SIR,—it is precisely such cant as Miss Baker's that has
consistently held back the advancement of teachers to professional status and respect with all that that entails in conditions and remuneration. She ought to look at how other professions protect themselves, ask herself when there was last a Royal Commission on teachers' salaries and then ask her- self how many the medical profession has had since that time. Is she aware of the nagging discontent about salaries or of the near-poverty of some young married teachers? Does she not know that the pro- fession in this country has lost more than a thousand of its members in the past year through emigration?
Why are strikes evil? They are often the only way of improving a situation when other methods have failed—as they have. The vocabulary of the pulpit may impress girls of a certain age, but if it continues to impress teachers they deserve to stand frustrated before classes of fifty—and to stand in for the teacher who could not be found.
The method may be deplorable, but less so than the continued existence of the present situation.— Yours faithfully, GEOFFREY RANS
Previous page
