Port Tobacco times, and Charles County advertiser. (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1845-1898, 1854-12-28
For the Port Tobacco Times.

MIR, EDITOR. Az the lasl session oI our
Legislature, there was law passed "modi.
flying the Primary School system for Charles
county" The people for long time had
been grievously afflicted with bad Teachers.
the natural consequence Of bad ply, end
without an increase of compensation they
regarded The evil as incurable. Blu. with
this increase of compensation they sssocia-
ted the idea of improvement in the system;
indeed, they regarded it as zone and insepa-
rable." |, was By, natural, therefore, ,bs'
the law Of las. session should have been
hailed, by the people Of the county, as a
"coDsumma,ion mos. devou,ly to be wish
ed" In order that no incompetent man
should receive the appointment Of School
Teacher, The law declared that Gen Chap
man. George Brent, Dr.. Queen, Dr.. Dent,
and Major Stone should constitute Board
of Examiners, "whose duty it shall be to ex-
anime by themselves or by others competent
to examine applicants for schools" Az
in order IN secure the services Of competent
men, the law authorized an additional levy
upon the property Of the county, so as to
allow each Teacher $3O0-sbou, $3.50 or
$40 more than Teachers had been getting
under the old law. No one ever objected
TO the additional levy. Give US good Teach.
ers aud we are willing to pay them. And
no one ever dreamed we should have other
than good Teachers, because we had conf
dence in the Board Of Examiners. We were
aware if they required applicants, as The law
required them, (,hough to be sure it gave
Them some little discretion, bu, i, was never
presumed they would exercise it, 10 present
themselves before their body and undergo
such an examination ss in their discretion
they might have thought necessary 10 test
The ability Of the applicant to teach tho
roughly the elementary branches of an Eng
iish educa,ion-ihat any man who passed
through the ordeal, and bore away with him
certificate Of competency, that certificate
would have been his passpor, to any Board
Of Trustees in the coun.y-ihey could have
respected i'-,hey could have relied on it.
But what do we find now to be The slate Of
the case! Why, the Board of Examiners
10 whom we looked for all The benefits re-
sulling from The new system, have deprived
Us Of the advantages we enjoyed under the
old law. They have taken from the Trus-
lees all discretion, all power, al! control, in
matters in which they were, in most cases,
Immediately interested, and placed ii in the
hands of few irresponsible individuals.
The question that now naturally presents
itself is this /: If The Board Of Examiners in
tended TO have nothing to do with the ex
animation Of applicants, but intended TO de-
Iega'e that power (Which power the Law
whv should they not have given il to the
difsren, Boards of Trus,ees3 Having the
appointments of Trustees, why should they
not have appointed men in whom ihev
could have reposed The power Of judging of
the qualifications Of The man ihs, was 10 in
slruc, their children and their neighbours
children, instead of having asked select
commI.tee, Of no kind Of responsibility
Whatever, standing between their Hnnors
cas-. a stigma upon every Board Of Trustees
in the county. Thew say to them we have
appointed you, but you are not qualified /"
judge Of your Teachers competency. We
have sppolnled men to judge for you. We
won't do it ourselves.
The 9Th section of The law gives The Truss
tees The power Of turning GU. a Teacher 70,
incompe,ency. They canno, judge Of COM
petency but Of sncompetency. There lie an
Inconsistency here will not attempt /" dis
cuss; bu. will remark in reference to the sp-
pointment of Trustees, that if the Board Of
Examiners appointed them with reference to
their ability TO carry on, this portion of the
9th section of the law-ihs. is, to turn GU,
men for their incompetency-would il have
been granting them TOO much power to have
permllted them to judge Of their competen-
cy also?
Blu. now we will view the system in its
practical bearing. We will look now Cor is
benefits. We expect to see a class Of men
in charge Of our schools The like Of which
Charles county has never known. We have
been paying our Teachers heretofore about
$3.50 or $40 without subjec,ing them to
any examination. We now give them $500
and have appointed five Of the best men in
The county TO examine them. Of course we
expect sn improvement. nay. high state OF
improvement. |! is not 10 be presumed tina,
in these .igh, times we will pay men $500
who are willing 10 work for $3.50. We
urged our Legislature 10 increase the com
pensa,ion in order that we might get rid of
our incompetent, men and supply their pisces
with men of Gifferen, stamp. And where
are they? Our Commissioners have men,
and the very Identical men, who have been
teaching Tor $3.50, aud were willing to do
it again, some Of whom never have look ed
into an English grammar, are The very men
who are to take charge of our schools al
salary of $500. Will The people submit to
it !? Never. The Legislature must repeal the
law. The supervisor law, in the lang uage