Buchanan County bulletin. [volume] (Independence, Iowa) 1869-1891, 1877-05-11

language would be greeted as model o
diction long after he was dead Or see
ing it announced in the paper that 81 pei
sons had been examined and 33 failed
and in day or two, all his young friend
and associates come round asking, "dit
you get certificate?" How inconsider
ate in his friends, and how unkind in thu
Superintendent. If our schools canno
make wiser men out of the ordinary chill
dren of this county, why not abolish thu
schools? The children we cannot d.
without, but the schools? Aye, there i.
the question.
l tell you Mr.. Editor, that this thing
begins to assume proportions. We art
taxed now till we groan with the burden
and more than half our taxes are to sup
port our common schools. And shall we
because our children cannot answer al
the questions put to them by the County
Superintendent, be deprived of pocket
ing some of this money that is appropri
ated to pay teachers? Now the practical
result is, if one of my children is big
enough, and / think knows enough to
teach in our district, and am the man
to hire the teacher, l cannot put her into
the school, and thereby pocket the 81
dollars per month, unless the County
Superintendent thinks she knows enough.
And. to find out whether she does or not
he takes her into room where there are
no books, gives her sheet of paper and
a pencil, and hands her slip of paper
on which are printed ten questions in
geography and says write on this sheet
of paper your answers. When she has
done that, he gives her another slip OF
paper on which are printed ten questions
in grammar, and another sheet of paper
and says write out the answers to this on
this sheet. So he goes on during the day
with the various branches. And he sits
back there in his chair, stroking his whis
kers and splitting tobacco juice at the
stove, while the poor child, half frighten-
ed and very nervous, works away at ex
amples that have never been asked her in
in school, and that will never come up
during her term of teaching.
Now, take this one pupil and put in hel
the room with 40 or so Others, and compel
each of them to work for himself, and
not allow them to seek any aid from
those older, more experienced or less
nervous than themselves, and imagine
how you would feel in their places. But
after these applicants have been exam
ined, and their work submitted to the
principal, then he takes his time and goes
over each paper and works them, and if
the pupil answers out of the 10 queS-
tons in each case correctly, such an ope
is considered competent to teach any
school in the county, and is given first
class certificate. Whereas, if they fail to
answer six out of every ten of these ques
tons, they are considered to have failed,
and are not entitled to any certificate.
Yet presume that the one who fails can
make better biscuit or bread, and do a
weeks washing better and with half the
grumbling that the one that succeeded
would.
So l say again, what good does the
County Superintendent do? Will some
advocate of the higher school business
answer?
But among the articles that have seen
published on this school business, are
some over the letter G, three times repeat
ed The writer of those articles wants
religion and Goodness taught in our
schools, and for the reason that they are
not, objects to high schools and universal
ties. | take it, however, that he does
not want the Catholic religion taught in
the schools, and that he would be as little
pleased if it was under the control and
direction of the Episcopal church Pre-
cisely what UNCONVENTIONAL religion he
does want taught, he does not say. Now
it has occurred to me, that those of us
who are members of churches, and of
high standing on the official board of the
church, and who have to pay largely for
the building of churches and the support
of the minister, might do this. We could
build our churches so that they could be
changed into school rooms easily. Take
for instance our Methodist church. The
audience room of that church would seat
about 200 scholars with room for each to
work. 1t will seat rs church 400.
Now by supplying the seating of that
church with the patent back folding seat
and desk, and making the seats a little
larger than now, it could be used for a
school room and a church both. When
the desks were folded down, it would
give room for the most fashionably dress
ed of our lady members to come in and
be seated These seats are much easier
than the seats now in our church and aft
cr they were seated the desk could be I'M
folded and it would present handy
place for them to deposit their fans, par
asols and hymn books, and in case the
sermon was too long and prosy, the lord
of the family could place his head on the
desk and quietly go to sleep, and not dis
turb others by his frantic efforts to sleep
sitting upright and trying to keep from
noddng. When they arose al singing,
the desks could be folded and the persons
could stand us erect as they do now in
their present seats. Then our ministers
could be employed to teach our children
as we'll as preach to us, thereby increas-
ing their salary, and lessening our taxes.
This would give each parent, who be-
longs to some gospel organized church,
the privilege of sending his children to
school where he would know that the
moral culture of his child was the same
as he received each Sabbath that he was
able to keep awake to hear the sermon
through.
| have said that this arrangement
would increase the salary of our preach
ers, and lessen our taxes. Some may
dispute this. l believe can show it by
figures They have now, IN this city OF
Independence, two school buildings that
cost about $4,000, and they have just
voted to build another that is to cost &c.,
600, making total of about 5000.
We paid last year, for teachers, about
Sc, 500 Fuel, janitOrs, books, &c, NC,
contingent expenses about $4,000, max
ing about $4,000. | do not pretend to
be exact in these figures. but it is close
on to these figures according to their re-
port The interest on the $50,OOO school
houses would be $1,000; amount paid to
support the schools, $4,000, makes $15,-
600 in one year.
Now, | have heard it estimated, that
our churches cost about as follows l
mean now Just to run them. The build
ings we have, and we cannot do without
them:
Presbyterisn, $1,000
Episcopal. 900
German Presbyterian, 800
Baptist, l,loO
Methodist, 1,4O0
l,Ooo
German Lutheran, TOO
German Methodist, 100
Catholic, l,ooo
Total, $1,000
Now, this Is only approximate, and in
case any one says it is too small will be
willing to make the total expense Of the