The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1886-01-20
TOWNSHIP TRUSTEES.
The Duty of the People at the Next EIec-
ton.
Communicated


Communicated.
The experience of the past year has dem
onstrated the necessity of the people giving
due attention to proper selection of men
for Township Trustees for the next two
years. Out of the eleven hundred Trustees
in the State only few have proved them
selves dishonest. The few who issued fraud
ulent warrants demonstrated the weakness of
the law regulating their official action, and
the losses resulting from their dishonest deal
ings have aroused the people TO a determine
ton to secure a change in the law.
1t is my intention to point out cause of
much greater loss to- the people, not result
ing from deficiency in the law, but in the
failure of the voters to act upon the we'll
established principle of selecting men, quail
fed by training experience to discharge
the duties of the Office.
In our individual affairs each man is anx-
ious to secure the best and most efficient
service possible for the money expended.
No sensible man employs a quack in
preference TO good physician, yet a
quack is simply an unframed, inexperi-
enced doctor. Nor will he employ a
poor lawyer when a good one can be
had for the same fee. No successful business
man entrusts his affairs with an lnexperl-
enced clerk or agent. The employment of
experienced men for superintendent is the
uniform practice in all our individual bust
ness.
If this be the only safe rule in our private
business, is it not equally so in our public
affairs?
1t we desire our public business managed
with skill and judgment, we must act on this
sound principle and select only such men as
have been qualified, for the work, by train
ing or experience.
We never make the mistake of selecting a
merchant or farmer for the Office of Judge
in our courts, no matter how scholarly,
honest or wise, for the simple reason that
men of these classes are not sufficiently
versed in the laws which a Judge is elected
to administer.
We select all our judges from the one class
whose business trains and qualities its men,
bers to discharge the responsibilities of the
office. Shall we be less wise in selecting
men for the responsible duties of Township
Trustee?
1t is admitted that the efficiency of our
schools is a matter of the greatest import
ance.
The law gives Trustees general supervision
of the schools of their respective corpora
tons. A little reflection upon the extent of
their powers and duties will enable us to
comprehend the necessity for electing men
who are specially qualified by training or ex-
perience to do the work of the Office we'll
l. They must select and employ teachers,
and should therefore be able TO Judge of the
kind of work they do in the school room.
Without experience in teaching they can be
but poorly qualified TO judge of the merits
of teachers.
p As members of the Board of Education
they are required to select textbooks, which
no one is prepared to DO unless he be thor
oughly versed in the science aud practice of
teaching, and possesses know edge of the
subjects taught.
3. They must also frame and adopt a
course of study for the schools of the county,
which should be done by the best and ablest
educators.
4. They must select school grounds and
build school-houses, requiring a knowledge
of the best methods of lighting and ventilat-
ing the rooms as well as good judgment in
the location of well and out-houses.
They are required also to select and pur-
chase necessary school furniture and appa-
ratus yet without experience or training
they can know very little of what is neces-
sary, and less of its real value. Experience
has proved how little the average Trustee
knows of what is necessary in a school
room, and the people have been taxed enor-
nous sums to pay for worthless apparatus,
while the teachers and children are in need
of important things which Trustees consider
| OF little Importance.
The writer knows that if one of the
| smaller counties of this State the Trustees,
| though honest men and of average intelli-
| gence, who have done as well as could be ex-
| pected, are and have been almost invariably
| farmers or merchants, who never taught
school a day nor did they ever do anything
| to fit them for the Office. Some of them are
| poorly educated, and perform its simplest
| duties with trouble. They sought the office
| for the money and honors, with the popu-
/ lar notion that anybody can perform the
| duties OF Trustee.
Within the past eight years there has been
| expended in that county about four thousand
dollars on five kinds of articles that were al
most useless. yet the schools lack many
necessary articles. Many have no diction-
aries, and not school in the county has a
| cyclopedia. Not less than five thousand dol
| lars have been thrown away for useless APP
| paratus, and much more wasted on third
| class teachers when httle advance in
wages would have secured the services of
| good teachers.
am informed that the custom of electing
| inexperienced men prevails in the other
+. CDuntleS Oh Tie Otdte VIII SlHllldI TcSuiJc.
| Thousands of dollars wasted, and the schools
weakened, because of inexperienced trustees.
Prominent men have pointed out this cause
| of wasteful expenditure of money, as well as
| its effect in weakening our schools. Ex-
| Superintendent John NJ. Bloss recently ex-
pressed the opinion that more money has
been wasted than was ever stolen" and If
| every county in the State has Jared like this
one, there has been from four to eight thou
| sand dollars wasted to every one stolen.
Another leading educator says: THAT
want of special knowledge on the part of
such officers is the chief weakness of our CON-
mon schools
Another says: 'If any good results are to
| be achieved in connection with our school
| work. it must be by leaving the practical
management of schools to men of experience
| in that line of business"
| These words of wisdom from our ablest
thinkers point clearly to the cause and the
remedy. The cause of the principal weak
ness in our schools, and of lavish waste of
the peoples money, is found to be the mex
perience of Trustees in the management of
schools, in their lack of special knowledge Of
| their needs and requirements The remedy is
plain, and political parties should not fail
| to place men on their tickets whose
q n