The Leavenworth weekly times. [volume] (Leavenworth, Kan.) 1870-1880, 1877-02-08
THE NORMAL SCHOOL POLICY.

regard those institutions, ike the recently
elected Governor Of New York, "as hardly
worth the money necessary to keep them in
operation" They withheld the usual law
ish appropriations, ard accordingly the
schools at LeaveDwoIth and Concordis
have been for several months closed.
Having at one time and another given to
the educational subject considerable
thought, have arrived at certain convic-
tons, which, now that discussion appears
to be in order, will briefly set forth:
First. The only way to get good service
in the school rooms, as in other fields OF la
Dor, is to pay Tor such service what il is
worth.
Second. The people OF Ksnsas-and the
same is true Of any other people-are not
disposed to pay for better quality of edu-
cational service, when service OF an inferor
quality suits them just as well, and can be
got for less money.
Third. \ great many CT our prominent
educators-J ard Normal Profes-
sors, school supeTintendents, e;c.-appear to
have imbibed the notion that public school
affairs ought OF right and as a matter Of pol
lev, if not necessity, TO be subjec TO the
direction of themselves and their class in
everything except the little matter OF pro-
vidipg the money for their support.
shall not stop to combat this notion, for the
TACT is, our school system is creation Of
law, which puts the management of it al.
most altogether in the hands OF the people
al H. L. IL
school houses? VINO elect the officers
Who select and employ the teachers? Who
fix the scale OF teachers wages? Who de-
termine the number of months school shall
be taught? Who furnish the pupils? The
people.
Thus il is that the fountain of education
al enterprise is in the people, and any plan
or policy based upon the assumption that
the sIream may, can Or must rise highe,
than the fountain is too unphilosophicai &c
merit much notice, no matter how many
persons of note have ct one time or another
heartily endorsed il.
Hence am rot disposed to Join in The
clamor tor Normal Schools.
As means of providing the Distric
Schools to any apprecisble extent with bet
ter teachers, have they not proved to bs
failures? From the older states, which
have Tor years been supporting Norma
schools, still comes the cry, "we want bet
ter teachers"
As a means OF obtaining pedagoguery al
cheaper ratel, have they not also proven
failures? Teachers wages were never 8,
high in those States, prior to the establish
ment Of Normal schools IS they have beer
since.
From the very nature Of things thes,
institutions mus. be failures; but for thu
respect due the many earnest and unselfsf
friends OF education who have taken muct
stock in them-I should have said hum
bugs.
Ii takes man or woman OF brains o
mental vivacity; Of high moral stamina
of thorough culture, with mo- e or less ex
perience in the work, and knowledge o
the best methods OF tuition, and witha
there must be no lack OF professional pride
ard enthusiasm, to be good teacher.
Mind, have Tot the remotest referen;
to the typical country pedagosue of thu
present time, whether product of the Nor
NAL school or otherwise.
In all this making of good teacher, thu
only thing the Normal school proposes
specially TO do, is TO confer knowledge O
the best methods.
But to one having the other gualifca
tons, such knowledge comes intuitlvely, OIL
with the least experience.
In one, without the other qualifications
all such knowledge or any amount OF ii, i:
only as ''the sounding brass or the tinkling
cymbal," when put to the practical test o
the school-roOm.
Good teachers were therefore possible
and dsre say, could at all times be pro
cured, though every Normal school anC
every Normal Professor should at once bt
reiegated to the profoundest Oblivion.
Adverting again 10 the qualifications o'
a true teacher, | will add that when men
and women possessing such qualifications
can fad as constant AID reu,uEerative en-
ploymept in the district schools as in othe,
fields Of labor they may be inclined to &c
there for employment; but when, az Is the
case in Kansas and most other States, all
the paw there is in the calling does not al
ford livelihood on the most frugal foot
ing, we must not think it strange ii men
and women OF the stamp referred too, beg
to be excused.
In his late inaugural address, the Gov
erno- states that the average wages paid
male teachers the last year In Kansas, was
thiriy-thTee dollars and sixty-six cents f.
males, twenty seven dollars and three cents,
making the average of teachers wages,
without discrimination of rex, abou; thirty
dollars per month and as the time school
is taught in the several districts, does not
average six .nonts per annum, all the
pecunIary inducements K ansas offers TO
educators, is something less than one hun
dred and eighty dollars per annum.
Is i: likely though Normal school were
maintained in every county of Kansas, that
really talented, energetic teachers, with the
necessary professional training and esprit,
could be obtained for any considerable pro-
portion of our district schools, otherwise
than temporarily and under purely make
chip conditions, a:..such stinted rates of Cum
pensation.
The fact is, there is altogether too much
Democracy at the bottom of our school sys-
TEN. There never was a community under
the sun sufficiently imbued with the spirit
of enlightenment and. proeress-suficiently
versed in the right educational philosophy,
to direct ard maintain sGccessfuily prop
er system of education. Perhaps the an
cient SpartaDs who, upon The assumption
that the children belonged not SO much to
their parents as to the State, and who ac-
regarded their training, even
from. infancy up, rather as matter Of State
policy than parental duty, came the nearest
10 the mark. With The voting masses even
in this LAID OF bossted enlightenment the
most crude, the most contracted, the most
ideas prevail az to the meaning
and aim of Education. and as to the means
Of carrying it on. What wonder, then,
that system so directly based upon their
suffrages, so largely under their direction,
should be chiefly conspicuous for its short
comings.
All changes in our present educational
should be made with a view to
reform. A great deal of rubbish must be
gotten rid of, and l believe the Normal
schools should 60 with the rect. The OBJ
iections to them that they contribute to
The unwieldiness and compensity of the State
and to the burthens of tax
alton, that tthey give occasion to log.
rolling and gerrymandering tricks of legis-
lation, that their benefits at the best reach
4 class or classes rather than the whole
body of the people-all these, and kindred
valid in their way, should give
Dur Legislators pause before they 60 much
further in the direction OF Normal" legis-
Iation.- J. A. B.
LENAPE. Jan. so. 1877.
THE Democrats will try to pass, under a
Of the rules, before the session
ends, bill providing that the next Con.
yress shall meet March 5. The object of