Urbana union. [volume] (Urbana, Ohio) 1862-1872, 1869-03-31

But when the teachers salary l- fixed
is the time, trouble and expense spent
in preparing 10 teach taken into cgD-id-
Grafton? Yes, if the teacher is man: ifs
q woman the only thing Usually conzid-
cred, especially in employing primary
teachers, is, who win teach fOr-thc small
est salary? We understand that in g
district adjoining 10 or near This village.
the directors offer twenty dollars per
month for 2 teacher. II she pay four or
five dollars a week for board, where viii
her salary be at the end of the tlmee As
& high a standard OF teachings expected
from a woman, aS 4 man. To pay her
Just salary is the only way 10 Keep up
that standard,
Understand We have Ho quarrel about
the salaries paid gentlemen teachers;
indeed we think them too small, but If
theirs aresmall, what are ours.
Not many weeks since, q gentleman.
who has for years been distinguished
3 educator in this state, having hada wide
experience in all kinds Of schools, re-
marked, that the objection inc had to
female teachers, was, they had no aspi-
ratiOns: give them school of low
grade and they sink 10 its level. II
/ graduate of one of the finest institutions
of learning, woman no sooner becomes
a teacher, than her mind became torpid,
. lnacalNe. " Z DclltA G. anu t-LC ~ Eeti-
ed TO prove, that the sole reason Tor this
( is, she is overworked and uudeTpaid.
/ Men will not teach ia primary schools
! for two reasons! First he VIII not do the
work, and second, men giVetO men bet
/ ter positions. Did any one ever see
man in q school of from sixty to one
I hundred children, ages varying nom SIX
/ TO ten years? No. never. The work is
too hard. Place 4 man in such a school,
pay him a salary so small that il hardly
I by close economy, sutices 20 feed and
clOthe him; make il necessary for him to
spend all his time out of school in some
employment by which to exc out his
/ slender salary; drive sleep from him by
/ burdening him with petty and harass-
I ing cares, and our word for it, he too
will sink TO the level of his school. He
will have no money to buy books, no
/ time to read them ifhe had them. You
/ never saw man in that position, and
never will, so long as woman can be
[ found who are obliged to work for enough
! to keep soul and body together. True
( the soul sometimes becomes ashamed of
/ its famished lodgings, and fees away.
! If you are constantly drawing away the
contents of vessel and never replen-
fishing, it becomes empty. So Of the
smind. Teaching eXhausts, and unless
I it has constant food, the food given by
/ books, the store dwindles away, and
| finally nothing but vacinity remains.
! There must be a kind Of mental electric
! ity, kept in circulation, which can only
! be, by the cOverse of mind with mind,
giving and relieving.
| If the time ever comes when women
will not thus teach, men just to each
other, will make primary teaching res
| pectable by paying respectable salaries.
! Is it just, isit right, is it in accordance
/ with the teachings of the great teacher,
/ is it doing to others as you'd have others
do to YOU, to ask q woman to do work
so hard that a man viii not do ii even
for fair salary, and pay her only
meager pittance?
/ In a city in the Southern part OF this
State, a gentleman, some years ago,
was studying law, and paying his way
by teaching in the public schools at
salary of six hundred a year. Having
finished his studies, and wishing to open
an office, he resigned his position in the
school, and at a meeting Of the Board Of
Education. it was decided to give his
place to a lady teaching in q lower grade
in the same school, and pay her four
hundred. What q saving!l The lady
was sent for, the case was laid before
her. She was told that the school was
in bad condition utterly demOralized,
but that no doubt she could reduce it to
order "Why then not pay me the same
salary you did him, if you think I can
do the work better?" asked the lady.
"That would be establishing q wrong
( precedent, "replied the wise gentlemen
of the Board. All! che pocket is Il very
tender object to touch. The lady took
it, others depended upon her and she
dared not refuse. Is not the injustice
/ plainly seen? Yet this is not an isolated
case.
Let fanatics ofour sex claim the right
of suffrage. We do not ask it. Men
may retain that high privilege intact.
! Let women claim the right to stand in
/ the pulpit, at the bar, or in legislative
halls; we do not ask it, we only ask to
/ be paid for our labor as men are paid.
! If We labor as hard as they, give US the
same wages. IF we labor harder give
us higher wages. five are to be suffi-
cient teachers, do not by meager sala-
ries compel us to starve our minds I'M
til they become dwarfed and inactive.
To teach well we must have access to
books, have time to read and leisure to
digest them; we must be constantly
cUlling flowers and grain from the gar
dens and broad fields of literature and
science. But if we are obliged to spend
/ our evenings in petty cares and labOrs,
/ the hours that should be devoted to sleep
in trying to solve Puzzling questions,
not in mental arithmatic, but in ecOnO-
my, what wonder that we become iucili-
cient, and as the gentleman said, sink
to and even below the level of Our
schools.
It is upon primary teacheres that the
injustice falls most heavily. Is ii mat
ter of query that, as yeers pass, seeing
their efforts and labOrs disTegarded
UOdervalued andignOred, they be
come discouraged, sOUTed toward the
world, in short destrOyedby the
injustice that demands anc eX-
poets intense labor without Just recon-
pense? Women adopt teaching as a pro-
fession; men rarely do. They us it as
stepping stone to the law, ministry, or
some other calling, and have not the
incentive to eXpCel that women have.
With her it is a calling, with him only
pastime.
O., for the time to come when Justice,
in all things, and towards all, whether
men or women, shall be the ruling prin-
ciple. Then win our schools be models
for all lands, for they will be controlled
by noble men and women; who, max
ing teaching a profession, will bring to
the work all their energies; energies
no longer depressed by unnecessary
cares; no longer mnerved by knowing
they are giving their lives in a slow
martyTdOm; no longer haunted by Wis
ions of AlmshOuse as a shelter for old
age; but paid for the labor Of hand and
head, ready to freely give heart and
soul to the great work.
Let the ladies of this association in .
sst on 4 recognition, on q practical rec
Ognition of this Right Of Compensation.
BY so doing they elevate themselves
and ennOble their profession And
knowing the peculiar sympathy teach
ers have for each other, we are assured .
that we will have the hearty cooDera-
ton of the gentlemen Ofthis association.
However unappreciated, ours is a noble
calling and as we look down the vista
of time, we see, in the far future, the
members of two professions, held in
highest honor; going hand in hand, in
the great work fevangCliZing the world;
The minister of the Gospel and the
Teacher of Common Schools.
1t appears that the Missouri Lpgisla-
ture was in to big Il hurry about the rati-
ficatiOn OF the suffrage amendment.
Some one telegraphed them the wrong
amendment, and they ratified il; so that
now the work goes for nothing, and the
Legislature does not rcassemblc until
next year. This shows the bad effect of
ratifying amendment on telCgraphic
messages.