SECONDARY EDUCATION. 



82t 



thrown in their lot with educationists. But of these it woukl 

 seem that most have conferred a boon on the profession by 

 countenancing' it, and have indeed adopted the occupation as 

 a pis alter. Teaching, as teaching, is not put on a par with 

 the learned professions, although with one obvious exception 

 it is the noblest and most exacting of all. Yet there is no 

 reason to complain of this, for teachers as a body have not 

 the qualifications of a learned profession : why then should 

 they have its honours? As long as there is indiscriminate 

 admission into their ranks, so long will their body be dis- 

 credited in the eyes of the public. In the case of private 

 schoolmasters, there is absolutely no guarantee of any pro- 

 fessional acquirements ; in the large public and denominational 

 schools the appointment of assistants by the headmaster or 

 mistress supplies an assurance of their general fitness for the 

 work required. But who ever heard of a headmaster requir- 

 ing of his assistants a previous study of educational theory or 

 of psychology ^. Though an applicant brings no testimonials 

 to his teaching power, he is planted down in a class-room to find 

 and conquer his own difficulties, which might often be antici- 

 pated and minimised by a brief period of preparatory training. 

 The fact, therefore, that any individual belongs to the teaching 

 prof ession is not per 6e any evidence of high intellectual or 

 professional attainments. If he be a university man he has 

 a certain social status on that account, but a teacher, qua 

 teacher, has no standing in society whatever. In the legal 

 and medical professions, a practitioner is presumed to be 

 qualified for any social position until he proves unworthy of 

 it. But in the case of a teacher, the presumption seems to 

 be the other way, and we find university men almost 

 apologising for being schoolmasters, and entrenching them- 

 selves behind their academic distinctions against the slights 

 attendant upon their profession. 



(3.) There is little or no encouragement to assistant 

 teachers to perfect their professional knowledge and skill. 

 The highest posts are confessedly beyond their reach. In dis- 

 cussing this topic, one thing may be laid down as undeniable 

 — that the headmaster or mistress of a secondary school 

 should be a university graduate. But here the question 

 arises, — Given two graduates engaged in teaching, should the 

 higher degree of one outweigh on the part of the other a 

 greater theoretical and practical mastery of the science and 

 art of education ? The practice has hitherto been that the 

 high degree carries the day. The late Mr. W. H. Widgery, 



