The Evansville daily journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ia. [i.e. Ind.]) 1848-1862, 1855-12-19
EVANSVILLE, IND. WEDNESDAY MORNING, DECEMBER
OBJ qailp gonrnaL

to Important Questions. tE
The following circular from the Superintend-
ent of Public Instruction, should receive a
careful perusal from all interested parties:
DErpATMEsT or PUBLIC ISsrRUcr1oS.)
-- Il e INDIANAPOLIS, Dec. IL, 1850 {
GENrLENEN OF pHE INDIANA PREss.-Will
you do me the kindness, and the people the
favor, to publish the decisions and comments
on the following questions, that have been
submitted to this Department from Various
parts of the State for solution? ~
| They have been so frequently repeated that
it seems desirable that the answers should be
more generally known, and thus forestall the
repetition of the inquiries:
I. Can teachers, qualified to instruct only in
orthography, reading, writing and arithmetic,
be legally employed? loaf eA aoitaeafs
The trainers of the law evidently contempla-
ted cases in which it would be desirable, nay,
even necessary, il there be school for the
season, to employ teachers with less literary
qualifications than section 149 specifies. If
less qualifications will meet the present wants
Of given district, (the pupils being young, or
but little advanced in their studies) and they
request the Township Trustrees, in the man
ner provided in the lO5th section of the Revised
Sdcool Law, to employ for said district tea
cher competent to teach only the aforesaid
four branches; and if, with full knowled re
of that deficiency, the people still press their
suit, then the end of the law for them is met,
and their wishes may be legally gratified in
accordance with the spirit and letter ofsections
los and lO7 of the aforesaid law.
The State standard of the literary qualifi-
cations Of teachers as fully and distinctly stated
in sections 105 and 107 were intended to give
the people of district. the privilege ofeleyating
or depressing it to suit the exigencies of their
case in any given year. 1t is occasionally
ldesirably, on account of the advanced progress
OF pupils in some localities, to have to have
instruction given in supplementary studies,
not embraced in the said programme;so also
lit is equally important that the people in
other districts, wishing, for obvious reasons,
only the first four branches to be taught in
their school given year, should have their
Ipreicrences gratfied when made known in the
way indicated in the statute @ ea-i
/ consider sections los and 107 as sliding
scale authorized to be used by parties desiring
it, on presentation ofa petition in the manner
Aforesaid However undesirable the sliding
down process may be, yet see nothing in the
said sections limiting the direction of the course
/ The petitioners themselves must be the judges
of what will best suit their circumstances at
the time. The question is, therefore, answered
in the affirmative.
I 1t may be proper to add, by way of practical
commentary, let the examiners state distinctly
in the certificate the specific studies, and that
| it is granted on petition Of the people of the
district, and therefore exonerates the Trustees
and the Commonwealth from all censure in
the premises, and consequently is valid only
for one term, and in that locality. This will
Operate as stimulant to their ambition to
reach the State standard, for if the individual
can teach only in one place. and that too, for
only a single session, without fresh exami-
haton and renewed fee, it will readily occur
to him thae protracted course in that direc-
ton will ultimately result in loss of both fame
and funds. The propriety of this precautiona-
ry suggestion is too obvious to require explana-
ton.
q Who shall fill vacancies occurring in the
district Dictatorship?
| In the absence of all specific provision in the
statute in case of failure to elect, vacancies
occasionsd by death, removal or resignation,
we are left entirely to inferential light. On
the principle that vacancy occurring liz any
inferior office is filled by the proxmate superb
or power in its appropriate department, we
should conclnde that the Township Trustees
possessed the authority to fill all vacancies in
the Office of district Director. They are
authorized by the Revised Statutes, vol. i,
chap. 11O, sec. s, to fill vacancies however
occurring, in the office of Township Clerk and
Treasurer, and 1T would be but a fair and
Legitimate inference that it would also be their
province to do the like in reference to the said
Director he being mere ministerial officer,
local assistant in the educational department
of their Township duties.
/ The appropriate reply, therefore, to the
aforesaid inquiry, seems to be-"the Township
Trustees"
8. Must district Director be chosen by
ballot?
The proper solution of this question involv-
es the inquiry whether district as defined by
the school law, is a corporation in such
sense as to bring the choice of its only officer
as to the mode of election, under the provl-
lsion of the constitution that declares, "all
elections by the people shall be by ballot" Ii
THAT provision of the constitution refers solely
Ito State and township elections, which seems
to be the most natural construction, then the
people of a district may legitimately express
their preference in the choice Of said officer,
Ieither by ballot or viva voce vote, and the
validity of said election cannot be successfully
questioned on that ground, other proceedings
: being regular. That either of these modes of
voting would be considered legal and in no
way impairiRg the lawfulness of the election,
lis q natural and legitimate deduction from the
fact that the Statute itself expressly tolerotes
lsome irregularities in the notice required to be
given of a meeting, in the absence of fraud.
See sec 104 If the trainers of the Constitu-
tion did not embrace school district in the
scope of their vision when they prescribed to
the people and their Legislative Representa-
tives their respective modes Of voting, then we