Homer guardian., 1889-05-24
The Public Schools.


contracting with teachers, and the
schools will, after that day, be
opened at such a time as will best
suit the convenience of the patrons
and teachers. We do not know
exactly how long the term will
last, but owing to the great multi
tude of teachers who presented
themselves for examination, feel
justified in saying the term will
not exceed two months. Now,
this term of only two months du-
ration is not productive of much
good, except in those communi,
ties where the children never get
the benefit Of schooling only dur
ing the public term. Take a com.
munity, for instance, where a ten
months schools maintained every
year, and the two months public
school in the summer is really q
disadvantage. They crowd in dur
ing the public term so as to disor-
ganize the school, and being so
many, the teacher cannot do JUS
tice to I'll, so the two months are
spent the public money gone and
no one has derived any benefit,
unless it be the teacher, and he
is not benefited much, as the sal
aries are necessarily small on &C.
count Of the large number of tea
chors. OF course IN those com
munities where they never have
any school except the two months
public term, some good Is the re.
suit.
In such communities there are
always some poor children taught
to read and write. They acquire
"a little learning" which, without
the public schools, they could not
acquire. So, whatever may be
said concerning the short term
and inefliciencY Of our public
schools, we are compelled to ad-
nit that some good is done.
Now, the question is often ask.
cd the school board, why don't
you remedy this evil by reducing
the number of schools, thereby ex-
tending the term? Well, after
serving on the school board for
four years up till about twelve
months ago, the writer has exper-
fenced some of the difficulties
which are presented to the mem
bers thereof. 1t is true in q Ger.
tain sense the school board has
the exclusive jurisdiction in the
Of appropristing and dis
trbuting the funds; but when
every community in the parish
are represented before the board,
presenting their teachers and
claiming their quote Of the funds,
then it's the duty of the board to
grant q school to each one of
them, provided they have the re-
CURED number of pupil, Or else
make what would be termed an
unjust discrimination. Then, If a
school is located in each Of those
communities, we have at least one
hundred schools with 5000 chill.
dren to be sustained with $500.
It doesn't take a profound mathc-
matician to make the calculation
and fnd out that il the teachers
are paid as much as an average of
one dollar per scholar per month,
that 800 will not last even two
months. Every community clam.
ors for a school, snd when estab.
lished, the people fall out with
The school board because of the
number Of schools and shortness
Of term. The truth Is, the school
board does the best that could be
done under all the circumstances,
and we need not expect any long
er term until there is a reduction
in the number of schools, or an
increase in the amount of funds
for this purpose.
While our public school system
is somewhat defective, yet we are
pleased to note that the leading
educators Of the state, backed up
by the press, are becoming aroused
to the great Importance and neces.
sity Of a better system. Our
last legislature passed a school law
which ia an imnrovemart rnon tho