370 Extracts from Addresses
wish you would name a number.” “I say 773 and we will see if you will
twist that the way you did the others.”
Those are some of the refreshing things that happen to a schoolmaster.
But, gentlemen, it is a serious responsibility to take, and it struck me
anew when I was upstairs, that it is a really terrible responsibility which
lies with the teachers, whether they are schoolmasters or whether they
are university professors. It is an overwhelming responsibility. And ɪ
must say I do not think, either here or in England, the state has as yet
awakened to the fact that the schoolmaster is really at the head of all
professional activities. I say that, judging by the scale of emolument
which is awarded the schoolmaster. And sometimes I feel as if it
were a despairing topic, a despairing cause, because I well remember my
old schoolmaster, fifty years ago, Dr. Benson, saying exactly the same
thing. He was considered a well-off man, he had private property, but
I heard him state that fifty years ago. The State does not realize the
grave responsibility that lies upon the schoolmaster. Well, it is a topic
upon which there is no use in enlarging. We have only to hope that
yet some of your great-hearted millionaires will come forward, or some-
body else, and see the reward that your schoolmasters ought to have,
and raise it to what it ought to be.
In Ireland the condition of primary education is deplorable. The child
can leave school when he is fourteen years of age. The parent generally
takes him away when he is fourteen years of age. He is sometimes left
until he is sixteen, but I think in most cases he is taken away when he
is fourteen. He is then put on to some intellectual occupation such as
herding cattle, or something like that, and by the time he attains the
age of eighteen he has forgotten everything he ever knew. Accordingly,
if you ask a country man or country woman to write you at Dublin
about some matter of arrangements, you will get a letter that you cannot
read. They cannot write so that you can read their letters. I do think
that a great deal of the trouble and tragedy in Ireland would have been
smoothed out long ago, if the education of the people was what it ought
to be. That is my real, sincere opinion.
I dare say by this time you know why we are here, and I, therefore,
will not worry you by repeating that; but as I see a great many gentle-
men here who are connected with the universities, and as every school-
master here is connected with university education in one way or an-
other, I would like to say that we hope that this plan of sending students
from America to the United Kingdom, and sending students from the
United Kingdom over to you, will be done on a large scale. There is
not much use in sending over fifty students per annum, and as regards
the higher degrees, American students coming over to read for Ph.D.,