Mr. Teale, a surgeon of standing, is President this year
of the Aealth Department of the Social Science Congress, and in his address on Monday he attacked modern education, on a partly new ground. While repeating the assertion that children were often unduly pressed by the present system, on which we have said a word elsewhere, he brought forward the special case of the Pupil-teachers. He declared emphatically that they were 'overworked. In addition to preparing for a severe exami- nation essential to their career as masters, and, indeed, neces- sary to their livelihood, which involves a full day's toil, they were employed for five and a half hours a day in the fatiguing -work of drilling little children in their lessons, and maintaining their attention. That is a dreary picture, but is the work much harder than that of any other apprentice, say in a printing-office ? It may be more exhausting, if the Pupil-teacher hates it, but then one object of the whole system is to keep out of the schools those who detest teaching. We must admitjhowever, as we do elsewhere, that a case is being made out for inquiry through the Department itself, during which the severe labour imposed on all school teachers should not be forgotten. Weariness is the root of much of the bitterness, tempered by resignation, so often found in the class.
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