Women Workers in Seven Professions | Page 9

be unnecessary to choose a particular
branch of the profession before she has become an under-graduate. A
University career means, among other things, the discovery of new
powers, new interests, and opportunities; sometimes it brings with it the
painful conviction that aspiration has outstripped capacity. The bright
girl who has excelled at school, may find that she is unfitted for
independent honour work: she is not necessarily worse on that account,
but she must substitute some other plan for her ambition to become a
"specialist." The slow plodder who could never trust her memory at
school, may, at College, discover unsuspected powers of investigation
and co-ordination which mark her out for some branch of higher study.
The University, the first contact with a more independent and larger life,
is the "testing-place for young souls": students should enter its portals
as free women, the world all before them where to choose. In many

cases not until the first degree is taken, has the proper time come to
determine finally the profession which is to be adopted. This is the
ideal--for most people admittedly a far away one at present. But even
now, the would-be teacher should not be asked to decide earlier than
this on the particular branch of the profession which she is to enter. The
average pass graduate will do best to fit herself as an all-round form
mistress: there should be no reason to determine in what type of school,
elementary or secondary. The training required should be the same if
the classes were, as they ought to be, of manageable size, and the
equipment in both types of institution equally good. Teachers in both
kinds of school would benefit if the present absurd division between
them ceased to exist. Children under fourteen require similar discipline
whatever their social status: even if the subjects taught are to differ
somewhat--a matter which is controversial and need not be discussed
here--the teachers need similar training and the same kind and amount
of academic education. Until these are secured, there can be no real
equality of opportunity for the elementary school child: only the very
best intellects in the class of 60 can hope to compete with the average
individually educated child in the form of 20 or 30--and this is true
whatever the merits and enthusiasm of the teacher.
Some girls will welcome the larger opportunities for social service
which are open to the elementary school-teacher: others will prefer and
be better suited to the conditions of the secondary school. Clearly, the
student, whose expenses have been defrayed by the Government on
condition that she enters its service, must fulfil her undertaking: but
that should not in itself limit her to one type of school in these days of
grant-aided institutions.[1] The new four-year course makes it possible
for her, as for independent students, to train in the year subsequent to
taking a degree--an essential reform if the old over-strain and rush are
to be avoided. It is generally accepted, and in girls' secondary schools
commonly acted upon, that professional training for one year after
graduation, is indispensable. The teacher is born, not made, but she
needs help if she is to avoid mistakes equally disastrous to herself and
her pupils: she requires some knowledge of child-character, some
acquaintance with the history and theory of education, some leisure to
formulate, some opportunity to consider the aims as well as the
methods of her teaching. We have, perhaps, passed beyond the stage

when it is necessary further to discuss the value and effect of training.
It is still desirable to emphasise the fact that the untrained woman
teacher finds it increasingly difficult to obtain satisfactory and
well-paid school posts.[2] Girls should endeavour by every means in
their power to secure this fourth year at college, which is essential to
their competency and to security of employment. It would also be well
to impress on county councils that their work is but half done if they
continue to refuse a renewal of scholarships for training to those who
have taken a degree.
Students who have graduated with honours will have to decide before
they begin to train, whether they wish to become specialist teachers and
whether they have sufficient intellectual capacity to do so. Generally
speaking, a student who has obtained third-class honours will do better
to prepare herself for ordinary form work; she is not likely to obtain
control of the teaching of her own subject in a first-rate school, though
doubtless she will often get the opportunity to take some classes under
the direction of the specialists. Graduates in high honours will usually
desire to devote themselves mainly to the subject in which they have
proved their ability, and their training must be adapted to their end.
Modern language or English specialists