Kelvin Grove Teachers College annual magazine: 1965

• Main Author: Kelvin Grove Teachers College
• Format: Book
• Language: English
• Published: 1965
• Subjects: Kelvin Grove Teachers College - Annual magazine - 1965; Queensland; Turbot
• Online Access: https://digitalcollections.qut.edu.au/2057/; https://digitalcollections.qut.edu.au/6632/1/Kelvin%20Grove%20Teachers%20College%20magazine%2065.pdf; https://digitalcollections.qut.edu.au/6632/

Foreword The winds of change are blowing! To no department of life is this more applicable than to education. How heartening to find education a constant topic of public discussion with some mention in almost every copy of every newspaper. How different from a quarter of a century ago when education was virtually beneath the mention of the Press and when the Minister for Public Instruction (not for Education) was usually the most junior member of Cabinet. Currently we have a flurry over secondary education, particularly on what should be taught to whom. In the primary school, attention is at the moment on reading and mathematics; it will soon be directed -also to science and to art. ·what is to be the effect of these changes on the training of teachers 1 Should changes in teacher education precede changes in the schools? This would be a desideration but also an impossibility for one cannot chart the course until the destination is determined. It may be of some value to contemplate for a moment teacher-training in the past '\ before considering the future. My teachers were all former pupil teachers, who for the five long years of their training were daily at school from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., the times before 9:30 a.m. and after 4 p.m. being spent in r eceiving instruction from the head teacher so that they might pass the annual examination. From 9.30 a.m. to 4 p.m. these pupil t eachers taught a full class, even though some of them were in short pants as they were not long past their fourteenth birthdays. Their recompense in one year was five shillings a week, payable quarterly but in sovereigns! The Teachers' College, then called the 1 ' Training"- College, started to get a move on in the 1920's. As a student of that era, I have first-hand knowledge of it. Our objective was to pass the Class III Examination, an e,x:ternal examination conducted by the Department, particularly in School Method and Music. We waited months for the results. For the former we had to master Cox and McDonald's "Practical School Method", written half a century before; for the latter our instruction was purely in Theory of Music with one singing period a week thrown in for good measure. Art and Craft were not on the time table-we did have a freehand and perspective drawing in pencil. We were dictated a few notes in Psychology and in Nature Study; the women also did Needlework, capably taught, not by a specialist, but by one of the general lecturers of the College. In fact specialist lecturers were then unknown. There was no r egular Physical Training. For a fortnight students attended a concentrated course, the obj ective being· to survive ten days of a daily five hours of physical jerks. The College was a condemned Trades Hall in Turbot ·street which shook and rattled every time a train went beneath it in the Roma Street Tunnel. Two classrooms on the ground floor abutted on to the footpath of one of the noisiest of city streets. One other classroom was one floor up, three others on the third floor- there was of course no lift. Our scholarships were worth £65 to those who lived at home and a princely £91 for country folk. They were reduced to about five shiilings weekly in depression years. And what of the winds of change 1 They are recommencing to blow over Teachers' Colleges. Most disappointing it was that the Federal Government did not adopt the Martin Report in relation to the training of teachers. It does not appear dangerous to predict, however, that before many years are out courses will be lengthened to three years at least in duration and that Teachers' Colleges will be degree-granting institutions, not confined in location to the capital city but erected wherever concentration of population in the State requires them. Editorial The publication of this magazine marks the end of just another year of 51 years of t eacher training in Queensland. Maybe I can speak for both Teachers' Colleges when I ask the question '' Are we prepared for t eaching after two years training ?" The answer to this question lies with each graduating teacher. However, there is no doubt that there is vast opportunity at this College for the enthusiastic and diligent student to train himself to become most proficient in his profession. What of this year and the ' ' Martin Report" ? Nothing tangible has r esulted so far in the form of financial assistance to t eacher training even though it was stressed in the r eport that this is a most important and vital part of our educational system. Its rejection is deplored but one might say that at least it has pointed to the crisis which exists in education to-day. With a population that is becoming more "education minded", I think we can look forward to a brighter and more progr essive future, not f orgetting our own part in the st ruggle. P et er Hooper is to be .congratulated for his excellent cover design and all those who contributed to the magazine deserve a vote of thanks. The '' Meliora" staff also deserves thanks for the hard work done to make this magazine possible. Mr. Brown deserves a mention for the help and encouragement he gave. KELVIN GROVE TEACHERS COLLEGE ANNUAL MAGAZINE ' JOHN ROBERTS, Editor.