The Union and journal., 1869-08-20
CORRESPONDENCE.
SCHOOLS.

I am pleased that some one has objected to
employing female teachers in winter, for it gives
me an opportunity to show why female teachers
should be employed. / shall not battle for
ladies, but for better schools. If am convinced
that female teachers, are injuring our schools
shall battle against ladies.
Do females who propose to teach qualify them
selves for teachers9 Are they as well qualified
as our male tcachcrsl Very few Of our teach
crs, male or female, qualify themselves for the
positions they occupy; but my experience is
that female teachers are better qualified to teach
all that can DO taught in our common schools,
than male teachers.
Latin and Algebra arc seldom taught in our
common schools. OF the $50 scholars, with
whose studies I am familiar, there are not 10
scholars who study Latin, Algebra, or French ;
hence your correspondents allusion to Latin
and Algebra is not to the point.
Our children will never be taught call that
an active after life will demand Of them, for
that is evidently impossible, and consequently
It is absurd to object to employing male or female
teachers because they DO not teach call an ac-
tive, after life will demand" II we can teach
our children to think, and can give them fair
knowledge Of reading, writing, arithmetic,
geography, grammar, and bookkeeping, We
shall do far better than we are doing now, and
still fall far short Of the impossibilites Of your
correspondent.
Our winter schools differ but little from our
summer schools e.g winter school Of ifty
scholars will have ten large boys and girls who
did not attend in summer. Our schools are con-
tinuous, contain about the same pupils in winter
as in summer, about the same one year as the
year before, and change gradually and slowly.
The winter does not differ so greatly from the
summer school as to require q different method
Of instruction and different discipline II q
female teacher is best for our summer schools,
We do not need male teacher in winter. 1--we
must have male teacher in winter, we need
male teacher in summer. There Is no one thing
which Injuries our schools 30 much as changing
teachers every term. A teacher has barely be-
come acquainted with the scholars, and the
scholars have barely become familiar with the
teachers method Of instruction, when the term
closes, and with another term comes new
teacher with new methods Of discipline and in
struction. The new teacher Is month In 6nd-
ing where her pupils are, and what their dispo-
sitions are In nine cases out of ten the scholars
are carried over the exact ground they were the
term before, and advance but little farther.
The scholars are injured and discouraged by this
process, repeated term after term. Any one
would at first thought say that this repeated
''putting back" process would make them thor
ough scholars, but in fact II makes them lazy,
careless, inaccurate scholars. Every time We
change teachers VIC lose from four to six weeks
schooling. To the mistaken notion that We must
have male teachers in winter and to the agent,
are due the frequent changes Of teachers. We
cannot hire male teachers the year round even II
they were superior to female teachers, for We
have not the money, and II seems to me to DO
folly 10 change every winter. while educators |
regard female rs superior to male teachers.
II We would give female teachers constant en- |