The Portland daily press., 1878-02-08

board of examiners than the town committee
But what guarantee have we that the Governo
and Council, who have not, and from the yer.
nature of the case, cannot have so close ant
personal an interest in the common schools O
any town, will make more judcious selection
OF men for that position, than they whose in
terests are directly concerned? i?
And add to all the other duties of the Gov
ernor the appointment of three examiners fol-
each county, forty-eight in all, and is it proba
BILE that he would make wise selections iu all
cases. Nay. is it not probable that these men
would be appointed merely on the recommends.
tion of interested parties, without any careful.
regard as to their fitness for the position But
granting, for the sake of argument, that we can
get good men, look at the Inconvenience attend
ing the plan. The sessions are to be held at
three different places in the county, and only
semi-annually. Now, many of our female
teachers are obliged to work for very small pay,
the average through the State being less than
81 per week. If one living in remote part of
the county wishes to teach she will be obliged
to 60 to this board to get her certificate, and
her journey will cost her perhaps more than
she can earn in week, and it is further pro.
posed that she shall pay dollar for her GER
titicate; but of this, hereafter.
The certificates are to be of three classes;
hence the schools must be graded in three
classes. This would be attended with some ex-
pense to the State. Again, they are to be good
for only one year, so at the end of each year we
poor pedagogues would be obliged to make our
little pilgrimages to these great fountains of all
tions should test the candidates knowledge of
subjects, his knowledge of methods of teach
ing and of school government Does our Su-
perintendent pretend to say that any examina-
ton, however thorough, is any criterion by
which to judge of the abilities of teacher
A man may be ever SO we'll versed in all the
subjects taught in any school, may have at his
tongues end all the good theories that are
taught in our much vaunted, but very expen-
sive and thoroughly useless Normal schools;
but if he lack the faculty of governing, the art
of imparting knowledge. or the delicate tact of
gaining the good will and affection of his pu-
pills he must inevitably fail as teacher.
Again he says, "It (the examination) should
be both written and oral" Does he mean that
the answers should be first written, and after
mean that part of the answers shall be written
and part recited? Our State Superintendent
should be able to express his ideas clearly and
in grammatical form. Again, sthe grade of
qualification demanded must be put low
enough, at first to secure the requisite number
Of teachers for the schools of the State"
1t would seem to an or or1inarysmind, that this
would adapt the grade of qualification to the
abilities of the teachers, rather than raise the
abilities of the teachers to the grade of qualif-
cations; and if such be the fact, the plan can
work nothing but evil. And if it is necessary
to put the grade low the first year, what assur-
ance have we that it will not ba necessary to
do the same thing the next year? But no; the
hopeful man continues, "It would doubtless be
possible in three years so to raise the standard
of qualification that thereafter certificate
granted by the County Board should be made
good for life, or during good behavior" We
will not criticise his use of the word should
where he ought to have used could, because he
is State Superintendent of schools, but we will
call your attention to the fact that he proposes,
BY the means above described, to raise the pres
ent low grade of qualification, in three years, to
a perfect standard. If he does not expect in
that time, to raise it to maximum, why does
he have these certificates for the first three
years, good for one year only, and after that
time good for life? And if they are good for
life, of course, no improvement is to be made.
"It is proposed that each teacher receiving a
certificate shall pay into the treasury Of the
State, one dollar" This seems to me hard in
deed. 1 am not aware that any OF the public
servants of the town, county, State or n alton
are obliged to pay tax or fee OF any kind, be-
fore entering upon the performance of their du-
ties, and why should teachers, the poorest paid
and least appreciated of all public servants, be
subject to such tax? We work now for a
mere pittance, subject to many vexations and
ann0yaQCeS, y6t our WISE SUPERINTENDENT WOulG
impose this tax which would be paying the
State for license to serve the State. He con-
tinues, "The money so received to be used in
paying the expenses of the Examining Board,
and of Normal Institutes held for the purpose
of giving young persons desiring to teach an
opportunity to qualify themselves for the ex-
animation
If the State wants such board let the State
pay for it, but don't wiring the cost of it out of
the hard-earned wages of the four thousand
overworked young women who teach our sum-
mer schools. Why should teachers, more than
any other class support it? Is it any more for
their benefit than for the benefit of the public
at large? Surely this law is not intended for
the benefit of teachers but only for the taught,
yet the teachers must bear all the burden.
Once more. sit is not proposed by this law
to take away or abridge the power Of the Com
mittee or Superintendent of towns" and imme-
diately following this we find 'It is proposed
by the law asked for, that no town in the State
shall employ any person to teach in any public
school, who has not State certificate from
some County Board" Here is plain contra
diction. Wa-will not comment upon it. In
olosins wo will suggest to our Superintendent
that the only way to raise the grade of teachers
is to raise their pay. This must be patent to
all. The method he suggests would only in-
crease the machinery, while it would add moth
ing to the results. PEDAeeeUE.