Marshall County Republican. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1856-1878, 1873-12-04

Mr.. EDITOR: There seems to be
some dissatisfaction about the change
which was made by the Board of Edu-
cation in reference to the spoilers and
readers to be used in schools. Some
charge that the Board acted arbitrarily;
others, that it was the Superintendent
who made the change and some say
that they will not buy new books nor
give their old ones in exchange at half
price. These differences of opinion
arise in part from being ignorant of the
law, and, for the benefit of those who
bid defiance to the law on the subject of
text books, or are unacquainted with
its requirements, i will refer to few
Of its provisions:
The Indiana Legislature. at its last
session created the office of County SUI
perintendent, ard directed that the
Township and Educational Trustees Of
cities and incorporated towns, should
meet at the Office of the Superintend.
ent on the first Mondays in May and
September and organize themselves
into a Board of Education; the Super.
intendent to act as Chairman, and to
be entitled to a vote. The State Su-
perintendent advised the County
Boards not to make any changes, to
take effect before the fall of 1874, eri
cept readers and spoilers. The Trustees
met and organized on the first Monday
in September last; and there being no
question but that the law required that
there should be uniformity Of text
books in each County, (there is no diff
ference Of opinion among successful
teachers on this point,) on motion of
the Trustee from Walnut township.
the Independent spoilers and readers
were adopted, with but one dissenting
vote. There were twelve Trustees
present, and eleven voted in the af
firmative. These books will be Used
in our schools for the next three years,
unless the Board, by a unanimous vote,
decides otherwise.
Some school districts have taken
their old books to the book stores
and exchanged them at half price, for
new ones. Many of the old books
would have to be replaced with new
ones before spring at full prices; where
as the new Independent readers, for
first introduction, only cost half price.
The principal objection raised against
the continuance of McGuffey's" spell
ers and readers, was that they had
been in use for the last quarter Of a
century, and that they had long since
ceased to be as interesting as formerly;
and that there was extant several edi-
tions of the spelling book, and many
words were spelled differently in the
different editions, which occasioned
great trouble and annoyance to teach
ers.
Some school districts have held meet
ings and agreed to pay no attention to
the law nor the order of the Board of
Education: they have set up on their
own hook" Whether the law is good
or bad it ought to be obeyed until it is
repealed. There is one defect in the
law which should be remedied at the
earliest opportunity, and that is, there
is no penalty for disregarding the law
or the orders of the Board. The Trus-
tees have the unquestionable right to
compel their teachers not to use any
spoilers or readers except the "1fide-
pendent" 1t remains to be seen
whether they will quietly bock do,cr,
or expel McGuffey's readers and spell
ers from their schools. Let us hope
that all will contribute their mite, to-
wards bringing about uniformity in
readers and spoilers in our Schools
state of things that every sane man
would be glad to see brought about.
T. MCDONALD.