The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-09-16
WOMEN IN THE SCHOOLS
TEE ARMY OF THE BIRCH AS IT
MANGUVERS ABROAD.

One City-Working for About Hall
the Yankee Pedagogue's Price-It
Takes Seven Years Training Before
a Girl Can Hold a Teachers Certih-
cate in London The Indentured
Pupil Teacher and Her Life.
Copyright, 1851
LONDON, Sept. eff were wise had
gone up 20 London ten years ago" said a
Birmingham school te acher 70 me some
days since; but now am 20, and they ap-
point no women who have passed that mile
post"
place under the London school board
is coveted by women from Lands End TO
the Shetland Isles. London teachers skim
the cream Of the business in Great Britain.
Their salaries ara the highest paid in En-
glish elementary schools.
No such army Of schoolma ans as is gath
cred in London is to be found elsewhere in
the world The board schools alone employ
1850 The church notwithstanding to the
| old parocnial system-endowed schools and
private schools have upon their registry
1000 more. The number Of governeSseS does
not fall far short OF that Of all other women
teachers combined. Sixteen Thousand is a
! low estimate OF the strength of the corps
| which trains the Young idea
And Yet TEACHING Is not in London a wom-
! an business 10 the extent that it Is in New
| Hork. Where nine out Of every ten teach
ers in the New York and BROOKLYN schools
are Of the sex feminine, the proportion here
is only two out OF three. The board school
| Of London employ z, 207 male teachers, ratn-
er more than ons-haif the number Of wom-
| en- in their service
This means tat in England women for
the most part teach only babies and girls.
| / say babies advisedly. This morning in
the baby room of the Graystoke place
school patted the round cheek Of an IS
months boy, who gathered up the red crew
el OF his knitting work, rebuked me gravely
| with Nv hist now and went soberly
about his business The baby room is an
adjunct to every English elementary school.
| 1t admits little folks under 3. The 4-year-
| old and 5-year-old classes are doing system
attic work. Above Z years Old the sexes are
divided, tho boys school being differed un-
til within a year altogether by men A
| few women are now teaching boys of s by
| way Of experiment. and the chances are
that in five or six years the London schools
will be as completely womaned as are
| those Of America.
The process of getting an appointment
| under the London school board is a compli-
Gated ole. Suppo-e that the parents Of
! bright girl decide when she is II years old
| that they would like to make a teacher of
her. Application is made for her nomina-
| ton as IN JnitOr, in which capacity she per
forms some minor duties while ling on
with her studies. In year or thereabout,
| having reached the age of ID, she is ready
for the second step on her pedagogic course,
which is taken when papers have been filled
out requesting her appointment as ''candi-
lat Hara ~.
come in. The head teacher aud the mana
gers Of the school visit the girls home, in
| spect her surroundings ask her parents for
some record of her health, and investigate
very closely the influences to which she has
| been subjected and which, as teacher, she
would be likely in the future to exert. This
| ordeal passed. the candidate assists the regu-
lar teacher in minding the baby room and
Is assigned some class work TO test her apti-
tude for instruction. Many girls drop out
of the ranks at this point Thoss who 90
further are indenturel at II as regular ap-
prentices to the school board. The appren-
ticeship lasts four years. During the first
year the girl is known as probationer, and
attend a special school for pupil teachers
half the day-teaching small classes in the
school in which she is apprenticed, under
the eye of the head teacher, during the
other half She begins to earn money, her
salary starting at shillings, or % cents per
week. At the beginning of her second year
sac Is known as Junior pupil teacher, but
gets no Increase or paw. During the last two
years of her service she ranks as senior pu-
pill teacher and earns and 10 shIllings week
ly. She is bound to attend the pupil teach
ers' school only two mornings in the week,
and is put in responsible charge of
forty scholars in the school in
which she is apprenticed. This Is a
long road to travel, but it cannot be
oh hxr,a
equivalent to the Oxford or Cambridge
junior local examination, which, when taken
between the ages of Is and H. makes the
pupil teachers apprenticeship three years
instead of four.
AT the expiration of her term of service
| the eX-pupil teacher is Is or 10 years old
| She is supposed 10 have learned school man
agement, theoretical and practical, and to
have had experience of all schoolroom ext
gencies. is she now ready to teachl Yes,
If she is satisfied to take a place salaried at
E3O, or $3.50, nearly, with only a remote
prospect of rising greatly above that giddy
height of opulence. The best terms with re-
gard TO immediate employment which she
can make for herself are these: If she has
shown herself good teacher the London
school board willre-engage her for one year
on condition that she attends evening classes
for six months to prepare for ths govern
ment scholarship examination. which she is
required to pass with credit Failing this,
she loses her place and has hal her apron
ticeship for her pains. This Rubicon crossed,
there are two more examinations. the first
and se,ond years government certificate
examination, at which the candidate must
sit inside OF four years before she is granted
the parchment which is the London Teach
| ers' diploma and W Itch alone can make any
thing more chan the harest livelihood posi-
BILE. Once certificated teacher, position
which she may reach with diligence at 22,
her wages will run from $50 to eS5 yearly,
with increase Of 23 per year for excellence
in teaching. Her maximum wages, hardly
to be reached under 10 years and not afte
reached at all, is el0O per annum.
This is the rough road to teaching in
Loudon. The smoother path, the only path
which leads to the better paid places, is
that taken by the pupil teacher who ut the
conclusion Of her apprenticeship enters a
training college and takes a two years
course corresponding TO that followed in the
normal colleges of the United States On
graduation the teacher, VINO is now 81 or
~ years old, ranks us a trained teacher.
and, if fortunate, may receive an appoint
ment at the outset worth 9S5. That is to
say, a course Of discipline which never
covers less than five years and half and
may be protracted more than six, the like
of which is unknown in the United States.
may advantage the London teachers Gj a