Buchanan County bulletin. [volume] (Independence, Iowa) 1869-1891, 1877-12-14

there are from 100 to 175 schools, so
scattered that the work Of the county
superintendent is more difficult than
that Of our city superintendents; and
yet for the rural work the salary is ST.
600. or, at most, in few counties, 81,
200. 1t is evident that city superinten-
dents are overpaid, or that the salary Of
county superintendents is too low.
do not think that our rural citizens are
ready to say that they do not want as
high an order of talent in their superin-
tendent as that demanded for this Office
in the city. But the present low rate
Of salary for rural superintendency
tends to weaken and depress this coun-
ty Office. The attempt of our present
law to secure work of this kind for the
county at less rate than that paid in
cities, is both unwise and unjust. Our
rural schools deserve as thorough super
vision as the city schools, unless we pro-
pose to condemn our agricultural popu-
lation to ignorance and contempt, for
crime of living in the country and toll
ing for the general prosperity Of the
State"
We should insist that county superin-
tendents, whose work is laborious and
responsible, shall be paid at rate that
will not disgrace their Office when COM
pared with other county Offices. A GER
tain border county pays its Auditor
5000, while he is not obliged to spend
over one-third Of his time in his Office
The same county pays its school super
intendent only $500 for experimenting
more schools than fall to the care Of
some city superintendent whose salary
is ST 500. Note the figures in an older
county: Auditor, $1,000; Treasurer
and Sheriff, $500 each; Register of
Deeds, s., 800; Superintendent Of Schools
1910 Take another: Auditor, $1,000;
Clerk of Courts, $4,000; Sheriff, $1,000;
Treasurer, $3,5OO; Superintendent of
Schools in it's city, $1,000; in the rural
parts Of the county, with more schools
than the city, $1,000. In some counties
paying their other officers from two to
three times as much as their superin-
tendents Of schools receive, these latter
officers are required to pay charges on
school blanks, and denied stationery fo1
official business. Qn the above, the
county superintendents' salaries must
be reduced by the cost of keeping a
team, keeping all in travelling order, and
other travelling expenses.-P) This is
all wrong. The ghost Of Horace Mann
ought to haunt such counties. May it
be the lot Of their supervisors, in a close
room in Hades, to sublimate birthstone
and dip molten gold with naked hands
.EP) Let us pay and treat county SUI
perindents as other county officers are
paid and treated; as city superinten-
dents are paid and treated, and we shall
have no occasion to complain of -medi-
ocrity in this Office"
Upon the plan of curtailing the force
of county superintendency by dividing
the State into several large districts, the
following extract is offered:
1T is obvious that one superintendent
cannot visit all the numerous and scat
tered schools in our most populous
counties, as early in the term as they
ought to be visited. In view Of this
fact, it has been suggested that we drOI
the feature of visitation, and have the
county superintendent do nothing but
examine the teachers. But this were
lIlc ucClSlOu VI ldI IlltI HUI W CuC Als
wheat because one reaper cannot do the
work within the proper time. Vista
ton of schools by competent supervis-
or is conceded necessity in the city
and we must insist upon it in the coun
try. When we remember that about
one-third of our teachers in any tern
are beginners, often with very made
quate ideas of what they undertake, tht
thought of giving our schools into theil
hands for an entire term, without sin
gle visit from person competent to ad
wise them them in their work, is prepos
ferrous. If our rural schools are not tt
be left to sink into dishonor, as compar
ed with our efficiently superintendeo
city schools, we must provide not only
competent, but ample agencies for theil
visitation. There are at least two ways
in which this result can be reached il
counties with large number Of schools
Such counties can be divided, according
to the New York plan, into two or more
districts, and each placed in charge OF {
superintendent; or the superintendent
in such counties must have one or more
assistants. If a county auditor OF
treasurer can not do the work of his of
fee, he is provided with assistants, to bt
paid, not out of his own salary, but b.
the county. Why can we not be equal
ly just to superintendent in the popu-
lous counties, and repeal the dishonor
ing law that they may have assistants il
they will pay them out OF their owl
stinted salaries, and enact that the.
IL ~ hn q
to an extent that will secure one hal
day of visitation to every school within
the first three weeks of every term
The fact is, in our present plan for rura
supervision we are not only attempting
to get something without adequate pay
but we are trying to secure a resul
without adequate agencies.
Says the objector, This, or anything
like it, would be too expensive for ou
common schools.
This crying expense" conceived il
rags, born in poverty, nurtured IN adver
sity, and trained by melancholy, is th'
dead weight, the great hindrance to ou
common school work. School worl
must be economically managed; truly
the expenses are great But the worl
is also great, and, like any other grea
work, it costs money. But that falls
economy which would stop the vent ant
leave the bung out is the only kind O.
economy to be denounced. The masses
graduate from the district school. Ant
in order, viewed in strictly economical
point, to get the value of the money al
ready being paid for them, they shoul'
be brought up to the most effective
working condition. But when We've,
from an educational point, the grea
need of bringing them up to this condl
tion can not be over-estimated.
Says Prof. J. H. Thompson, Supt. o
the public schools of Des Moines, as re
ported in the Chicago Journal: 20
POO pupils who enter our schools in tn
primary grades, not more than fifty en-
ter the High School, and of these, no
more than fifteen ever graduate. Thi
is not desirable condition, but it is
fact. 1t is true, then, that the distric
schools are emphatically the people
colleges The aim of the true educate
should be to prepare pupils to 60 on
and not up. That is, the effort shoul'
be continually to prepare pupils for &C
tive, practical life, rather than to pre-
pare them for promotion to highe
grades.
TO prepare pupils to 60 out is tn
distinctive work of our district schools
When this is recognized as the peculia
work of our district schools, they vii
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