, 1890-12-04
Spokane County Teachers Make a
Stand on the Question of
Salary.
Hencoforth They Must Have Liv
ing Wages or They Will
Not Teach.
Prof. Bemiss on the Proper Train.
ing of Teachers-.A Sens ational
Minority Report.

consider the same thing. The dig
nifty of their profession rose to the
emergency. They declared that the
wstchword of the campaign Is TO he
$3.50 or nothing" Resolutions and
a preamble embodying the above
ideas were drawn up and signed by
all the teachers who were present
The movement is not intended as
socialistic manifestation. The
pedagogues will not enter the union
of Federated Trades, nor will they
ally themselves with the stalwart
knights Of Labor. They will plod
along rs they have done In days of
yore, but the prlm and pretty
schoolma'ams will wear more silk
dresses and camels hair shawls,
and the men sport bigger diamonds
and larger libraries.
The movement will not termn nate
in a strike. When board of trustees
goes out in search of an instructor
for Its olive branches, 1T will either
pungle up $50, or its children will
grow to maturity wearing the neck.
lace of untutored simplicity and
blssful ignorance that is SO becom.
ing upon the Arapahoe and the ST.
wash, That is all. No blood will
he shed. No riots will follow dis.
agreement over terms. The teachers
claim that there are more positions
now open than can he filled easily,
and organization alone is necessary
to accomplish the result they seek.
The resolutions further deprecated
the practice of undertaking among
teachers. They met with no oppo-
sition.
Professor Bemiss read an instruct
i've paper on "The Proper Training
of Teachers
When we compare the intelligence of
our own country with that OF others, the
superiority unqucstionably in our favor
is matter of just pride to ourselves,
Professor Bomis said. Here we have
universal education, for there are few
that can not read and write. and when
we remember that this general diffusion
OF knowledge Is effected through the
agency OF our common schools, we can
not speak too highly of the means by
which thus result has been ac-
complshed. While IL is true
that a great work has been done in the
universal diffusion of knowledge, IL Is
equally true that the result actually
reached is far short of what might
Justly be demanded. Perhaps the most
prominent drawback to the efficiency
of our schools is the lack of proper
instruction. There are, indeed, but
few true teachers. The mind
OF the child may be regarded as
smooth table, ready TO receive the inn
preston that the hand of the teacher
shall trace upon 1t. Early impressions
are conceded TO be the most lasting. How
important it is that these first impress
sions shall be made by hands that are
properly skilled in their art. Hence the
importance OF the proverb, Guard well
the school house door" The premises
being guarded, it is well to inquire,
What are the few things needful in
the teachers training"
The first qualiiica tion necessary is in
telectual culture. We can not teach
what we do not know. Too
often are our young girls of tender age
and overgrown boys launched out as
iull-fedgod pedagogues. licensed to test
their crude theories promiscuously upon
juvenile minds.
The number of ignorant workmen,
now happily growing less, Is still alarm
ingly great. The retention of such la
borers in our schools, considering the
lutlillltN u lTuiU-
ing in all the branches of pedagogy, can
only be accounted for by the suppositiOn
that districts are too poor or too avari.
cious to pay competent instructor.
The next thing needful is a determina-
tion 10 follow teacning as a profession,
not making it stepping-stone to other
positions. Nothing, | am sure, is such
an ciiectual drawback to our profess
sional development as this subserviency
of its interests to other calllngs.
Teachers should receive q professional
training. The teacher does much toward
molding the destiny OF child. Yet
even though the issues are so impor-
tant, we choose in many instances the
merest tyro, al individual without eX-
perience or appreciation of the res ponsi.
bility of his position, and with slight
mental culture, and subject the tender
minds OF our children to every specie of
experimental jugglery. 1t is little won
der tiat few minds escape distortion
under the crucial test. The
normal school ought to be confined to
the legitimate functions, tho training of
students in the theory and practice of
teaching" Academic instruction, eX-
cept so far as 1t is necessary for the
proper development of theory and prac-
tice, should be excluded, for such in
struction can be as economically OBJ
tanned in the graded schools of the
state.
| would recommend normal course
in our university. l would advocate tho
establishment of other normal schools |
whenever the present ones are filled. | |
would further recommend the enact
ment of Il law in substance as follows:
mo applicant for third grade GER
titlcate shall receive such certificate un-
less in addition to the requisite mental !
quail ticatiops, the applicant shall have
attended n regularly organized teachers |
class and an institute at least eight |
months, and he shall be required to at
tend teachers institute once each |
wear to have his certificate renewed.
mo teacher shall receive second |
grade certificate unless he shall have at |
tended anormal school one year or have |
taught successfully for four years.
"Graduation from normal school or |
ten years successful aching shall be re-
ouired to obtain first grade certif tificate." |
| believe that "book knowledge" and |
professional aduptnbility should be |
made equally Important and an equal |
number of credits allowed.
Some such system properly elaborated |
would Danish from the profession the |
transient pedagogue, and would prevent |
the novitiate from testing his rude |
theories of intellectual development on |
so important n subject as the immortal |
mind. But In the place of the unskilled. |
ignorant workman would stand the |
thoroughly qualified, earnest, conscien- |
tious educator; one upon whose recent |
you could indorse 'for value received" |
and the results of whose skillful labor |
would build monument for himself |
more enduring than brass, and more |
regal than the elevation of pyramids.
A constitution for the new associ "a