Sin, — Without going into the question of the relative ad- vantages
and disadvantages of elementary-school teaching as a profession, I should like to call attention to an anomaly that exists in the case of teachers trained for secondary schools who wish for employment in the elementary schools. It seems , that the Board of Education, acting pursuant to the Ele- mentary Education Act, ignores any training but that given in the Elementary Training Colleges, while the Board of Educa- tion, acting pursuant to the Board of Education. Act,-recog- nises learning given by any of the Training Colleges named in Appendix D of the Order in Council for the Register of Teachers, and not only recognises it, but insists on it as a condition of registration for secondary teachers. So it comes to pass that a high-school girl, wishing to become a teacher, takes, we shall say, the Cambridge Higher Local Exami- nation and enters a Training College such as this. There she spends a year on purely professional work, and at,the end of her course gains the Cambridge Teachers' Diploma, and is eligible, after experience, for admission to Column B of the Teachers' Register. During her College course she has-oppor- tunity of teaching in elementary schools. (and here I should , • like to add, my tribute to the earnestness, open-naiinledness, may a likingfOr the work,' so that she wishes, for this or other reasons, to teach- in a London Board-school instead of going on the staff. of, a secondary school: :Mit then she finds that before she can be a fully " certificated " teacher (in the Debi* of the term used in the Elementary School Code) she Inuit the the. Board 'of Education Certificate examination, and that even when she has passed this she 'be called "un- trained."-.Supposing she had a degree, she would be excused the certificate examination, but would- still be labelled un- trained! Those who urge women who have had a high-school edneation to take up elementary work aia profession overlook this difficUlty?) It is surely natural that a woman who has been trained should leSitate to enter a branch of the work -where her training will be ignored, even if she has no objection, as some have, to take . the certificate examina- tion.,—I am, Sir, &c., - CLARA CARPENTER. Datchelor Training College, Catnberwell.
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE " SPE0TAT012.1
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