled in Adelaide from all the surrounding districts. Student teachers at present spend page 12 at least twelve months at the Training College, studying half their time id teaching the other half. A proposed extension of the present system will come into force this year. Facilities are offered by the University which will enable every trained teacher in future to acquire a degree in Arts or Science, together with a diploma in education. We thus see that both Victoria and South Australia are unsatisfied with their present means of supplying trained teachers, and are proposing and carrying out reform in order to provide for these beginners the means of gaining knowledge of method, and to give the facilities for experience in the application of theories.

We are all well acquainted with the several arrangements made by the Boards [unclear: of] New Zealand for the training and supply of teachers. The vote for Normal schools was taken away twelve years ago, and it is no exaggeration to characterise that saving as the most seriously retrograde step in the history of our system. In [unclear: two] out of the four districts the training schools were continued, the expenditure in them unfortunately coming out of the maintenance allowance. In the other districts the Boards depend for the supply of trained men on the pupil teachers, Many of these secure their E or D certificate at the end of their four years' [unclear: course;] they are then cast adrift until some suitable vacancy occurs; then they continue [unclear: in] gain experience as masters of small country schools, or by acting as assistants in large schools. He who is fortunate enough to obtain an assistantship has [unclear: some] chance of gaining further knowledge of method and of gradually getting an [unclear: insight] into the finer requirements of the profession. But consider the case of an arena man who passes from a bad school conducted by an incompetent or lazy master [unclear: to] a small country school, where he has in a measure to work out his own [unclear: salvatica] Surely the memory of a year's work in the training school where all the [unclear: angularities] ties were rubbed off in contact with other students would now be an ever-bubbling well of inspiration. Such A man begins his professional career severely handicapped. The only outside help comes from the inspectors; and it is no doubt [unclear: due] to their kindly advice and skilful guidance that so many men who commence [unclear: under] such adverse conditions as those described above rise gradually to the front [unclear: rank] Unfortunately, our inspectors have been so hampered with the preparation [unclear: of] percentage tables and reports that one short day in the year is all the time [unclear: a] teacher can reasonably expect to get from them for the more important work [unclear: of] direction and guidance. On the other hand, many men who promised well [unclear: have] in such cases stagnated and failed. Devoid of innate vitality and native [unclear: resource] and removed from the chance of outside influence, they gradually work into [unclear: a] groove, and by the sheer force of dogged perseverance manage to pass through [unclear: the] annual parade day with a fair amount of credit. But in the smaller districts [unclear: the] worst feature of our present system is not altogether such a failure as the one [unclear: I] have outlined. The best of our young teachers are made to suffer, and this [unclear: from] no fault of their own. The status of the teacher is even in danger of [unclear: being] lowered. After passing through his pupil-teacher course, many a lad has to wait for two or three years before securing a permanent place. During this period [unclear: of] waiting, the most precious years in a young teacher's life, there is danger [unclear: t] there will be a serious deterioration in the direction both of scholarship and [unclear: of] professional skill. Having this prospect in view, the parents of our best [unclear: pupils] often discourage them from entering the teaching profession, and thus the [unclear: quality] of the supply is likely to deteriorate. If our system were a truly national one, [unclear: ll] had the same opportunities for training, and if our young teachers had [unclear: the] doors of the schools in all parts of the colony open to them, then this danger [unclear: would] be considerably minimised. Some of the Boards have made wise provision [unclear: t] prevent their pupil teachers from drifting in this way. In Wellington they are [unclear: ow] called upon to retire at the end of the four years, They remain as ex-pupil [unclear: teachers] at the senior salary, and are promoted to assistantships as opportunity [unclear: occ]. Practically the same system holds in Southland, in Grey, and in Marlborough. [unclear: Is] Taranaki the evil above referred to came under the notice of the present [unclear: Inspector] and he added the regulations in regard to ex-pupil teachers. Ex-pupil [unclear: teachers] remain for five years, and are retained often in a different school at a salary of [unclear: £47] page 13 a year. Mr. Spencer writes that this plan works very well; the regulation in regard to practice in different schools is one that is commendable as a step in the direction of widening the experience of the beginner. It must be evident to every-one that the Boards ought to make some arrangements to prevent their future schoolmasters from being out of employment during the most susceptible years of their lives. It is a period of danger to the unemployed—a period when one's best efforts should be given to strenuous and careful work.

Turning to the future, let us examine the possibilities of this colony in this matter of training. It is true that to pull down is comparatively easy; to build up, much more difficult. But to construct schemes on paper is not beyond the powers of any of us. To move the official mind to put such schemes into actuality is a much more serious business. Indirectly we have criticised our present system by putting it beside the records of other countries; directly by showing its defects, as evidenced by observation and experience. First I see no hope of any change until the training of teachers is administered directly by the central department, and not left to the Boards. The teachers of the colony should be relieved of the suspicion that the continuance of Normal Schools is conditioned by reduction of salaries. The two schools at present in existence should be better equipped, better endowed, and more generously staffed. Colleges in Auckland and in Wellington ought to be sufficient to overtake the work of the North Island. The latter should be especially equipped to undertake the higher work of training, a school where the best students from each province may be sent, by means of scholarships, to complete their training for secondary work and for the work of inspection. More than this is possible. We notice that each of the Colleges of the New Zealand University has its special faculty: Auckland has music, Canterbury has an Agricultural College, Otago is proud of her Medical and Mining Schools. Why should not Victoria College emulate the example of these? And what better special function can she assume than to foster within her walls the Science and Art of Education? Were she to do this, Victoria College would become, in a real sense, the Alma Mater of the teachers of the colony. The goal of the students in these Colleges ought not to be the D Certificate. No one below this standard should be admitted. To teach the Science and Art of Education and to foster professional enthusiasm and genuine love of teaching ought to be their aim.

It will probably be said that this scheme is purely Utopian, and that such aspirations will never be realised within the experience of the present generation of teachers. My answer is that educational reform is in the air, and we know not what a few years may bring forth. If we put aside all thoughts of future possibilities the question still remains, "Can nothing more be done with our present I machinery?" I am sanguine enough to believe that much can be done, and that with little additional expense. The new regulations open the door for the realisation of reform in many directions. I believe that inspectors have in the past been labouring in many cases to improve the efficiency of their schools and teachers, too much by criticism rather than by guidance. Let us look at the matter from the teachers' standpoint. Many of us who are headmasters are entrusted with the are of young, untried teachers for the first few years of their careers, suppose we set these beginners certain work to perform, and at the end of a stated period examined and criticised the results. If we did nothing further than this, would there be much to wonder at if the expected improvement did not result from the periodic criticism? But no Headmaster works on such a plan as that. He knows the difficulties before the young teacher, and seeks by daily guidance, by the force of continual example, and by criticism that is not felt as criticism, to lead his pupil into the path of success. The inspectors have themselves complained that they have not had time to give such attention to those of their teachers who need it. We hope that the new regulations will set free these gentlemen, who are our masters in method, to do much more of this educative work. The time will come when we will see the Inspector entering the school of a man who has not been altogether successful and saying to him: "I have looked into your career as a teacher and find that you have not had many opportunities of seeing good work. I have page 14 come to spend a week in your school—not to report on your teaching, but to shot you how I think your school might be conducted. You sit at the table there; all I ask from you is to observe and to note."

Fellow-teachers, would not such help do more for the cause of education than loads of reports stored away in the shelves of our education offices? But you ask, where is the week to come from? Saved from the time now spent in minute examination of the school that has "efficiency" written on the faces of its teachers, and in which good work is evidenced by the very tone of its class-rooms. Further, in the centres where there are no training schools Saturday classes may be organised to assist young teachers anxious to learn the principles of their profession. In conducting these, the inspectors would get willing help from the older and more experienced teachers in the district. In this way much could be done, much suggested, much inspiration given. The time and trouble thus expended in guiding the beginner will be more than compensated for by the absence of the necessity for fault-finding in after years. This was what I meant by guidance: criticism may or may not be constructive; sympathetic help always is.

These are but suggestions. None of them may be brought to the actual test of experience. Well, what of that? We know that the great body of teachers in the colony are doing efficient work, even in the face of great initial difficulties. What we want to secure by a reformed system is the possibility of more efficient work without friction, and without undue difficulty.

Vote of Thanks.—On the motion of Mr. Grundy, seconded by Mr. T. B. Gill, a vote of thanks to the President for his excellent address was carried by acclamation.

Revision of the Constitution.—On the motion of the President a Sub-Committee, consisting of Messrs. Stewart, Eudey, Holmes, Gill, Macandrew, and Law, was set up to consider proposed amendments to the Constitution, the said Committee to report when ready.

Adjournment of Council.—The Council then adjourned till 2.30 p.m.