New-York tribune., 1880-10-03
ORR EVENING SCHOOLS.

Tomorrow evening twenty-slx schools VIII
be opened for the winter IN various parts of the
city where free instruction will be given TO
"persOns whose ages and avocations are such
" as TO prevent Their attending the day schools"
Beyond question some educational advantages
should be furnished 10 this class by city which
undertakes to support normal college and
university for advanced students, and the fact
that in former winters something like 10000
pupils have availed themselves of these Oppor-
tunties would seem to prove that our evening
schools have been to a fair degree successful,
and that their value was duly appreciated.
And yet among those best qualified to judge
there is a prevalent impression that, taking into
account the complicated and expensive
machinery employed, the results are dlsappont-
ing. This feeling seems to have invaded the
bosoms of the Board of Education, and as
consequence some changes in the system are
announced for the coming season. In former
wears pupils were received as soon as they had
attained the age of twelve years. No one
under thirteen years of age is to be accepted IN
future, and perhaps it would be still better If
the limit had been fixed at fifteen years. Boys
and gnls who work all day, or the greater part
OF the day, are as a general thing better oil in
bed after O'Clock in tie evening than in
school, But in this matter, as in others, some
discretion should be given to principals An
other change in the right direction is the
establishment of schools for seniors" where
there is some choice as to studies, and where
pupils can be taught for part of an evening or
upon certain evenings Of the week.
There remain, however, two capital defects in
teaching and rernicious system of superinten-
dence and examination. Good teaching cannot
be expected without good teachers, and ade
Urlate pay alone can command the services of
such teachers. Evening schools demand the
highest qualifications. Fairly good professional
work will not answer for pupils who are wearied
by the lab0rs of the day. Such pupils require
more than good teaching. Instruction must be
made interesting and agreeable. The schools
must be made so attractive as to arouse the
listless and exhausted who are present. and so
inviting that IT will seem hardship to be kept
away for a single evening. None but instIuc-
tors of the rarest gifts and the most thorough
training are competent to achieve success where
the demands upon their resources, mental,
moral, aud physical, are 50 cxacting. In other
employmens peculiar skill and ability COM
mand corresponding wages, and there is no
good reason Why an exception should be made
among teachers. If the whole system were
properly adjusted it would even prove wise
economy to pay remunerative salaries. In the
evening high school, the city pays less for the
tuition of each pupil than it does in the
ordinary evening schools, and YET the salaries
of instructors in the high school are more than
twice as large as those paid to teachers IN the
other schools. il is the fuller attendance sus-
tanned by efficient teaching which enables the
city in this instance to give better instruction
to each pupil for less money. Properly
equipped teachers, energetic, ambitious,
healthy, cannot, as a class, be induced to work
for a dollar or q dollar and quarter per hour,
however devoted they may be to their profess
sion. Their time and services are worth more
and therefore the e, eIing schools are handed
over TO the control Of mediocrity and inefii-
cheney, with the result of discOuraging amount
of absenteeism and almost universal failure.
After the services of first class teachers have
been secured by judicious selection and ade-
quate pay, the obvious course would be to allow
them TO teach in their own way, which in each
case would be that particular teachers best
way. AS matter Of fact. however. the