The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-12-25
OUR INSTRUCTORS.
No State i'm the Union Can Boast
a More Efficient Corps
of SchOOlteacherS-Their
Work Is Monument.
BY PHILIP NJ. FISHER,
Editor OF the Pacific Educational Journal.

Editor of the Pacific Educational Journal.
THE CALL sends Christmas greeting to
the teachers of the State. There is host
of them. The official report for the school
year ending June 80, 1894, gives the exact
number employed as 6237. At this writing
the number is easily $500. Not few, as
in other ayocations, are unemployed. The
young teachers come along so rapidly, the
older ones get out of the way so slowly,
that some are pushed out of the current.
And the teachers who are not teaching are
peculiarly unfortunate, as those who know
them best are fully aware. They come
from almost everywhere. Some are native
to the soil and sky, others come from the
States all along the way from Maine west
ward, from Canada and the States to the
north. None come from the SOUTH be-
cause south of California they do not yet
export the product; and to the west-well,
we are the West.
They are found wherever fifteen children,
between and II years of age, cluster; be-
cause this is the number that the good
mother, the State, has decided is neces-
sary to justify the expense of maintaining
a nursery. For these she appropriates $500
annually. If the number increases to
twenty, she provides $500 for them. In the
edge of the woods, deep in the shady can
yon, up on the breezy hilltop, out in the
fertile valley, in village, town and city,
with wide distances separating them, or
thickly clustered, the California teachers
are found. Working with the industry of
the beaver, but to the results of the coral,
enduring, hoping, succeeding; of the peo-
pie, yet not of them; with their patrons
and yet often opposing them; blending,
yet leading; expressing public standards
and forming them.
This is their hazardous yet helpful
place; unique, trying, not without per
sonal sacrifice, but rarely without the
cheering reflection of the aggregate value
of the common service. In some counties
the variety is almost startling. In visit
to Modoc some years ago | found Canada,
France, Maine, Pennsylvania and Virginia
touching elbow in the teachers institute.
In San Diego last year it seemed that
every State east of US had sent its repre-
sentative as the trains went through. OF
these $500 about 5000 are women, the ratio
being to l, and increasing with the years.
The schoolmaster of the Middle and South
ern States has given way to the school
| mistress of New England. If she remem-
| bers him at Christmas he will be we'll re-
mem bered.
Should he in his gallantry undertake to
remember her, where would it end? In
respect to sex curious local conditions ap-
Of
Francisco employs "a men and 1872 women,
ratio OF to 10; Los Angeles County, 100
to 40; Alameda County, 81 to 1913; San
Diego County, SO to 1862; San Luis Obispo,
81 to Sc; Nevada, p to so; Hunt oldt, 43 to
80; Colusa, 81 to 81; Modoc, 10 to 81; Sac
ramento, II to 1866, ratio of L to IA, the
highest in the State; Siskiyou as to As, an
amicable division. 1t was reported to the
writer few years since that the city of
San Diego, in corps of 20 teachers, en-
ployed one lone man, and he was at the
head of the High School! About one
sixth of the number quit teaching in this
State at the end of each year. How are
their places filled? There are three sources
of supply.
The semi-anuaI examination by the
county boards of education (57 in alb of
new applicants for certifcation; second,
the State normal schools and the State
University; third, immigration. The first
is the most convenient, least expensive,
and therefore the most popular. 1t is not
difficult for an expert teacher, who has
probably been member of county board
himself, to prepare bright young man or
woman to pass the local examination sue
fr1It
have been made in this way by expert
enced teachers. These examinations have
been the chief source of supply for years
and will probably continue to be until the
time shall come for the legislation that shall
require professional training. Graduates
of the pedagogical department of the two
universities of the State may be certiicated
without examination by county boards.
This number has been small up to date
and has gone mainly into the high schools
therefore the professional training falls
largely upon the normal schools of the
State, of which there are three, named in
the order of their establishment: San
Jose, Los Angeles, Chico. OF the 6257
teachers of the State in 1894, 1866 were
graduates of California State normal
schools, 427 of normal schools outside of
California; total of 1898, or % $40 per
cent of the whole number employed. This
percentage is steadily increasing. The
experience of the teachers of 1894 may be
judged from the fact that 9S2 held educa-
tional diplomas, representing five years
work, and 1926 life diplomas, representing
ten years service. Their scholastic quail
fication appears in the fact that 473 held
high school certificates, 41S7 grammar
grades and 1906 primary grades. Their
spirit may be inferred from the further
statistics that 5110 read some educational
journal. Accepting the belief that the
State should have professionally trained
teachers, some interesting facts are re-
vealed by the following table, in which the
bay Counties are compared with those
of Southern California;"