The Forest Republican. [volume] (Tionesta, Pa.) 1869-1952, 1878-05-29

best talent offered and some districts
base the salaries upon the grade OF
certificate. Although we regret that
a few boards of directors in the county
appear to be influenced, in the choice
of teachers, by the indomitable cousin,
nephew or niece, and sometimes by the
Almighty Dollar, and being clothed
with almost absolute power, it appears
to them perfectly right that their
special preference should be respected.
Others have respect to personal ap-
pearance. Their teacher must be ex-
actly five feet eight inches in height,
fair complexion, so as to ell the des-
criptive list, or he must belong to the
right church, and if he does not, he
can't teach our school. individuals
and communities and boards of direc-
tors have their particular hobbies.
These views must be respected, and he
who is too short must have his boot
heels built higher; and he whose com.
plexion does not fill the requisition
must resort to modern discoveries.
Away with such judgment Let the
test be intellectual and moral qualif.
cation.
Ne,O Ho,tses.-Two new houses we're
put up during the year, one in Kings
ley and the other in Green Indepen-
dent. The one in Kingsley is we'll
located, substantially and tastefully
built, and supplied with improved
patent desks.
O,a- Buildings. II feel delicacy in
calling attention to this important sub.
ject, which was in the past so memora-
bly, and ably polished off a few years
ago by the late lamented editor of the
Forest Press. 1t is fact, and la
mentable one, too, that about one-half
our school houses, some in veiy public
places, are still without the necessary
out.buildings. In many places where
they have been erected they have be.
come public nuisances. They should
be kept clean. 1t is as much the duty
of the teachers to teach deoency and
cleanliness as arithmetic and grammar,
and outdoors as well as indoors.
They should be better taken care Of
1t is certainly not worth while to put
up such buildings for the mere gratif-
cation of certain parties in Soaring
them to pieces. If these buildings are
essential to the cultivation of habits of
propriety and delicacy at home, among
the children of the same family, how
can they be dispensed with at the pub
lie school house, where they are neces-
sarily without the guardianship of
parents, and surrounded by twenty or
thirty children Of different families {?
How parents, who send their children
to school, can be so Indifferent in this
matter is a mystery. II should be
held up before the fathers and mothers
of every child in the county, until pub
lie feeling would compel directors to
act and act efficiently. Every feeling
of deceucy and modesty demands it.
SaLaries-Oa this topic 1 cannot re.
Il
port progress. Nothing is more detri-
mental to the cause of education than
the unjust plan still practiced in near
ly all Of the districts, of paying the
same wages to all alike, whether good
or bad or through tavoriti8m to en-
ploy teachers without regard to the
kind Of certificate IN possession. AT the
present salary, no one whose abilities
are of an order to warrant success, can
afford to devote his life to the profes.
sion of teaching consequently every
year swarm of young persons not out
of their "teens," apply for and obtain
a number Of the situations in the
school room, while an equal number
of experienced teachers either leave
the profession, or go to other counties
where they receive better pay for longer
terms, or what is sometimes worse, run
off and get married. The assertion
that the salaries paid are, in many
cases, commensurate with services rem
dered, is doubtless true, yet how can
directors reconcile their action with