Daily Nashville patriot. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1860-1862, 1860-06-29
For tie Daily Patriot
free schools of Nashville
No. IS.

For tie Daily Patriot
Free schools of Nashville
No. IS.
The salaries and grade of the teachers of
the city schools eyince the same kind of in
consistency that is manifest in almost every
thing connected with them. 1t appears from
the records that. from the first opening of
these schools. the Superintendent has, 10 a
great extent, had control in the selection. and
in fixing the grade and salaries.s and vet
this grade and salary business does notseem
to be based on justice. good policy. or hn-
mainly, and seems tC bear little relation TO
the value of the actual services rendered.
Where is the justice or humanity in giving
male teacher twice or thrice as much as u
female gets for performing the same services,
certainly not less faithfully: Where is the
justice or good policy in advancing The sala-
r. of male teacher four, five or six times as
fast as that of a female, teaching in the same
department of the school! Where is the
truth or policy in making sex aud not mel it
the standard of value? This may do among
Choctaws or Mandans. but IL i'll b, fits Nash
VILE Where is the wisdom in making her
low salary a means OF saying that she is de-
graded below her naughty brother man in
| the adjoining room Where is the wisdom in
making female pupils pcrpetually feel the
I degrading consciousness that they must be
taught by one whose services are worth but
/ half or a third rs much as the one that teach
es their brothers, or far worse, the immoral
tendency OF rejecting that their faithful
teacher is treated with cruel Injustice by
| those who claim to be the friends of truth
aud justice? Is this degrading Injustice to
drive the best and noblcst spirits from one OF
the noblest and most important callings in
life, and is their place to be filed 10y those
who act from necessity? After years of faith
ful toll, must females work for scanty pit
| tance that allows them no chance to improve
| their qualifications and advance their situa
tons and earnings, while the male teachers
on high salaries may devote half the Cay TO
other profitable pursuits? Is there no policy
or Justice in allowing female faithtulness to
be rewarded by profit and promotion? Are
strangers to take preference over loug-tgied
merit: Are inferior grades and qualification
to be rewarded for truchling slbserviency !?
Is merit to be punished as a crime, in those
who refuse TO make useless expense TO par
ents. by promoting the sale Of books for
| Crosby, Nichols q Co.. other Northern
| houses? In New York it is regarded as a
great excellence, for teacher to be able to
teach with few books--to he herself the book.
! Is the merit OF the New Yorl, teacher to be
punished as 4 crime in Nashville? No where
| are salaries so disproportionate to merit.
| The New York Board say that the Office
instruction sis peculiarly adapted 10 the fe-
male mind a more graceful and active
| play of the affections, an exhaustless pa
tience, rapid and keen powers of perception,
and q facility of adaptation, are alike char
actcris.ic of the woman, and of the success
full teacher" The Massachusetts Board say,
| "Cheerlulness and enthusiasm, courtesy and
kindness and the power OF easy, quiet, I'M
| conscious influence, are requisites iLdispensi-
| bic to the attractiveaess. order and efficiency
! of the school. Females are endowed with
more bountiFul share of these desirable quail
tiles" The learned DR.. Maryland says, 1T is
| q rare thing 10 find man who has II gift for
! teaching, and it is an equally rare thing TO
| find woman who cannot teach WELL That
| intellectual giant and whole souled philan-
F, thropist, Horace Man, remarks, Refined and
ladylike manners, with mellow and winning
voice, will exert peculiar sway even upon
| the rudest and most unmannerly youth.
III. 81. n
teacher beaming with love for her pupils
and enthusiasm in her noble work" With
such testimony of her superior fitness for her
| calling is she to be shown neither justice nor
| generosity? Oh shame, where is thy blush
Where is that spirit of galIantry which in
stinctively prompts every man of true refine
mcat to give place and preference to female
merit?
| In the language ofLord Brougham. "If we
were deprived of what We learn while under
three years of age, we should be us ignorant
beings as on the face of the globe" If these
three years are thus important, and if they
must be spent entirely under female training,
where is the wisdom in saying that her edu-
cation is only one third as valuable as her
/ brothers. Is MohametaniSm to be the stand
ard by which females are TO be estimated in
Nashville? Oh no, she is to have a Diploma.
VIII a piece Of shcepskin compensate her for
the degradation she is made to feel? But
why not give Diploma to her brothers? Is it
part of that managing policy so visible in
everything connected with the. institution?
| A Diploma being measure of proficiency
| If youth having diploma, should engage
in business, and be found wanting the school
would be weighed in balance, but if they
/ turn him of without such an acknowledge
ment. it can be easily said he was lazy fell
! low aud would not study, &c. But why have
no diplomas been given for the last two
years? We're the young ladies less willing
to study, or the teachers less competent, OF
was it to retain them as book purchasers?
Shall we have Northern or Southern toacI :
ers? say give preference to natives of the
| Stats, if of equal merit, but beware of de-
pending on diplomas from colleges North or
South which only measure merit by
| proficiency in Latin, Grest and
Mathematics, 1t would be good policy TO
have majority of the teachers, those who
have graduated in different normal schools
OF well known merit for thorough elementary
teaching; say some from Philadelphia. New
York, Boston, Cincinnati, st. Louis and New
Orleans. Antioch College and The Norman
School at Lebanon. Ohio, should, by all
means, send a representative OF their excel
lent training. Such teachers should be re-
ouired to bring not only diploma from the