Litchfield enquirer., 1869-12-23
Our Common Schools.

In an excellent article on Common schools the Sentinel regrets the indifference of the public to that greatest of public in-
 terests. We propose to examine < briefly the causes of that indifference in our in mediate locality, and to refer to- the only remedy that seems practicable. %%a The first difficulty is owing to the fact that the wages of teachers are scarcely equal to that of ordinary unskilled labor.
 We see from the Anhdal Report of the Board of Education for 1869 that the aver age cost for wages and board of each of the eight men teachers employed in the town of Litchfeld was $29.3s per month; of woman teachers, $19.27 per month. In the Litchfeld Center District it appears from the last accessible report that the schoolmistress for the winter months was paid $30 month; the schoolmistress for summer months, $20. Reckoning their board at the lowest possible figure ($3.50 per week. it would leave the latter $5, the former $15, net, or just about the wages of an Irish servant girl, on an average, s0hils employed; and it must be recollected that the term of employment covers only half the year. The average wages of school masters ($29.3s, per month, including board) is below the average of farm labor CTS. Nor are school teachers wages to be much increased with us under the new law. $4,000. have been appropriated by the town of Litchfeld for the support of schools du- ring the coming. year. There are 211a dis tricts in the town, each of which must have 30 weeks school per year, making the average weekly appropriation to each school, ,$6.2O. Deducting the expenses for fuel &c.,, the weekly amount to be appro- priated for teachers board and wages will berabout $5.50; and the average net wages allowed teachers, from $3 to $3.50, per week. While; therefora the wages paid teachers have been, and are likely to be, below those ordinarily paid for unskilled labor, we have no right to. expect any spe- cial competence for their duties. Men and women cannotsafford to educate them selves for school teaching as business. They only take to it as make-shift. We are not surprised to see. therefore, from the last annuatreport of the State Board oi Education; that of the thirty-seven teach ers employed in Litchheld during the year, sereutesn had never taught before, and only eigM had taught in their respective schools two terms excessively. Such facts necessa
 rily, imply ineompstsncyl as the genera rule. aasct F :. se seIfse ei IL aff ssss4i.
 Another and probably controlling causl of this indifference is owing to the fac
 that theapeople of the village of Litchfield
 the natural center of the town school sys
 tsm, are pecuniarily interested in keeping thescomnaon school expenses down to the lowest possible figure, because large ma
 iority have no personal interest in those schools. The last enumeration of scholars in, the two village districts, reported to the Board of School Visitors. show totafol 164 scholars between the ages of and 16, while the average attendance at the public schools is only thirty- -sAs. In otlier wosds
 the parents of about three-q quarters of the children in the village are expected to sup. pertia school from which they receive nc benefit. Farther, we doubt whether the village residents who send their children
 to thes sGommon schools pay one e,hundredth paft of the taxes the town receives from shs village ag The result from such a state offsets is just what we might expect. The eommon school in our Center District is tc