The Shasta courier., 1867-06-08
Sensible Remarks.

In the June number Of the California
Teacher, State Superintendent SWEET make.
the following sensible and manly remarks in
regard to Teachers and School officers
When county officials bring serious charges
affecting the reputation of teachers, they are
expected to have manliness enough to pu
them in writing. and to adduce some evi
dence. The semi-offcial position of teach
er subjects him to the closest scrutiny, ant
not unfrequently to insinuations and slander.
which float around the community, iniurine
his reputation and usefulness and vet they
are only idle rumors, the authorship of which
nobody will dare to own.
! The State Board is not in the habit of re
! voking Certificates without testimony ant
without giving teachers a hearing in self
defense. Whenever County Superinten
dents, or County Board Of Examination
will submit any testimony, other than idlt
rnmor, against the character of a teacher
the State Board will receive it. and act upor
it according to the rules of testimony.
But the State Superintendent does no
mean that personal spite. or narrow minded
notions, or slanderous reports, or idlt
rumors, or whispered charges of infidelfv, ;
/
occasion for reyoking the Certificates O
teachers.
Before the State Board, at least, the,
shall have the right of an impartial hearing
The law does not authorize the State Board
or any County Board. or any County Su
perintendent, to ask whether teacher b.
Jew or Gentle, Catholic or Protestant
Orthodox or IIeterodox, Methodist. Unita
4 RIA eb,-ta T.; d.
the State Board, no question has ever beer
asked concerning either the religious Oh
political opinions of an applicant for State
Certificate. The only two points to be de
termned by that Board are good scholarship
and good character.
The State Superintendent recently re
ceiyed letter from an ex County Super
intendent, complaining that young lady
who was educated at n Catholic school had
received a State Certificate. and gravely
asking, g If Catholic could be allowed tc
teach in our public schools? ?'' The answer
was, that the School Law did not authorize
Boards OF Examinations to make any in,
quries whatever as to religious opinions.
The time has passed when men or women
are to be prescribed on account of religious
opinions. Bigots and sectarians NAV still
characterize all who differ from their own
particular church creeds as :. infidels." but
they must not attempt to carry this iliberal.
ity into our public schools, nor to exclude
teachers from the profession on account Of
liberal opinions. The spirit of the age is
against it.
During the past four years. no evidence
has been put before the State Board to show
that any holder of State Certificate, out OF
the three hundred Certificates issued. has
been guilty of . immoral conduct or
-" habiiual profanity, or intemperance.
SANDERS against teachers and school
officers may be whispered from mouth to
mouth, and ear TO ear, and circulated in
private letters" by those who are too cow
ardly to speak openly but the State Board
of Examination never viii be made Star
Chamber, where, without a chance of self
defense, teacher shall he condemned on
testimony that nobody dares TO give in open
court. The reputation Of teacher is dearer
to him than life and the State Superinten-
tendent does not intend that any one shall
be deprived of it without full hearing in
open court, and unless the evidence is sufi
cient to convict.