Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1881-04-27
County superintendent Question.

MEssRs EDITORS: In your issue of
April 18th. | find long letter upon the
subject of County Superintendancy
which | must say is beautiful in theory
very deficient in sense. The letter was
evidently for the purpose of creating an
opinion in the minds of the illiterate,
that the school system is badly man.
aged, funds misapplied, and public Off
cials are delinquents in duty, or, if faith
ful, discharged in such a manner as TO
be injurious rather than benefc al. The
writer of the article very well knows
the area of the county, the average
length of school term, the number of
schools to be visited. and he also knows
how utterly impossible il is to remain
more than one-half a day in each
school. unless school boards will agree
with each other to have their schools
in session at different seasons. Know
ing all this, why write the aforesaid
article simply false pride, or to resent
some imaginary insult? | indorse all
that citizen" saws in regard to "quali-
fications of fSuperintendants, " but being
familiar with the teachers of Butler Co
regret to say we do not have such a
peni6c! man, not even i'citiaenn him
self, who, doubtless, dreams he could
fiji the position to his 0,on entire salts
faction Citizen" enumerates the du-
ties of said officials, which to the unin-
itiated, sounds plausible enough, but
the practice Of some calls forth the
ccnsure Of such teachers as "citizen"
and host of others Speaking Of
teachers Institute, lis splendid enter
tainment, but a failure as fer as practi-
cal benefit to the teacher is secured, :"
is incorrect. If any teacher or citizen
| failed TO receive benefit, it was because
his mind was no. prepared for the seed
sOwn. The in tfgction given Ta3
open to criticism, reproof or approval
during the entire session, and il was
frequently urged upon teachers both by
| OHrtdis and instructors to embrace the
opportunity. If teachers had not
enough interest in their profession ta
exhibit y desire ror Improvement from
among the best educators OF our State,
what do you suppose would have been
their conduct while some local discuss
ed the merits ofsOmc methods orig;nat
el in his own brain. Mr.. Mckee
stated, that he had individually solicit
cd more than fifty teachers 10 render
assistance al I hc institute, and perhaps
citizen" could tell how many respond
ID to the call Extra sessions were
called at halfpast eight for teachers TO
discuss LEGAL difficulties, and how
many abused tcaehcis were present,
think yc? II teachers werc not big Is,
it was because they chose to be little
us Perhaps Citizen" would not be
so auKious for HOrOttgh cxamipGtiors
should Supt. lligbee call in all thp
State certificates. ] never knew but
one Superintendent who used more than
one day in examinations, and he did
not live to the expiration of his term OF
Office, and in consequence failed to reap
his rel0ard here To hold a high grade
of certificate is certainly desirable but it
is the minor qualification of the teach
er. That the educator knows how 20
educate is infinitely more desirable
will close with the sage advice of "citi-
zen" "Let 0nty merit decide yQAT
choice " JUSTICE