LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.
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[To THE EDITOR OP THE " SPECTATOR."] SIR,—As an interesting correspondence has been going on in your pages upon elementary-school teaching as a profession, and especially as to the advantages and disadvantages of it as a profesgion for ladies, it may not be useless to point out that there is the possibility for ladies—and for men, too, if they can be found—to do a great work in the cause of primary education without adopting elementary-school teaching as a profession, and incurring all the difficulties which may be
incident to so doing.
By the 12th Article of the present Code (that of 1901) it is provided that in making up the maximum time constituting an attendance there may be reckoned time occupied by instruction in a large number of enumerated subjects, whether it is given in the school premises or elsewhere, and whether by the ordinary teachers of the school or by others, subject to certain conditions as to the approval of the inspector making appropriate entries on the time-table. The Article goes on to enumerate certain per- mitted subjects, such as drawing, manual instruction, science, cottage gardening, domestic economy, and adds the general words : " any other subject specially recognised by the Board for the purposes of this Article." It is at once obvious that this Article opens a wide door into the elementary school for the entrance of outside teaching on a vast variety of important sub- jects; it offers an opportunity of great usefulness to many educated persons desirous of doing something to promote the good of those around them; and it promises to confer a great boon on the hard-worked school master or mistress.
In many country parishes, and perhaps in town ones also, this scheme is already at work : and in some cases within my knowledge it appears to be very successful. The plan has many Obvious ad- vantages. The change of place which it permits from, say, the village schoolroom to the squire's or the parson's garden or hall ; the change which it involves from the tired daily teacher to some one not always immersed in school routine,-t-these tend to introduce a most useful variety into the monotony incident to the continuous teaching of all subjects by one or two teachers in one place, and every one must know how valuable such variety
is found to be. •
The provisions. to which I have. referred give scope for that Nature-study of which we have lately heard a good deal; and to my knowledge walks in the fields and lanes are by some ladies ' made the opportunities for teaching the school children some- thing of botany, of geology, of meteorology, and of the meaning . of maps. Such teaching given early to a child may make ' all the difference between' eyes and no 'eyes for the rest of 'life. When the school is small, a lady may, with the assent of: the • Managers and the inspector, begin and carry on the work without any formality ; in the case of larger schools and a larger amount of help, some arrangements for the co-ordination-of the work would, no doubt, be required.
There 'are a great many men and women of cultivated minds scattered over the country who are desirous of- helping :their fellows ; and a widespread network of external school-helpers would, it seems to me, confer the greatest benefits on the children, on the regular school teachers, and even_ on the external' teachers themselves. In- some ways the assistance rendered by this scheme would, I . think,- be greater even than by ladies adopting the profession, of elementary-school teaching ; for the irksomeness of such continuous teaching would, I. suspect, tell heavily on persona accustomed to a different social atmosphere, and they would be in danger of losing that intellectual -fresh- ness which would not be imperilled by the less exhausting labours of an occasional teaeher. Of course, no steps of the kind suggested should be taken in any school without the cordial approval of the teachers and Managers ; but I trust that no head of a school would feel the introduction of such _ assistance into his school as any slur on his capacity or powers. The Principal of a University does not demur to the presence of Professors ; and the head of a large elementary sehool with a body of able external teachers giving their assistance would be in a position not altogether incomparable to that of a University Principal.
A remark of great importance remains to be made. One of the greatest burthens on a single-handed teacher in a small school is the duty of giving instruction to the pupil-teachers after the children have gone home. The regulations generally in force render it incompetent for the master or mistress to delegate to a voluntary teacher some part of the instruction of the pupil-teachers ; but great aid may be rendered by ex- ternal and voluntary teachers, especially in subjects with which the master or mistress may not be specially familiar. And here, too, I am not speaking from anticipation only, for as I write I have in my eye two village schools the pupil-teachers of which come from week to week to a lady and receive from her instruction in French and physics. I will add that some time ago a "Society for the Organisation of Volunteer Teaching in Elementary Schools" was formed, of which Miss Isabel Fry, of Se Oxford and Cambridge Mansions, NW., is the honorary secretary.
—I am, Sir, &c., EDW. FRY.
[Sir -Edward Fry's most helpful suggestion will, we trust, bear abundant fruit. There are plenty of women, and not a few men, of position and leisure in the country who are anxious to do something for the public good, but hardly know how to set about it. , Here is an opportunity for philanthropic work in which the, worker need have no mis- givings as to whether he is really doing • good. Help to the young mind can never. pauperise. It should be noted, how- . ever, that the original suggestion was , not that ladies should become elementary-school teachers merely out of love of the work. Rather it was suggested that here was good and useful work at which well-educated women could earn a living.—ED. Spectator.] [To THE EDITOR OP THE "SPECTATOR."]
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