Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1882-04-06

Ice or the teachers Is nearly nlue years.
Let us allow the teachers nine years
service with forty-five pupils, and we
have an example of one individual in
structing over 400 people. Think of
our power and inf1uence-our great re-
sponsibility. One individual molding,
shaping, and directing the future des-
TIMES of 400 human beings-some of
them our lawmakers; others our Pres
idents; all Of them future citizens OF
our country! But for an average of
forty-five pupils the teacher usually
has an enrollmento of sixty or more, and
in nine years service the influence of
the teacher is brought directly upon
about $40 pupils; aud in ten months, or
200 days, we have an equivalent of 45
times 200 times nine, or 81 900, pupils
taught one day. We may carry it
further. Let US allow teacher twelve
Irecitations per day, and we have an
equivalent to II times 81 600, or 972, 900,
taught $4,000 pupils. Then let us
multiply this by 150,O00,-the approxi-
mate number of teachers in the United
lStates,-and we can have rough esti
mate of some of the educational work
done by the teachers of the United
States alone, saying nothing of other
countries. Let us admit that st. Louis
is too high standard to reckon from,
and let US reduce our product one-third
and we have an aggregate of results
that frightens us with the responsible
ty of our calling.
Then again, let us think of the great
nen-authors, poets, editors, states
men, divines. Presidents, &c.-w hom
the school-teacher has given start.
| If we consider our work from a finan-
n, or r,1 n,int tho Vainp of tho fin,p
tspent by the youth In the schools, the
vast sums of money expended for the
maintenance of these schools, and es-
prcially for the employment Of teach
ers, we can very readily see what we
are, in those respects, doing. Though
this view of our work throws all the
responsibility upon the teacher, and is
an unpleasant feature of our work to
boast about, especially if our hearers
are of that Indifferent class who think
that taxation for education is robbery;
yet it belongs to our subject, and helps
to show how immense we are as pro-
fession, not only in our receipts, but in
our disbursements. We get grai, OF
comfort from the consideration of the
great outlays for education, in knowing
t,a,t the Government does not intend
that her school teachers shall quite
starye, In the year 1878 the Eastern,
Middle, and Western States expended
about $40, ,0OO, 900 for public education.
In any State where the public school
system is in fiourishing condition, the
amount of money levied for school pur-
poses forms much the largest bulk OF
the local taxation. True, this taxation
is not for the benefit of the teacher, di-
rectly, but for the pupil, yet the teach
er is largely the consumer, and we thus
prove him very destructive agent in
civilization, unless the results of his
Ia bors, the education furnished, is a
full equivalent for the money expend-
ed. Our subject does not admit of our
attempting to show the valuation OF
education, yet we cannot well treat the
| value of the teacher without treating
in some measure the value of his work.
Our late lamented President, General
Garfield, in an address before the Ma
tional Association of Teachers, said: eff
may refer to the national aspect of our
profession, l will say we can never es
cape Macaulay's prophecy of the down.
| fall of the Republic, unless we do it by
! the aid of the school master. Macau
| lay said government like ours must
inevitably lead 20 anarchy; ami | be-
lieve there is no answer to his prOphe-
cy, unless the school master can give
t. oucu were Jilt "pIOS vi oIlt " IiOS"
opinion we all respect. Similar opin-
ions and expressions have come not
only from the lips of nearly all our
Presidents, but have been the sentiment
of all great men of our nation. In the
face of the above, need we ask the
question or attempt to answer, "what
teachers are doing?' But if teachers
are doiug so great work, we might
ask the question, chow they are doing
it? and in what way the laborers con-
tribute to such good results?
Much has been written and spoken
for years respecting the value of edu-
ca ted la Dor over that of the uneducat- |
ed, until it had become, as it were, an
old story, and some have come to the |
habit of doubling the real of the story.
In 1870 the Commissioner of Edura-
ton addressed a series of questions to |
the Superintendeuts of many firuls in |
the Atlantic States, where large num- |
bers of hanCs were employed at facto-
ries, &c. These questions called for the |
opinions of the managers. respecting |
the comparative values of the labors of
the the educated and the uneducated |
The reports were unanimous in th cir
estimates of the great superiority of the |
services of the educated in manual la I
Dor. All said give"us educated labor
ers and the more education the better" I
Many estimated their work worth from
20 to 80 per cent. more to the employer
than that of the ignorant. Of such su-
perior value is this educated aber that
our Government has given US a num-
ber of industrial schools. |
But to refer again AS 10 how the school
master is the preserver of our liberties,
let US look at few of the indirect re-
sults of his iaflors First the taacher
is the bAst disciplinarian known to civ
iIization. In making this assertion we
would not overlook the fact that some
teachers are lamentably weak discip-
Librarians; but we do not remember of
of ever knowing school which, con-
sidering it's size compared with the
family, was not better disciplined than
the average family. In all schools
some programme of exercises is follow
ed, and in most cases the children work
and recite all day by a timed pro-