The Living Age

offeuce is loss of increase of his salary cational expert, then our teacher would at the annual revision. I do not ex- submit his difficulties to him for adaggerate when I say that the hopes vice. Or he was an enthusiastic footand fears clustering round this annual ball patron, and then the method of increase of salary make hundreds of procedure was different. In any case, teachers and thousands of children by reason of insistency, by constantly wretched. If, as is usually the case, hearing the name, or by constantly seehe obeys the Board official (who, be it ing the person, the man in power came remembered, is not chosen for his edu- to be habituated to the existence of cational ability, but for his power of such a teacher. And when the next organization), he does so at the ex- appointment came to be made, pense of his educational conscience. surely as one asks for such and such a The recommendations of the Board in- soap, or for so-and-so's matches, the spectors are necessary to promotion; magnate suggested the name that had hence their approval is the matter of been so well advertised. the greatest concern to teachers. For Now the point is that such a teacher as the system of large factory schools might be, probably would be, the worst makes the number of head-masterships and not the best of his class. I am not few, and the number of assistants supposing that many other teachers many, and, further, as head-masters would not willingly adopt the same inconveniently fail to die or retire ex- means, if they dared. But among the cept after many years, the applicants hundred or so qualified applicants, at are out of all proportion to the va- least a few would be too honorable, cancies. In my own town there might too considerate of their profession, to be in a year three or four vacancies for advertise in this way; and, educationheadships; and for these vacancies ally speaking, they would probably be there would be a hundred or so quali- better teachers for it, at least in their tied applicants. I appreciate the diffi- relations with children. But for this culty of making a choice; and the fatal they would pay the penalty of obease of adopting the political device, scurity. I confess that the question of namely, that of accepting the nomina- promotion is difficult; and sometimes tion of a member of the Board or Ed- I have been driven out of pity for the ucation Authority. But this involves authorities to suggest that the teachers a good deal of backstairs influence and should appoint their own heads. Of what teachers called unprofessional one thing I am certain, that they would conduct.

choose more wisely than the authoriSome teachers made no disguise of ties possibly could. For, let it be retheir intentions. Meaning to get on, peated, the practical art of teaching is they frankly adopted the methods nec- a “mystery" in the medieval sense; it essary. They sought out the powerful is a craft known only to craftsmen. individual Board inspector, or political And nobody can judge so well as the magnate, and unblushingly importuned craftsman who is and who is not him for favors. Canvassing disquali- qualified to be a master craftsman. fies, technically, and, of course, such a The policy of building large schools teacher would know better than ask is probably due to the causes that have openly for promotion. But he would established the factory system in manfind out the favorite church or society ufacture. Apparently even the Soor weakness of his victim, and then cialists of the day are in favor of them, play upon it. Perhaps the political though they inveigh against the facmagnate thought of himself as an edu- tory system in trade. All the argu

ments against the factory system in mandments. The vocabulary alone trade are applicable to the factory might have been Sanscrit in some resystem in education, together with spects, so unintelligible was it to the many more. The head-master of a boys. Had there been no examination school of four or five hundred children at the end of it all one might have is not an educator or even a teacher. done one's best to open the minds of He is simply an organizer, a kind of the children to something like religious clerk of the works. His personal rela- feeling. But what was expected as tions with the children are small and the result of the instruction was not a ineffective. He must deal with them dawning spiritual faculty but the repein companies and classes.

tition of the Commandments, and a The alternatives of small schools are, dictionary acquaintance with the I am told, too expensive to be thought meanings of the words. For all the of. Then let us not pretend that edu- religion in it the lesson might have cation is possible, but frankly say that been history. If that is what the presthe modern schools are bad.

So many

ent educational dispute turns on, then people are willing to admit that this the present dispute is much ado about part of the system is radically wrong, next to nothing. Of religious teaching, and that part of the system is radically I repeat, I have seen none in any wrong; and yet to object loudly if one Board school, or, for the matter of says that the education given is bad. that, in any elementary school at all. The tree, they admit, is thorn, but the But, what is your remedy? it may fruit is grape.

Surely this is not so. be asked. I have no immediate remIf almost every detail of the system edy. It is not my business to have is bad, the outcome is bad too. It will remedies, at least from the popular be a great step towards reform when standpoint. I have already said that we admit it.

the two vital factors of education are I may be allowed to say a few words the teacher and the child. To my mind about Scriptural instruction from all discussions that do not realize this practical standpoint. Properly speak- are beside the mark. So far as the ing, I have never seen any Scriptural child is concerned the teacher is at instruction that was different from or- the mercy of the State. He cannot dinary instruction. The Scripture syl- control the sources of supply; he must labus was on the same plane as the simply accept what the State puts into geography syllabus. There were so his hands. But once there, it is the many statements to be taught, so many business of the teacher to say not words to be explained, so many verses what shall be done to the child but to be learned. That was all. And how it shall be done. As a teacher. very dull and difficult work I found it. I admit the right and obligation of the My last experience was with a class State to define the objects and even of boys, aged between six and seven, the subjects of education; but I deny and numbering fifty or sixty. The entirely the right or capacity of the syllabus of instruction for the first State to define the methods of educatwo months of the school year was tion. That is an art, and the collecthe Lord's Prayer and the first three tive control of methods of art is fatal. Commandments, with examples of their At the same time, I see also the diffibreach. I put it to any rational being culty of the State in this respect. So whether he could explain to boys of many teachers are below even the avthat age the theological niceties of the erage intelligence of a State official. Lord's Prayer and the first three Com- Hence some direction and control seem

are

was

to be necessary.

Yet, in so far as ship. Of course my case is far from they exercised,

the teacher being singular. In the next class-room degenerates.

to my own taught a man aged nearly Here we get into a vicious circle, the sixty. He had been a head-master in traversing of which makes the head a .country school, and

a most giddy. What is the way out? I sug- conscientious and painstaking teacher. gest that the only way out now and at His salary was less than mine. any time from the educational muddle People to whom I have told these is to raise the standard of the teacher. facts have said, “Surely, the case must Only by infinitely slow degrees can we be exceptional." Yet when I first went raise the standard of the child. By to the city where I have taught for rapid degrees we can raise, and have twelve years, there was not a single raised, the standard of school buildings assistant teacher who was receiving and such material; but the work of £120 a year. Things have, in fact, imraising the second vital factor of edu- proved, but my own case is still excation, namely, the teacher, has ceedingly common. Others have said: scarcely begun. And the method of "Oh, but teaching is such a noble proraising that standard is not difficult. fession that teachers ought not to want As Cromwell raised a splendid army high salaries. See what a privilege by the simple device of paying high it is to mould the minds of the young." wages, thereby commanding the ser- To this the obvious reply is that man vices of the efficient, so the modern cannot live by teaching alone. Teacheducational system could command su- ers are like other people; they desire perior teachers simply by paying for to marry and to set up a home; now them. Loudly as the Union of Teach- and then also, however incredible it ers has complained of the economic may sound, they like to go away for position of teachers, the general pub- holidays, to have friends and pleaslic does not yet realize the facts.

ures; even, most extraordinarily, to As a concrete instance, I may cite buy books and to see the world. How my own case. In my five years' ap- much of this can be done on one hunprenticeship as candidate and pupils - dred and twenty pounds a year? If teacher I received the total sum of the ideal teacher were a recluse, an as£30, an average of £6 a year. Out of cetic, a person to whom all knowledge this I had to find my books. My two and experience came by nature, this years in a training college cost me an sum might suffice. But the very oppoentrance fee of £18, my clothes, books, site qualities are demanded. Above expenses, and keep during holidays. At all, he should be a traveller, if he is twenty-one, therefore, after seven to know the world he teaches; a freyears of teaching and training, my quenter of the society of many minds, financial account with the nation was if he is to have insight; a learner from this: Received £30; spent, considerably things and books always, if he is to over £100. From such a Spartan train- keep his fount of knowledge fresh and ing one would naturally expect a fairly everflowing. And for these things large salary. I received in my first money is necessary. year £80.

By annual increments of The result of the present scale of £5, promised but not always given, I salary is obvious enough. The most arrived, after seventeen years of teach- sympathetic of managers whisper in ing, at the magnificent annual salary private that the teachers are a poor of £120, with the chances of a hundred set of creatures, more in need of eduor so to three against a head-master- cation than capable of giving it. We

are a poor lot. I do not deny it. And so long as parents hesitate between sending a lad into teaching or into drapery, or a girl into teaching or domestic service, the elementary teaching staff will remain what it is, poor, incompetent, mean and dull. I am told that the fool of the family is now made a teacher. I can well believe it. If, like Solomon, I had a thousand children I would only make them teachers who were fit for nothing else. And how many times have I heard teachers say the same! Indeed, of the hundreds of elementary assistant teachers I have known, I have never known a single one who did not bitterly regret having been a teacher. This, of course, applies doubly to men. Women teachers, as a rule, exchange the profession of teaching for a noble profession; but men must remain. Thus it is that boy pupil teachers are hard to obtain, and girl pupil teachers so easy. For girls it is a hard life, but, with luck, a comparatively short

For boys, it is not much better than penal servitude for life.

But what would raising the standard The Monthly Review.

of payment do? In the first place, it would considerably reduce the bitterness now so common in teachers' councils;, no small thing, considering the fact that that bitterness is imported into the schools. Secondly, it would gradually attract to the profession men of a superior type, who now find scope for themselves in journalism, private teaching, law, engineering, secretarial work, and the like. The leaven of even a little culture would serve to raise the average teacher's estimate of his profession. Thirdly, the mere granting of the raised wages would be an earnest of the State's belief in education, and in the nobility of teaching; a belief which, so far, in practical issue, may be regarded as little more than a pious opinion. I repeat still again, that the problem of education is the problem of the teacher. Of all Acts, and proposals for Acts, the genuine educationist asks only one thing-does it make for the improvement of the teacher? If yes, it is well. If no, then let the country rave as it will, no improvement will come of it.

one.

ON WINDY HILL.

CHAPTER I.

HOW BLAIR OF BLAIR CAME RIDING

NORTH

They called it Windy Hill, and rightly. Stark to the moor-top winds it stood, a sharp, steep hill, pointed like

spear; between the clumps of heather grew patches of short grass, which a few lack-lustre sheep cropped diligently, striving somehow to keep wool and hide together.

At the foot of the hill there stood a house, once fortified against all comers, but now half-ruined. From of old it bad been named Windy Hall, though it was sheltered in a measure from the

east wind and the north. Two people only lived here-Sir Peter Lynn and his daughter Barbara-and folk in the valley-lands wondered how the two kept soul and body together. For it was known that not all their pride of race had brought them riches, though adherence to the Faith had long since brought them extreme poverty.

They found life hard, if the truth were known, until a stranger rode that way. It was near to the gloaming of a winter's afternoon, and the sun was dipping red behind the crest of Windy Hill. Barbara had come from the neglected garden-full now of dry and frosty stems of last summer's weeds

had stayed for a moment to look down cret which, told to disloyal ears, might the valley, shading her eyes with a well have cost Sir Peter his liberty, if brown hand. She saw a horseman, not his head. spurring a hard-driven mare straight Her trust was justified, as the trust up the road that led to Windy Hill. of clean, hill-bred folk is wont to be.

Women, they say, can scent love as "I am from Derby," he answered swallows scent the coming summer. simply, "and the Prince--" It may be so; at any rate, Barbara felt “Yes, yes, go on!” she said impetusomething stirring at her heart that, a ously. She was shading her eyes with moment since, had not been there. one hand, as if to see more clearly, as

She watched the horseman gallop up she looked at him, whether his news the steep.

She saw his horse falter as were good or evil. it neared the farmstead gate-falter, "How shall I tell it?" he faltered. and stumble, and fall prone.

“It is not George's men that have bidThe rider jumped to the ground, den him retreat, but jealousy." deftly lighting on his feet, and stooped The girl's hand closed about her to feel the mare's body.

eyes. She seemed like one met by 'Twas her death, or mine," he said, sudden news of death-death of some looking up into Barbara's face with a well-beloved-and the gray, winter's regard that was at once sorrowful on look of the moor behind her was all in the mare's behalf and anxious on his keeping with the silence of these two. own.

It was in keeping, moreover, with the She approved the man. Because she silence following the retreat at Derby, had lived in solitude, with the hills and

three days ago. the streams for tutors-these, and Sir “He won to Derby--and retreated ?" Peter's teaching that the Faith and the she asked pitifully. Cause were life's only serious issues- “No!" for the first time the stranger she was not afraid to look him in the held his head high, and turned it half face. Gravely, proudly, with a curi

about as if listening for the skirl ous innocence and fearlessness, she of Stuart pipes, the swish of Stuart measured and approved him.

kilts. "No! The Prince did not re“Has the Cause sped ?" she asked. treat-his Highlanders did not retreat

Muddied, haggard with long riding it was the cursed leaders of the clans and long anxiety, the stranger might who had their jealousies." well have had any reason for escaping “Ah God!" said Barbara, wistfully. from pursuit. He might, for instance, She was looking at him steadfastly, have done murder, or have held up a and her brave eyes were dark as the coach on some neighboring heath. hill-tops when the rain-mists lie on Barbara did not pause to make sur- them. “There was jealousy? You tell mises; she knew that the friends mili- me there was jealousy?" tant of the Cause had marched far The man's teeth showed like a wolf's, down toward London, and any rider, though at usual moments he was spurring with danger close following comely and well-bred.

"It was my the hind-hoofs of his mare, must be a Lord Murray again," he said. "Murcombatant on one or the other side. ray has been stepfather to the Rising Instinctively, seeing the fashion of this since its start. I wish he had died in stranger, hearing his voice, she knew Scotland and had been buried there, that he was on the side of loyalty, and out of harm's way." trusted him with the secret that Sir A woman's heart is a deep well to Peter Lynn was well-affected-a se- fathom. Out of her grief for Prince

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The Living Age, Volume 250