Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1895-11-13
Now Looks as Though It Would Be
q Great Success.
WHAT An EDUCATOR has TO SAY
An Annuity Fund Would Improve
the Service Immensely.
OTHER CITIES HAVE THEM

and Annuity Association. The bazaar is to
| be held at Convention Hall December to 16,
and gives promises of being one of the most
| elaborate affairs of the sort ever seen in this
country. The teachers themselves are show
| ing the greatest interest in all the details of
! the big fair, and their appeal to the public
| for assistance has already met with gen.
erous response. A popular teacher today, in
conversation with Star reporter, presented
a number of apparently convincing reasons
| why the objects of the association should
! meet with the approval and support of the
people of Washington In the course of her
| remarks she said
| "One of our ex-teachers is supported by her
| former fellows in an Insane asylum, another
| is an inmate of a free ward in an insane
| asylum, another is dependent upon the cold
| charity of distant relatives while still an
| other. incapacitated by pneumonia, contract
! ed while doing hall duty" is chronic in
| valid, supported by her friends; all because
they could not save completeness out of Sala-
| ries averaging $G70 a year
These cases are sad. but there are equally
| sad cases in all the walks Of life. 1t may
| then be asked, why should help be given to
! on teachers which is not rendered to doc
| tcrs, lawyers or merchants? For two rea-
| sens. The school superintendent gave one
| when lately appealed 10 to promote a teach
| er who is supporting an invalid sister and
| aged father on $3.50 salary. Don't tell me
| any more. 1t makes me sick at heart to
| hear 1t, and can do nothing to relieve it, If
promote for any reason other than the best
| interests of the schools, fail in my duty,
and three-fourthS of the women teaching
here are giving the larger part of their saia-
ries to aid others dependent on them The
fact is that women engaged in business ca
| reers do not cast from them they should
the ordinary domestic duties, but burn the
candle at both ends and hence break down.
that that business
man does not expect to make new family ties
binds closer about her the obligations which
already exist.
Another Good Reason.
THE second reason for providing for aged
and infrm teachers is even graver than the
first. The welfare of our future citizens de-
ponds upon our boys and girls having
healthy surroundings, both moral and phys
| zeal. consumptive teacher vitiates the
air of a school room, none too pure at the
best, whatever the ventilating system, and
spreads about her the germs of disease, to
take root, as modern microscopic investiga-
tions prove, wherever 1assitude depleted
condition renders the soil suitable. And no
where are lassitude and general depletion
more frequent thar in the rapidly growing
Child from twelve to sixteen years old-the
age at which our children go to the older
and less vigorous teachers. If the health de-
partment We're to make q tour of inyestiga-
ton tomorrow for the purpose of eradicating
consumption as 1t does smallpox or diphthe-
ria. a considerable percentage of teachers
whose records for past service eDtitle them
TO the gratitude of the public would be
forcibiy retired to private life and perjury.
The mental and moral evils consequent
upon inadequacy in a WORKOUT teacher are
still worse. as every High School teacher can
testify From men and women whose past
service entities them to every respectful con-
sideration-eXcept retention in the places for
which the very intensity of past occupation
n1GvC fhny,, unfit
unfit for the work of the next grade And,
as a rule the higher the grade, the greater
tie percentage of such teachers. The pupils
of these schools may love and respect their
instructors, but the temptation to deceive
where the pedagogueS eyes are too dim to
watch or ears too dull to hear or mental
agility too feeble to detect. is too much for
most young people. and hence habits of de-
ception are sometimes formed which mar
the character of the pupil for life. A trus-
tee asserted few years ago: Yes, know
that all the children who pass through Miss
Blank hands lose In scholarship what can
lever be made up to them, and that many of
them drop out of the schools never to return
because of her inadequacy for the place she
holds. Yet were to dismiss her tomorrow,
thousands of friends, gained when she was
an able teacher. would rise in her behalf to
push me from my seat One merchant ap-
pealed to by the committee said: Yes, Ill
give. I'd give anything to be sure that this
fund was raised before little Miss Blank is
forced to retire. -
Origin of the Association.
Two years ago a teacher in one of our
schools. who had taught ably for over
thirty years, and during most of that time
had supported widowed s.ster-in-law and
ner family on salary averaging $780,
broke down in health. and consequently did
such poor work that the school board was
forced first to reduce her and finally to
drop her from the rolls. So destitute was
she that her fellow teachers banded to-
gether to support her. and have done so
ever since. This case led to the formation
of the nucleus of the present Teachers AS
sociation. But this is only one of many
similar cases.
Fifteen years ago two sisters graduated
from the Normal School and began careers
Of self-support, uniting their two small
salaries and living in modest comfort
After teaching few years, one contracted
consumption, and for several years was
supported and nursed by her sister. After
her death the survivor struggled on with
the fatal disease, contracted at her dying
sisters bedside, preying upon her until She
too. found further attendance at school i'm
possible. 1t was after many hours of pain
full struggle between honest pride and bitter
necessity that she accepted the purse con-
tributed by her friends among the teachers
and went south; returning, too soon, to die
the cherished guest of one Of the noblest
Dhilanthropsts that this city, rich though
We are in unostentatious good men, affords.
Five years ago the teachers and pupils
Of a school building in the northwestern
part of the city assembled in one of our
largest churches to pay the last sad rites
to teacher whose loss Is felt to this day
in the division where she taught, whose
place it would cost the community many
thousands of dollars to fill, for her educa-
ton was costly, and whose talents as
teacher were so phenomenal that hundreds
of High School pupils acknowledge her
gratefully as the first to set their feet upon
the upward path. She died for lack of that
help which none dared offend her pride by
offering, in aiding a widowed mother and
younger sisters.
What Other Cities Have Done.
Germany, Switzerland and Canada give
governmental pensions to their teachers.
Brooklyn and Boston give years leave of
absence on half pay when teacher has
served for certain period. This period is,
in Boston, fifteen years, SO that the Boston
schools enjoy the phenomenon of teachers
who are both freshly equipped with modern
methods learned at normal Institutes dur
ing this half-pay year, and experienced in
teaching-a combination of good qualities
which the schools of Washington never en-
joy unless a specially fortunate teacher is
so situated as to be able to save enough to
take the years leave without pay.