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It has had opportunities in regard to Technical Instruction which Burgh government did not possess. Where a serious attempt has been made to grapple with the subject, there has not appeared any insuperable difficulty in covering the wider area.

The touch between the County Committee and its constituents is perhaps not quite so close as between the School Board and its constituents, all the more as the Committee is, from its method of election, representative only in the second degree. This is an objection, but not insurmountable. In the first place, even at present the constituency can be reached and affected through the local School Boards, with which the Committee is in close and constant touch. And in the second place, reconstituted County authorities would in great measure consist of direct representatives, as will appear hereafter. Besides, under any system of administering a wide area, devolution of certain duties would take place, just as is the case at present in other spheres of County administration.

If there are no proved disadvantages of County

management of Education, there is left a strong presumption in its favour, for it is possessed of manifest advantages fully admitted by all. The only pity is that there has not been hitherto a fuller opportunity of testing its capacities, for all its work has been accomplished under severe handicap and in face of adverse circumstances. That it has done so well is an earnest of how much better it can do.

The difference in the conditions of the urban and rural areas, and in their administration, admits a possibility of an efficient educational body constituted on the lines of the present County Committees, even though a similar arrangement would not work so well in Burghs, or rather is not called for there. The experience of a decade is enough to convince us that we could procure excellent administrative bodies in this way. But we are not yet quite justified in concluding that this is, in view of all the circumstances, the best body. There remain some other aspects of the question to be examined.

CHAPTER VI.

THE TEACHER-THE UNIVERSITY-ENDOWMENTS.

BEFORE summing up the general directions in which our conclusions on local area and management point, we must say a word or two on three related matters-the teacher, the University and endowments. They are introduced here because they seem to require specific mention in a scheme of educational reorganisation.

With the exception of the pupil, the teacher is the most important person connected with Education. That is a truism, and yet its significance is habitually ignored. The teacher is too often looked upon as a more or less selfish person, with class interests not always identical, or even compatible, with general interests. Of course, in a sense, and to a degree, this is so, but it is much the smaller part of the question. The larger and more important part is that the interests of the community are inseparably

bound up with those of the teacher quâ teacher. Everything done to improve the training, the status, the influence of the teacher, is done to improve the education of the community. Education and the teacher cannot be separated. Teaching is one and the same process in its various grades. The age and strength of the pupil condition the teacher's method, but with this qualification, the same attitude of mind is required at all stages. The teacher who is to exercise his office beneficially must have the confidence and respect both of his pupils and of the community. This applies alike to the Elementary School teacher and the University professor.

In the interests of the State the teacher's office must be a dignified one, authoritative and commanding respect. Remuneration need not be lavish, but it must be adequate. The profession must be made attractive to the very best intellects equally with medicine and law. The teacher's position must be so secured that he exercise his legitimate influence and authority, that his mind be free from worries as to ways and means, and that he may be secured

from interference in the discharge of duties. which he alone understands. Neither the State nor the public has a right to prescribe how he is to teach, any more than it has a right to insist upon a lawyer adopting a certain line of defence of his client, or a doctor treating his patient to a particular regimen of diet or a particular course of physic. The State has a right to see that his qualifications are suitable, that his credentials are genuine, that the conditions under which he carries on his work are appropriate. It has also a right to exercise oversight over his procedure, and to test in every lawful way the results of his teaching. But within his professional sphere the teacher must be supreme.

The adjustment of the bounds of the domain of the teacher and of the State will always be matter of discussion and arrangement. No hard and fast rule can be laid down; the principle is as stated, and must be applied in a rational and equitable way. The teacher has hitherto had several grounds of complaint. Questions of remuneration and provision for old age may be omitted, not because they

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