The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1885-04-11 00:00:00

CONFERENCE OF ELEMENTARY
TEACHERS.

On Monday the sixteenth annual conference of the
National Union of Elementary Teachers was com-
menced at Norwich. The minutes of the last previous
conference at Leicester were taken as read, and the
thanks of the conference were voted to Mr. R.
Greenwood, the retiring president, for his valuable
services to the union during the past two years. Mr.
Greenwood, in acknowledging the vote of thanks,
said he was much gratified with the general progress
of education. An additional £300,000 per annum for
educational purposes had just been granted by the
House of Commons ungrudgingly; in fact, almost as
freely as if it had been proposed for the Army and
Navy. (Laughter.) Mr. R. Wild (held master of
the Byron and Bright-street school) was then intro-
duced as the president elect, and proceeded to deliver
his address. He commenced by referring to what
he termed the "overpressure system," and ,said a
modicum of success had been gained, inasmuch as
when the agitation was first begun the very existence
of overpressure was strenuously denied, while now it
was almost universally allowed, the only difference
of opinion being as to where the blame should be
laid.- The union had persistently maintained that
overpressure was the inevitable consequence of the
system of payment by results—indeed, long before
the union was formed the effects of the system were
confidently predicted. It was absolutely impossible
that the education of the country could be what all
true friends would like to see it until it was
administered in an educational spirit instead
of upon almost wholly pecuniary principles. At
present we had not an educational code, but a
system for distributing grants, and from this arose
evils which were generally deplored. He found from
personal investigation that school hours in Holland
were from nine to twelve, and from two to four, with
Wednesday and Saturday half-holiday, leaving 26
hours' teaching per week. In Saxony the hours were
from seven to eleven in the summer, and from eight
to twelve in the winter, with two hours in the after-
noon, making altogether 32 hours per week. The
figures referred, however, solely to the higher class of
scholars; younger children had much shorter hours.
In Berlin the school hours were from eight to one, or
five hours daily, with two pauses of fifteen minutes
each at ten and twelve o'clock, and at one all work
was done for the day. This gave 30 hours weekly,
but teachers never worked more than 28 hours weekly,
and in case of illness a teacher was allowed to send a
substitute. If a teacher was ill his salary was con-
tinued to him for one year, but no longer. If, however,
he could manage to return and work for a short time
—a minimum of 14 days—he might then be continued
on the sick list for another year. (Laughter.) In
short, the whole system abroad was purely educa-
tional, and not in the slightest degree pecuniary.
Nowhere did he (Mr. Wild) find a single penny de-
pending on any examination; nowhere did he find
anything like the English system of individual exami-
nation; nowhere did he find any but adult trained
teachers; nowhere did he find any striving after per-
centages or after that miraculous accuracy to obtain
which cost English teachers and English scholars so
much weariness and painfulness; and nowhere did
he find any signs of worry and anxiety. Everywhere,
on the contrary, he found the most absolute freedom
from classification left to the teachers, and every-
where he found work being done regularly,
zealously, and conscientiously. Continental teachers
seemed well up to their work, to have a
reasonable amount to do, to have fair salaries,
to have assured positions, to have a certain
prospect, or a provision for old age. Was it to be
wondered at that they did their work well. Mr.
Wild, after making a series of comparisons, argued
that the State should not contentitself with the degraded
role of a mere:adniinistrator and distributorof grants and
weigher out of pounds, shillings, and pence. The idea
which ought to animate the State was how to best
promote the education and advancement of the
country, by seeking the 'most perfect development
of the people in all their powers. He believed
that the day was not far distant when this
principle would be everywhere recognised, and when
the education code and its administration would be
wholly educational. While he awaited this desirable
consummation, he hoped the era of mistrust and sus-
piciun might pass away, and that a new era be inaugu-
rated of sympathy and confidence. (Cheers.)
On Tuesday the conference was continued.
Mr. A. Traill, of North Shields, was elected vice-
president, and Mr. G. M. E. Hamilton, of St. Mary-
axe, was re-elected treasurer.

Mr. T. E. Heller, general secretary of the union,
in a paper on "The Training of Teachers," argued
that the pupil-teacher system should be modified
so as to postpone the commencement of the en-
gagement of pupil teachers to the age of 16 or
17. A short term of two or three years
of apprenticeship should then be arrangEd, during
which provision should be made for proper con-
tinuance of the pupil teachers' studies for the acquire-
ment of the practice of teaching. The curriculum for
the entrance examination and during the term of en-
gagement should be such as to enable young teachers at
the end of it to pass the entrance examinations of the
universities or some equivalent examinatior. The
examination for admission to the normal school
should be brought into line with the matriculation ex-
amination of the universities, but might be dispensed
with in the case of persons who had passed the latter,
and could show that they had sufficient knowledge
of school management, and some proficiency in the
art of teaching. The curriculum of the training
college should be modified, and should be such as to
carry on the student more and more to the ultimate
goal of a university career. He considered that the
social position of teachers was now sufficiently valued,
and their prospects sufficiently attractive to render
the continuation of money subsidies to some extent
unnecessary.
Mr. Rankiler, of Birmingham, moved that the time
ha arrived when the practice of devoting public
money to training of teachers should be modified with
a view of gradually withdrawing the subsidies now
devoted to that purpose, and that it was inexpedient
that the national operation of the law of supply and
demand should be interfered with in the case of the
teaching profession by the action Of the Education
Department and school board.
Mr. Maidment moved as an amendment: "That
this conference is of opinion that the time has arrived
when none but trained and competent persons should
be admitted to the ranks of the teaching profession,
and that the power of granting certificates should be
taken from the Education Department and vested in
an educational council representing the Education
Department, the universities, and all grades of
teachers, the training college adapting themselves t
the altered circumstances of the times by adopting a
conscience clause extending their curriculum, and by
being affiliated with the universities."
A long discussion ensued upon this amendment,
which was eventually carried, although the previous
question was ultimately carried, as was another
amendment upon it, the result being that another
year will be afforded to the executive for the further
consideration of;the whole question.
A lengthened discussion also ensued Upon the ques-
tion of the direct representation of teachers in Par-
liament, and the following resolution was adopted
npen the subject: "That this conference fully
approves the steps taken by the executive to carry
out the instructions of previous eonferences respecting
representation in Parliament, and urges upon the
local associations the importance of warmly respond-
ing to the appeal of the executive for voluntary con-
tributions to a Parliamentary election fund."
On the reassembling of the conference after luncheon,
Mr. P. A. Nairns, general solicitor of the union, read
a paper on "Security of Tenure," in which he ad-
vocated that teachers should have a right of appeal—
s right to require a statement of the grounds of their
dismissal, and a right to require that they should not
be removed from their offices exeept upon grounds
allowed to be sufficient by some inapartial body, such
as a board of arbitration, constituted partly of
nominees of the Education Department and partly of
nominees of teachers.
Mr. Heller moved a resolution to the effect that
section 35 of the Elementary Education Act (1870)
should be so amended as to make three months'
notice mutaally necessary in the case of head teachers,
and one month's notice necessary in case of assistant
teachers, and to provide for a right of appeal in the
case of capricious dismissal. The resolution was agreed
to.

The annual conference dinner took place in the
evening.

YERFEET IN ONE LESSON.—..Jaterson was not 'ln-
sensible to music, but his gift in that direction was
very limited, if we may judge from this family story.
When he was in college, and the singing master was
gathering his pupils, Emerson presented himself, in-
tending to learn to sing. The master received him,
'and when his turn came, said to him, " Chord !"
' What ?" said Emerson. " Chord ! Chord! I tell you,
repeated the master. "I don't know what you mean,"
said Emerson. "Why, sing! Sing a note." So I made
some kind of a noise, and the singing master said,
"That will do. sir. You need not come again."
A rOST-41.—" What is the use of making so much
fuss over the little eccentricities of others at the
table?" exclaimed Fogg. "Why should humans make
any more bother about such things than pigs ?'": 3yit
you must remember that we are not used to dining
with pigs," said Pingrey, spearing th,o last potato with
his fork:: " Some of us are not, and some of us are,"
replied Fogg. For some occult reason everybody
looked at Pingrey and smiled.
ComroirriNo.—Dr. Garth, the author of the poem
of "The Dispensary,' was one of the members of the
Rit-Kat Club. One night he was lingering over his
wine, and Steele was laughingly reproaching him with
neglecting his patients. "Nay, nay, Dick," replied
the doctor, "it's no great matter, there are some fif-
teen patients I ought to be visiting, but nine of them
have such bad constitutions that not allthe physicians
in the world could save them, and the other six have
such good ones that all the doctors in the world
couldn't kill them."

A WITTY RESPONSYL—A Government clerk applied
to the head of his department for leave of absence,
in order to attend the christening of his youngest boy.
"How old is the child ? " "Four days old." " Very
good," said the chief clerk ; "but two months ago I
gave you leave of absence to bury your wife! What
have you to say ? " For a moment the clerk was
dumb; then, putting a bold face on it, he said; "I
beg your pardon; my little boy is a posthumous
child !"_