The Pickens sentinel. [volume] (Pickens, S.C.) 1871-1903, 1886-06-03
PUBLIC SCHOOL TEACHERS.
Statement OF Some OF Their Needs and Thei
DIscouragements.
(From the Philadelphia Times1

(From the Philadelphia Times.)
81 do not sec what she has to COM
plain of. Works only six hours day,
five days out of the week, and the rest
OF the time she can do as she pleases.
She is paid by the public, so there is no
chance of money loss, and, take it all
together, she is as well off as anybody
can be who works for a living"
The above is the opinion, not of one
or dozen persons in a community, but
of a majority. Because the school be-
gins at 8 o'clock it is taken for granted
that the teachers duties date from that
hour; because it closes at or half-past
four in the afternoon it is supposed that
nothing remains for her to do, but
she can don her wraps, go home, shop
and visit ad ibitum until the hour for
retiring has come. During the hours of
confinement in the school-room she can
sit in her chair by desk or walk quietly
around the room, looking after some two
or three scores of bright-eyed young
sters who are busy studying CD and real
ly need little attention. That she earns
her money easily is foregone conclu-
sion. But does she?
The fact is, Ghe honest, earnest, faith
full teacher works harder and more con-
tinuously than almost any other laborer
in the community. Mind, I say the
"honest, faithful teacher" That there
arc those in this employment, as in all
others, whose only object is to get
through in some way, it does not matter
how, only that they arc, sure of their
pay, I do not deny. The result of their
york, or the lack OF it, shows how much
Of thought and enthusiasm entered into
L., doing Their duties are left behind
chem when the school-room door closes
in the afternoon, and "a good time" is
the watchword until they enter it in the
morning. That is not the kind of teach
er am talking about. It is the kind
that soon finds no place unless political
influence interferes to make and keep
one.
The position of n conscientious teacher
is no sinecure. Far from the labor be-
ing confined to six hours day, it frc-
quently extends deep into the time which
should be given to sleep. Present
methods require quite as much brain
work to be done out of school hours rs
in. There are weekly, monthly and
term examinations to be conducted.
Most OF them are written, and this in
wolves the careful examination of as
many papers as each teacher has scholars
multiplied by the number of studies pur
sued. You who think this is a small
matter, try it for one time with one sub
jcct in your own family. have known
many teachers who spont every evening,
those of Saturday and Sunday included,
for weeks at time in this kind of work.
until body and mind were utterly ex-
hausted. And these were not exception
al cases / cannot sec where the "easy
time" comes in for them.
Aside from this is the absolute necessi-
ty of keeping abreast of the progress in
all matters pertaining to education. Each
year brings it's changes. Science does
not stand still. New discoveries arc con-
stantly being made and what was thought
to be true yesterday may be proven false
to-day. No scvercr critics exist than chill
drcn. Let teacher be found lacking in
knowledge or making Il misstntcment,
and her influence is shaken. Repeated,
and it is gone forever.
1t is easy to see then that the success
ful teacher must be constantly studying.
Once mastered, always mastered, is not
true in her case. TO be even dccently
prepared to do her work, she must be
actively alert; to be all that is demanded
as IN educator eXacts hours of vigorous
application to study, and these of neces-
Sity fall into the evenings and HOLIDAYS.
Only few weeks ago. butcher told me
that her vacation was to be given to at
tending course of university lectures in
another city, i'll order to prepare herself
more thoroughly for her work in given
direction. She had no time to give to
rest or recreation, and / knew that for
weeks she had been "bmning the mid
night oil" over the examination Dapers
of her pupils.
10 keep the control of the pupils of an
average school requires the expenditure
of no small amount of nervous force,
how much one who has never undertaken
1T has no more idea than Of the strength
of wing it would take to balance the
average man and hold him in the upper
air. A mother is often worn out with
the effort of keeping her own children
limited perhaps to two or three-in
order. What would she do were that
number multiplied by ten or fifteen and
the strain kept up for days and weeks
and months and years? OF course /
know that the mother is taxed in very
many other ways, but the remark that
''thc care of the children is wearing me
out" is n very frequent one.
In almost every other employment
which demands as many high qualifica-
tions there is chance of advancement
i'll salary sufficient to enable the worker
to lay aside something for sickness and
old age. In this there is little or none,
for the woman who ever receive over
$1,000 year for their labor are few in
number. Very many have families do