Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1882-08-10

of your ability to fill the position, and
the dignity that you felt belonged to you
as q professional teacher, prevented you
from taking very active part in seeu
ring your election to a position that yeu
felt was almost your due; but In the
meantime, some fellow, whose stock OF
impudence supplied his lack of brains,
has been pulling his wires and carries
off the position or some young lady,who
was everything but fitted for the work
required, has by her winning ways cap
tivated the school board. for school d.
rectors are subject to the same tempta-
tiOns as other men, and you, discouraged,
disappointed, provoked, are coolly in
formed that you are at liberty to apply
elsewhere. 1t is now late in the season
all the best positions are taken. You go
to your room; perhaps you indulge in
what the ladies call "a real good cry"
That over, you begin to think and calcu-
late. Your finances, much depleted by
the expense of attending school, are
running low. Where now are the air
castles you have so fondly erected, while
anticipating the position you so conf
IDENTIFY expected? How now can you
liquidats those little debts contracted
W ulA0 db LLO AO1LAol hOW bOW wiz
you pay that loan of $50 or $40 made
by kind but not wealthy friend? How
now will YOU be able to replenish your
wardrobe. pay your subscriptions for
educational journals, and take the At.
lantic or Harper's MagaZine2 That list
of books you had made out to be pur-
chased, with which you expected to
spend so many pleasant and profitable
hours during the long evenings of next
winter; the ambition you had to send
your younger brother off to school; the
kind intention of purchasing extra deli
cacies for an invalid sister; of buying a
nice warm shawl or comfortable chair
for that kind aunt, to whom you are so
much indebted; of lifting from your
fathers shoulders the burden of q mort
gage on his little home; or of being able
in substantial manner, to render more
comfortable your widowed mother in
her declining years-these or such
thoughts as these, flash through your
mind in quick succession. viii you
now bitterly bemoan your fate, declare
that yours is the worst luck in the
world, that if there is no demand for
skilled labor, no reward for special PIE
paration, you may as we'll give up the bu-
sineSs? No, if yeu are made of the stuff
necessary in the constitution of the
teacher. you will dry your tears, collect
your dissipated forces, and try again.
Over, and over again, you must expect
just such disappOintments, for they do
come. Every teacher of five years eX-
perience will confirm what l have said.
Are you able to endure the discour-
agements and temptations of the posi-
ton? Just at such time, you are like
ly to become the victim of class of
men, who will constitute another OBJ
stacle to your success. l refer to those
directors who are always anxious to
drive q sharp bargain. Knowing q
teacher is anxious to secure position,
they will not hesitate to take advantage
of his necessity, and grind him down to
less than living rates. In West Virgin
| la, the rate of salary is regulated by the
grade of certificate held; so this is diff
1 lficulty that teachers in that State do not
meet, unless as is sometimes the case,
there are those found who will work for
even less than the mere pittance their
third grade certificate calls for-for it is
the third rate teacher who usually le-
sorts to undertaking in order to secure
position. But in most States, the sal
airy is matter to be determined by
board and teacher. WhIle this is as it
should be, the teacher is often at the
mercy of designing and unscrupulous
men-men who lavish money on cigars,
fast horses, and other personal luxuries
or vices, but boast of having driven a
cheap bargain with the school ma'am,
and will actually have the effrontery to
use this as an argument in favor OF their
own personal advancement, or political
preferment. Consider the discourage
ments arrayed against you at such a
time. While the teacher who obtains
position at a good salary-cOnscions OF
his ability to earn it-can look every
one in the face with the pride of an hon.
est man paying his own way in the
world; while because he has been en-
ployed at an extra salary the bosrd, in
order to sustain their own action in the
matter, will rally to his support, send
their own older boys and girls to school,
thus encouraging others to do the same
perhaps drawing subscription pupils
from adjoining districts school will
become q success. The teacher, KNOW
ing he is receivinga good salary, will
striveto ito render value received, and
will do irst-class work. The older pu-
pills present will add interest to the
school. Teacher and school board, pu-
pills and patrons will almost unconscl-
ously be working unitedly, hand in hand,
to give rank and reputation to the
school. And they will succeed. On the
other hand, the teacher, disappointed
in his first endeavor to secure good po-
sition, becomes the victim of Over-reach-
ing and avaricous men, and accepts
position at salary much below that
which he is able to earn. By this forced
act ne, in one sense, acknowledges the
validity of such arguments as these:
"You failed to obtain position at the
rates at which you hold yourself, now
you must take market price. You'll
have to come TO it sooner or later, In
fact the sooner the better for yourself,
for we can find plenty of others who
will be glad to get the position at our
rates, and then what will you do? You'll
wish before you've cut five cords of
wood, split a hundred rails, or worked
q month in somebody's kitchen, that you
had accepted good position when you
had the offer of it, The poor teacher
will but too often fall into the snare, ac-
knowledge that it would be best to &C
cept this time, but so discouraged will
he become that, before the time arrives
for the school to begin, he will have lost
much of his enthusiasm. Instead of an
increasing delight his work will become
q constant drudgery. Instead of being
ably seconded by his board, they will
forget all about the school, except that
tthey .'hired the teacher cheap enough"
They win fail to sustain him by word or
act. What costs bat little, they little
value, and the teacher, finding himself
the slave of circumstances, will proba-
bly, fail to demand the assistance they
are legally bound to give. The school
becomes by-word and a disgrace. 1t
languishes for want of the moral and
personal support that are its due. tell