Frank Tate (educator) - Career

Career

In 1889 Tate was appointed a junior lecturer in the training college and became much interested in teaching methods. At the end of 1893, following the great financial crisis, the college was closed, but Tate was given charge of classes in Melbourne for the training of pupil teachers. In 1895 after an Education Department reshuffle, Tate was appointed an inspector for the Charlton district, and spent four years inspecting its 136 schools and incidentally learning a great deal about the problems of small rural schools and their teachers. Tate became a well-known speaker at teachers' congresses and enhanced his reputation as an educationist when giving evidence before the technical education commission.

Tate was appointed principal of the Melbourne Training College when it was re-opened in February 1900, and vigorously set to work to make up as far as possible the ground lost while the college was closed. Tate kept the subject of English in his own hands, considering it to be the basic subject of education, and steadily brought before his students the opportunities for service to the community possessed by enlightened teachers. In March 1902 when it was announced that he had been appointed as the first director of education in Victoria he was only 38 years old. Many men of much longer service had been passed over, but it appears to have been generally recognized that he was the fit man for the position.

When Tate took up his directorship, education in Victoria had long been starved and neglected. The state had been going through a period of lean years, but the new director felt that money spent on education would more than repay itself. Tate felt too that well-educated and capable men and women could not be attracted to an ill-paid profession with little prospect of promotion. He set out to do away with pupil-teachers, to improve the training of teachers, to obtain better pay for them, to encourage school committees, and to suggest to each community that the local state school was not merely a state school--it was their school. New methods of instruction were brought in, the chief object being the development of a child's mind instead of merely cramming it with facts. Tate felt too that secondary and technical education was being neglected and in June 1904 presented a report on "Some Aspects of Education in New Zealand" in which he showed how far behind Victoria was lagging in this field.

In 1905 a bill was introduced in the Victorian parliament for the registration of teachers and schools not administered by the education department. This was passed and had much effect in raising the qualifications and status of secondary school teachers. When it was determined that Tate should attend the conference on education held in London in May 1907 he took the opportunity of making a special study of these problems in Europe and the United States of America. Soon after his return he published a "Preliminary Report upon Observations made during an Official Visit to Europe and America" (1908). In this report he showed that a "ladder of education" was required. Primary schools formed a necessary basis, but on these must be imposed higher elementary schools, secondary schools and agricultural high schools, all leading on to the university or agricultural college. Technical colleges for young people engaged in industry must also be much more encouraged. In a striking diagram he showed that of the money spent by the state of Victoria on education 93.1% was for primary education and less than one per cent for secondary education. In another diagram he demonstrated that New Zealand, whose population was 20% less than that of Victoria, was spending three times as much on technical education and over ten times as much on secondary education.

Tate persisted in his fight for a better state of things and gradually imposed his views on parliament. In the education act of 1910 which Tate drafted, provision was made for the constitution of a council of public education. It consisted of representatives of the university, the education department, technical schools, public and private schools, and industrial interests. Its duties were to report to the minister upon public education in other countries, and matters in connexion with public education referred to it by the minister. It also took over the duties of the teachers and schools registration board. The discussions of this council have proved of great value in the consideration of problems of public education in Victoria. Tate was chairman of this committee, and he also remained in touch with the university as a member of its council.