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CHAP. VI.

DIFFICULTIES TOUCHING INSPECTORS.

HITHERTO, whenever Inspectors have been spoken of in this humble volume, Her Majesty's Inspectors, acting under the orders of the Committee of Council on Education, have been alluded to; and so, in its remaining pages, whenever the term is used generally, it will continue to be applied. There are, however, many other inspectors, appointed by ecclesiastical, or corporate, or lay, or mixed bodies, interested in the great work of education, who may likewise visit your school; or to whom alone the right is conceded, to the entire exclusion of those first named. No observations are here going to be hazarded concerning that supposed necessity, or jealous policy, which debars any such institution from being assisted in its work by the co-operation of a judicious, experienced, and laborious Government officer; neither will any opinion be passed as to the wisdom of inviting and admitting all inspectors, nor whether such repeated formal and public inspections are beneficial, or the reverse. These are matters with which you may honestly satisfy yourself you have nothing to do, when your employers have decided the point; and you will be extremely unwise, if, in that pragmatical,

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conceited spirit which so painfully distinguishes a few of your fraternity, you interfere in the endless dispute; or if, in some wavering of tactics amongst the managers, you perform a Curtian leap into the yawning chasm which party spirit may hereupon have made in your ranks. Notwithstanding, in two particulars you may meddle for the common good, without much injury or annoyance of yourself or others. As it is pretty certain that both you and your flock, your arrangements and success, will be considerably below par, and fail of your capabilities, where no inspector visits your establishment, you should give every active member of your committee no rest, until some fitting person is duly appointed to this important office. Again, you may see enough of the temper, or ways, or purposes of certain inspectors, as well as of the effects of their examinations and harangues upon the children in general, to be fully persuaded in your own mind, that they are either unfit for the appointment, or are doing more harm than good. In such cases, where the mischief is repeated, or the evil inveterate, it may become your plain duty to represent the case fully and impartially at head-quarters, especially where you have reason to believe it is either discredited, unperceived, or uncared for; and so to leave your managers to bear the burden of the supposed evil, or else to make such alterations as may meet the exigencies of the case. But, anyhow, in this last interference, you will of course count the cost beforehand, as well as be sure of your evidence; for you may provoke such

a storm as will make havoc of your comfort, and drive you from your post.

As to the repetition of inspection several times in the year by persons duly authorised by those in authority to visit and report on your school, though you may find the operation in itself to be a troublesome interruption, yet it need not become so, if you will lend a helping hand to the worthy officer wherever and whenever he requires it, and endeavour to get out of him as much assistance, counsel, and instruction as you can. It is surely an ill-wind that blows nobody good; and if you cannot get good, and promote good too, by such an arrangement, whereby a gentleman and a scholar is called upon to look into the condition of your school and advise with you upon its improvement, either you are much to be pitied, or he is unworthy his name. The inspecting-day will, of course, be previously announced to you and your scholars; it will be properly expected, and prepared for; it will be made a holiday, however short the time required; it will be seriously used as a trial of individual knowledge and skill; it will be an entire change of employment, that will rouse and amuse your scholars; it will be one more tell-tale to them, yourself, and the committee about the value of time, and the advanced improvement it has brought; it will be a season of good-humoured, frolicsome rivalry to the young folks, and of thoughtful leisure to yourself; so that, in all these respects, it would seem advantageous to have them frequently repeated. Added to which, if you your

self determine to profit by the occasion; if you are watchful, confiding, and quiet; then you cannot help gaining, upon all such days, much insight into the disposition and moral character of the boys. You will observe many an exemplification of your own defects, and those of your system; you will learn not a little about human nature generally; and you will pick up a few stray facts and bits of knowledge, as well as certain hints about manner, method, and topics, which, eventually, you will find valuable acquisitions.

But however numerous may be the advantages derivable from the visits of the inspector, or, if you will, from a series of inspectors, there is no doubt that they are a fertile source of difficulties with most of the teachers in our elementary schools; that they are dreaded by numbers of them, and hated by more. This is only natural, and what might be looked for, on the part of those careless, inefficient, or wicked persons who, being wholly unfit for the post they occupy, well know that, when the veil is lifted from their doings and misdoings by a skilful hand, their true character and that of their school will surely appear. But where teachers are really sincere and laborious, earnestly desiring to discharge the duties they have undertaken, as well as to improve themselves and the schools, however deficient both may be; there the inspector should be regarded in the light of an experienced friend, who is able and willing to direct them in the right way. And as to most of the difficulties such persons feel in regard to

inspectorial visits, views, and examinations, they are very often fanciful, or relate to matters out of the master's province; or else, they are the necessary consequences of superior tact and knowledge being brought to bear upon the matter-the necessary consequences of that discipline which, whilst it raises the character both of the school and its teacher, is often felt by the latter as a humiliating, vexatious, and confusing pressure. The best way to get rid of such difficulties is to analyse them by means of common sense, truth, and conscience; and when the mind has recovered its balance, when the irritation (not to say opposition or hostility) occasioned by the visit has passed away, then to take advantage of every lesson that has been given, to improve in knowledge, skill, and usefulness. It would be an unenviable task, even if possible, to run up an account of all the difficulties touching inspectors, which are either pretended or professed, for they seem to be as various and contradictory as the dispositions and notions of the complainants themselves; yet, that they may not be passed by as if they were nought, or as if the parties who really feel such burdens deserved no sympathy or forbearance, a few of them may be gathered together under general heads, so as to admit of that criticism which may lead the teacher himself to give them a patient and candid consideration.

1. DISCORDANT OPINIONS AND DIRECTIONS. These are of many varying kinds, according to the different parties with whom they originate, or by whose

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