THE POSITION OF ELEMENTARY TEACHERS. [To THE EDITOR OF THE
" SPECTATOR."]
SIR,—In your article on "The Position of Elementary Teachers," you have, I think, pointed out the source of most of our present difficulties. We have changed our theory of' elementary education without making a corresponding change, or at least an adequate change, in our practice. There was, as • Note that "measures, not men," is now as much out of date in the new Liberal Party as, twenty years ago, it was in that other party which Mr. Disraeli educated. you say, a time when "the end that the Executive and the Legislature proposed to themselves was the mastery by the greatest possible number of children of the Three R's;" and then there was adopted a "mechanical system" which "troubled itself very little with general intellectual and moral training." But this theory has been abandoned. We do not now think it enough to teach the art of reading to children who may leave school with a hatred of books or a taste for nothing but the literature of crime ; and we admit that the farmer was right when he said there was no good in writing if it was to end in scribbling up obscenities. So, for the "Three H's" conception we have substituted that described by Mr. Chamberlain, and take education to mean "the general intellectual and moral training of the young."
This change should bring other changes with it. We must be prepared to give up our impatience (which you so well describe as "at once natural and unreasonable ") with the claims of the schoolmaster, even though "both purse and patience" are much more severely tried than they have been hitherto ; for on our new theory, elementary teachers will play a "large and increasing part in the life of the nation."
Since the last Reform Acts, the fate of the nation is in the hands of "the masses ;" and if they vote in the dark, we may be on the high-road to a fearful catastrophe. We must be prepared, then, to make large sacrifices to "teach our masters" not merely "to read and write," but to do far more than this, to form an intelligent judgment on the great questions that will be submitted to them.
Is our elementary school of the present day worthy of the task we would assign to it? The true answer should be sought, not in the study of time-tables, but of teachers. As you have said, "the teacher is the one embodiment to thou- sands of children of culture, of organisation, of discipline, of decency ;" and, in the words of another authority, Professor J. R. Seeley, "just so much enlightenment, breadth of view, liberality, and magnanimity as he can contrive to impart to his pupils, just so much and no more will they carry with them into the world." So now that political power has been handed over to "the masses," instead of grumbling at the demands of the elementary schoolmaster, we should do our very best for him, and set ourselves to increase his power and influence.
What is the teacher's present position, and what might be done to improve it I will not attempt at the end of a long letter to discuss this question, but will confine myself to a hint from history. Those who first set about modelling our elementary education, especially Sir James Kay-Shuttleworth and Mr. Tanen, did all they could to elevate the position of the schoolmaster. Following German precedent, they made him a servant of the State, and as there were no money prizes to offer, they gave him a claim on a pension. When our system was revolutionised on the "Three H's" theory, the con- nection between the State and the teacher was broken, and (although this involved what seemed to the teachers and to some others a breach of faith), the claim on a pension went with it. Now that we have reverted to the views of the .earlier "educationists," should we not adopt some similar policy to theirs ? All the suggestions of your article seem to point in this direction, and in all you say I am heartily with you. But whatever means we choose, we must set earnestly to work to secure the end, and endeavour by all means, especially by the training of our schools, to render the masses" capable of hearing the voice of reason. Thus, and thus only, may we escape the reign of ignorance and stupidity. Do we fear the hour when it shall be said :—
"Lo ! thy dread empire, Chaos ! is restored: Light dies before thy uncreating word : Thy hand, great Anarch, lets the curtain fall, And universal darkness buries all" ?
If so, let us be wise in time, and try to do more for our masters than enable them "to read and write."—I am, Sir, &c.,
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