PAPERS AND CORRESPONDENCE.

[The Committee of the National Society are thankful for any communication likely to assist School-managers and Teachers, or otherwise promote the cause of Church Education; but they do not necessarily hold themselves responsible for the opinions of the Editor's correspondents.]

PUPIL-TEACHERS' OBLIGATIONS AND PROSPECTS.

The following is an Address to Pupil-teachers at the close of their apprenticeship, by Rev. Derwent Coleridge, M.A., Principal of St. Mark's College, Chelsea:

MY YOUNG FRIENDS,-You have now come to the end of your apprenticeship, and have to consider whether you will go on in the way of life for which you have to a certain extent been prepared-in plain terms, whether you wish, or at least are willing, to be a schoolmaster, or whether you mean to seek a livelihood in some other way. This is the most important question which, in all probability, you will ever be called upon to decide: if it is settled for you by the force of circumstances,—which is as much as to say, by the will of Providence,-do not regret this, rather make it an occasion of thankfulness; for then you will only have to do your duty, steadily, earnestly, and cheerfully, committing yourself to the guidance of your Heavenly Father: come what may, you will have no cause for self-reproach. But if, as more commonly happens, you have to make a choice, then you will do well to weigh the matter carefully, to seek for information, to listen to advice, and above all, to ask the help of God in prayer. If you make up your mind to be a schoolmaster, you will probably seek to enter a training college, as well for the advantage of further instruction, as that you may obtain a Government certificate; but before you take this step, you are bound, as a point of duty, to consider the obligations which you will incur; and ought, as a matter of prudence, to consider the prospect which it will open to you. And first, what will be your obligations?

You will, in the first place, bind yourself to follow the calling of a schoolmaster, unless prevented by ill-health, or by other circumstances beyond your own control. Before you enter a training college, you are free to make a choice. You have done your work, and have received your wages. There is no claim against you for further service, and you have no claim for any further payment. It matters not whether you consider yourself to have been well-paid, or ill-paid; whether you could have earned more or less in any other situation; whether you would have been better off, or not so well, had you not been a pupil-teacher. You have had all that was promised, and have done no more than you agreed to do. The advantages offered to a pupil-teacher in a good school are indeed very considerable, the annual stipend being the least part of his remuneration; but whether these advantages have been greater or less, whether they have been improved by diligence and good conduct, or lost by negligence or incompetence, the bargain is now closed. You must look for nothing more, except the opportunity of entering a training college, and so turning to the best account the skill and experience which you have already gained as a teacher. If you resolve to avail yourself of this opportunity, and present yourself as a candidate for admission into a training college, you do in fact renew your engagement. A large sum of money, supplied partly by the Government, partly from charitable sources, will now be spent upon your maintenance and education, in order to fit you for the calling of a schoolmaster; and you cannot, without gross dishonesty, make use of this money, or of

the advantages which it procures, for any other object than that for which it is offered. It does not follow that you will be bound to continue a schoolmaster during the whole of your life, or for any given number of years. Circumstances may occur, which might justify, or even require you, to seek your livelihood in some other way; and you are not expected to fetter your liberty of action in such a case: but if you are truly honest, you will have no difficulty in understanding the nature of your obligation. You will feel that you are bound to carry out the objects of the institution, the benefits of which you enjoy, to the best of your ability. You will enter into the college with this intention, and you will suffer no prospect of present advantage, nor any fancied change of inclination, to alter your purpose.

Similar considerations will make it plain to you that you will be bound to conform to the rules and discipline of the institution with which you connect yourself, because it is obvious that you would not be admitted except on this understanding. You will comply with the regulations of the college, not because you think them necessary or expedient, but as your part of an engagement from which you expect to receive considerable advantages.

Among these rules the most important is that which binds you to comply with the injunctions which you may receive from those who are placed in authority over you, in all matters within their proper jurisdiction. It matters not whether it be the principal himself from whom you receive an order, or one to whom he has delegated a portion of his authority, and who acts in his name. Your obedience is as much due to a. monitor, or other delegate, so long as he is acting in his proper place, and performing the duty which has been assigned to him, as to the master by whom he has been: appointed to his post. If you suffer any wrong, you have your remedy; you may make your complaint in the proper quarter, when your case will be fairly considered:. but you must not refuse to comply with an order merely because you do not think it to be necessary, just, or expedient. In this, as in every other case, you must conform to the rules of the place. No community, from the greatest to the least, could be governed on any other principle. You will see and acknowledge this when you are yourselves the masters of schools, and have pupil-teachers and monitors assisting you. in your work: it is right and necessary that you should acknowledge it now. Till you have learnt to obey, you will not be fit to govern; meanwhile it is sufficient to remind you, that compliance in this particular forms part of your engagement.

On precisely the same grounds, you must resolve to give your best attention to the lectures of the several masters, and to follow exactly the course of study which may from time to time be prescribed to you. You may or may not think a particular lecture well adapted for its purpose; you may perhaps sometimes think that you might employ your time more usefully in some other way: you have voluntarily placed yourselves under guidance, and are bound to comply with the directions which you may receive, not only in form, but truly and heartily. You must remember that you come to a training college, not simply for the acquirement of knowledge, but of such knowledge as will fit you for the business of elementary instruction. Your information had need be rather accurate and well-grounded than extensive; you must know both the principles, and to some extent the details, of the subject-matter which you will have to teach; and the process by which this sort of knowledge is to be gained may perhaps be more tedious and elaborate than would be necessary if your object. were merely to inform your own minds. I hope that you will soon be convinced of this, and will see more and more plainly as you go on that the method of learning pointed out to you is well adapted to the end proposed. But whether you see this or not, it will still be your duty to make the best of the means placed at your disposal for the acquirement of knowledge in a docile and earnest spirit; because you will by your own act and deed have placed yourselves under guidance, and in so doing will have surrendered for the time the right of self-direction in this matter.

Again, as regards the art of teaching, do not imagine that the experience which

you have gained as a pupil-teacher will enable you to dispense with further practice. You will have both to study the science and to practice the art of teaching under special direction, and the two must go on together. The theory cannot be learnt to any purpose apart from the application. This is indeed the leading study in a training college, to which all others are subordinate. You will carry it on in the schools connected with the college under peculiar advantages; but whether you see this or not, you must understand that the cheerful and zealous performance of your allotted task in the practising schools is a duty which you will have voluntarily taken upon yourself.

In all these particulars you are bound to act according to the spirit of your engagement: and I put the case before you in this form because, when you see this to be a duty, there can be no further dispute or doubt about the matter, and because I think it is far better in every way that you should consider what is right, not what you may fancy to be expedient. But it would have come exactly to the same thing if I had addressed you with a reference solely to your own advantage. The rules and discipline, the course of instruction, the mode of life which the students are required to observe, have, and can be supposed to have, but one object, namely, the general welfare. There neither is, nor can be, any private interest to be served by any thing that is allowed or forbidden, given or withheld, done or left undone; all is intended for the advantage of the college at large, and of the students in particular. The whole course, and every part of it, is the result of much consideration, grounded upon long experience, expressly with a view to your benefit. You will therefore act not only more honestly, more honourably, and more gracefully, but more prudently, more wisely, even in a worldly point of view, by simply doing what you must know to be your duty, than by seeking to benefit yourself by any devices of your own.

Hitherto I have spoken to you of your obligations; I will now say a few words to you of your prospects; and here, as in the former case, I believe that by referring to your sense of duty, rather than to your hope of worldly advancement, I shall appeal not only to the nobler, but to the more influential motive, while at the same time it will not be difficult to show that your duty and your interest, even in a worldly sense, really coincide.

Your term of residence in the college will extend to one, to two, or to the full period of three years. If your stay be limited to one year, I cannot hold out to you any strong inducement, beyond the desire which you may feel to fill a post of humble usefulness, to seek the calling of a schoolmaster. You will, in the first place, be entitled only to the lowest of the three classes of certificate, according to which the augmentation of your salary by the Government will be regulated; but this is not the only nor the most important consideration. Your training will in itself be incomplete; so much so, that you will find the knowledge and ability with which you may leave the college decline in most cases, and wear out in a few years, lying, as it mostly does, almost entirely on the surface. Of this I have been assured on very high authority, as well as by the reason of the case; and consequently you will not, under ordinary circumstances, be furnished by the college with a testimonial of competency. Still, if you can do no otherwise, there is scarcely any amount of outward disadvantage which may not be overcome by resolution and force of character; and you will certainly carry with you the best wishes and prayers of those who have had, though for so short a time, the charge of your education. Only, be it observed, that this force of character, where it really exists, will in almost every case have made provision for a second year's training, considering the helps that are now afforded to the pupil-teacher and to the Queen's scholar by the Government; or if unexpected difficulties occur, will find the means of overcoming them.

But you will most probably remain at least two years; and then you will obtain the highest augmentation of salary from the Government which your place in the