At the annual conference of Elementary Teachers, held on Monday
and Tuesday in Lambeth, a rather savage paper on the defects of the existing system was read by the Rev. E. F. MacCarthy, of King Edward's School, Birmingham. It condemned strongly the present scheme of paying according to the number of children who had reached a minimum standard, the virtual exclusion of ele- mentary teachers from the Inspectorships, and the absence of any rule compelling Inspectors to hold counsel together. The first defect, it was contended, lowered the standard of education, as the teachers bad no motive for passing the mini- mum limit ; the second took hope away from the teachers, and. the third allowed too many disifict caprices. All the objec- tions are more or less sound, though the teachers must remember that the object of national instruction is and must be the establishment of a fair average, rather than the high education of the clever. The latter is the defect of the great public schools. On the subject of promotion we are heartily with the teachers, though we suspend judgment as to the method. The service must be made more hierarchical, and better prizes offered to the teachers, if we do not wish every teacher to be at heart hostile to society. They are the bitterest class in the country, as it is.
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