EVOLUTION OF QUEENSLAND TEACHER. 737 



one of these aasociations the veteran chairman counselled all to join 

 and get rid of swelled-head by meeting their fellows and learning their 

 hitherto unsuspected excellencies. He related a sort of parable of a 

 new minister of a Scotch kirk, who asked the ruling elder how many 

 true Christians there were in the somewhat, numerous congregation. 

 " Weel, mineester, there's just me and Sandy — and — well whiles, I 

 hae my doots o' Sandy."' That, he said, was what we wanted to alter. 

 "We all had our "doots of Sandy — we had none of oursel's, and had 

 not any need to pray for a ' guid conceit' o' ourselves." "When the 

 history of the last two decades in primary education is written, the 

 work of the Teachers' Union and its branch associations will be found 

 to have done more than all other forces combined in breaking down 

 that isolation which is so detrimental to the real advancement of 

 teachers. A very strongly marked change came over the spirit of the 

 teachers when passes to technical college and other lectures began to 

 be used — the old isolation was at last completely broken up, the dry 

 bones were stirred, the peculiaj, reserved, semi-crank individual came 

 out of his shell, and has never returned to it. In these lectures, and 

 in the courses at Gatton, the influence of our present Senior Inspector, 

 Mr. J. Shirley, was specially valuable. 



To the forces already mentioned must be added the eflEects of the 

 teachers' volunteer corps, and its later development, the cadet move- 

 ment. If there was any tendency to priggishness left in the younger 

 men this will, I think, effectually shake it out — or, at least, out of 

 those who are wise enough to come within the beneficial influence of 

 the movement. And if we have still any lingering " doots of Sandy," 

 let us join some of the many courses at the agricultural colleges, and 

 have our swelled-head systematically cured. 



Some years ago it was hard to interest the young teachers in 

 courses of study to break up stagnation ; now the pendulum seems to 

 have swung just as far the other way — there is a feverish rush to cram 

 up subjects and get through the exams, as quickly as possible. This 

 is due to a conviction (a mistaken one probably) that examinations 

 are to be the main, if not the only road, to promotion. The training 

 college and the university, when they come (and they are at hand), 

 may be relied on to cure some of these delusions. But the old order 

 is changing, and much that has served its day, and served it well, is 

 passing. My paper is intended to emphasise the fact that we are ripe 

 for both the changes named, and that the present officers and teachers 

 have contributed their quota to the work of preparing for the day of 

 greater things. I have seen the teacher grow from a mere drudge to 

 a valued and esteemed officer of the State. It has not been done 

 without hearty co-operation all round. In particular it has occurred 

 in consequence of the sacrifices of the early teachers, and of the help 

 of the officers of the Department in realising the aspirations of the 

 teachers. Queensland has a body of trained teachers without the 

 adjunct of a'training college. All training is not done in a college: 

 a teacher's training is many-sided, the result of many influences. I 

 have endeavoured to show in turn what these were, and how they 

 have evolved our present stamp of teachers, and how they have pre- 

 pared the way for the training college and the university that are 

 t) mould the teachers of the future. 



