The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1884-12-04
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Street Corner Notes.
4 rEAcpER's JUST coMpLAINT.

|Itivated teachers Of the county, the other
: Dday, Ito direct the attention Of all con
cerned, and especially of the proper all
thorities, to most notable and fagran
injustice perpetrated year by yea up, I
a guild of workers in every commu
nifty in Virginia, whose consta,.i
long suffering and forbearance, un
der manifold vexations and discourage
ments, are worthy, methinks, of more
VI generous recognition. Being myself an
humble representative of that guild, ii
might be deemed that becoming modesty
should impose silence upon me touching
the subject referred to. And really have
deferred, from time to time, this commu-
nication, III the hope that some other and
ADLER talker would seize the theme, and
pr esent it more forcibly than it is
in my power to do. No one appearing,
however. and the subject being of prime
interest to all, have at length resolved to
brave all censure in the premises, and
discuss it myself. refer to numerical
average of pupils at the public schools as
affecting the salary of teachers.
plain and palpable iniQuity that it is, i,
certes, would never assail it, were the
only sufferer thereby. But there are many
others. teachers of high abilities, yet de-
pendent, like me, on teaching, for clothes
and bread. and all the other various nee
essaries of life. These men and ladies', Ia
large proportion of teachers are lades) in
many instances have expended every dol
lar of their own, and all they could Dor
row, in unavoidable delays at StauntoR (I
cite the county of Augusta first, Id at
tendance on che examinations, and after
wards, in the long futile inquiry about
schools; until they are sent off on the
wings of uncertain Rumor, upon search
that ends, perchance, in proving that
loquaci0us goddess wild goose - and
thus, from place to place. until forced by
encouragement and pecuniary exhaustion,
to cease their quest of better choice, and
accept, haphazard, the situation offering
at the eleventh hour.
what is the result Unknown of course
to the patrons" Of the school with no
recommendations save those personal ones
which, eight times out Of ten, are misun-
derstood and totally unappreciated en-
gazing board at high rates, when lucky
enough to obtain it at all,-the first thing
expected-nay. vigorously exacted of
them-is, to pay court to all the ''pa-
trons;" in other words, to extend to each
and every one Of the latter the customary
courtesy OF a special conciliatory visit.
Like all pub. fumes. in this happy country,
1.-THE new teacher" has to undergo long
and wearis0me and often uncongenial
pilgrimage of canyassing, the manifold
miseries of which / need not and shall
not digress to detail.
1.-THE day arrives for opening school. No
Paynim soul, shudder ing to advance upon
AL Sherats' Bridge, needs keener circum-
spection to avert catastrophe, than the
teacher must exercise fro m that momen-
tous date. All eyes, all ears, all senses
the very elements themselves-acutely
attuned, are ambushed against him. Woe
to him if his foot once slip, if his tongue
betray one sentiment in i'll keeping with
the accepted standard Of popular ethics
This is doubtless all right. The people
want to know what sort of person, as an
instructor and otherwise, their children
are to be subject to during the session. It
is correct and perfectly natural wish.
But they do not, as a general thing, adopt
the most obvious, indeed the only, means
of deciding this question. For a time
they withhold their children from school,
awaiting developments from the atten-
dance of other children A month elapses
sometimes two months glide by and not
dozen pupils are on the roll of the school.
The teacher perhaps an excellent one,
who would, if aided little, exert himself
to the uttermost for the advancement of
his pupils, becomes discouraged, disheart-
ened. He has done his best to build up
his school. His attendance at The school
house has been faithful and regular,
through all the appointed hours, day by
day. The few pupils that have met him
there he has classified and instructed to
the best of his ability. He has rigidly
performed his part of the contract hemade
with the board. But. upon all sorts of
pretexts, the patrons have either failed
utterly to send their children, or else kept
them at home for various purposes, two or
three days of the week. The teacher
sends in, consequently, a meagre report
at the end of the month. He fails to
make the requisite average" He had
trusted he could do it, he had hoped he
could do it. for it was his only chance he
had no more money to bear him in further
quest; he was compelled to take this
school, or none; and he has exerted all
the powers within him-and in the effort
gone much in debt-to render the school
success. To no avail because the 'spa-
irons, "either through prejudice, or other
motives equally ill-conceived, have failed
to aid and sustain him. And still, he
must suffer for it : his pay is curtailed to
correspond with his average. Itisneither
fair nor generous for tina originator Of that
law to meet him with the assertion, well
you knew the consequences of failure, be-
fore you took hold" A real teacher has
the faith and the enthusiasm that scorn
and suppress all thought of failure and
when, through the fault of others, it over
takes him, it bears upon him mercilessly-
outside all questions Of money. And this
is the very thing-this lack of appreciation
and cooperation on the part Of the people,
and the failure of the school authorities to
encourage the teacher by recognizing his
labors in the establishment and conduct of
bis school, irrespective Of this wretched,
parsimonious plea of verage,-this is the
very thing, say, that is going to lose to
Virginia the best instructors already in
her public schools, and deter all others
from engaging therein in other words.
Danish to the bettsr-assured and more con-
genial fields of labor all her best didactic
tale mt. 1t has done SO already-we can
no t say to what extent. But there ar,
others now in the field, that will surely
follow suit.
why, besides it's manifold outrageous
injustice, this establishment of average is