Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1895-07-13
Don't Elect Them.
The Baltimore NeaoS says

uo DdNl1llOTG N6US says
Politics is the curse of the public school
system of Maryland. Probably in Anne
Arundel and Charles the attacks on School
Boards are to be attributed to partisan rancor,
but such officers should be beyond suspicion,
and so conduct school affairs as to merit the
confidence and support of the taxpayers. 1t
is disgrace to the State and menace to the
mental and moral growth of Its children that
the positions of commissioners, examiners,
trustees and teachers form part of the
'spoils' of politics. There seems 70 be a
growing opinion that the commissionerships
should be made elective, and the people be
given an opportunity to directly select their
own commissioners.
AS matter of fact, the interests of
the children, the prime benefciarles of
the system, generally speaking, are the
very last considered.
The order of concern goes down in
about this way
l, ExtraZealous care of the funds
2, Special regard for "inhoonce."
3, Too many women teachers.
4, Too much arrangement for their COLI
venience and economy, and too much
negligence, perhaps reckessness as to their
qualifications.
5, A VIGOROUSLY insufficient number of
male teachers weighted down by too many
depressing restrictions and, lastly
6, The children-65, 20. rs and so in
room-twice too many for male and four
times too many for female teacher
How easy to see that every consider
alton foreign to the real purpose of the
system is permitted to outweigh that
purpose
1t takes two bankers to guard the
money one examiner to audit claims
that do not appear in examination
papers about 100 women to discipline
and teach 5000 or 5000 pupils, half of
them boys vast amount of scheming
to arrange for teachers to board at
home-in exactly the same locality
they ought not to teach only a few
men to save the system from its cover
powering weakness and far too small
concern for the progress of the little
ones.
Everybody and everything are pro-
vided for before the tuition of the
children becomes a matter of concern.
And then the little ones can hardly
tell who is mistress and who is master
On this point the teachers them
selves are at odds. The male prlnci-
pal and female assistants who owe
their preferment to real merit are
never sure of their extended tenure
Outside malevolence, springing from a
half dozen pretexts, is a dangerous foe
of professional! superiority. But the
little miss who owes her place to Gin
foonce" can snap her fingers at all
boss-ship. She may not have sense
enough to know that her Office is that
of a time-killer, but she is very likely
to understand that she owes it to some
power before which in her case the
public school system has Frustrated
itself in the dust of obsoquiousness.
Hence, in spite of all the stereotyped
etfervescence proclaimlng the SYSTEMS
success, we have too frequent reason
to fear that it is still an abused ex-
ample of experimental paternalism.
That the current plan of selecting
commissioners should be changed to
something better is certain, but what
plan is uncertain. To make them
elective is to plunge the whole busl-
ness right into the whirlpool of politics,
deeper and more destructive than the
non-partisan imposture which now
eddies around it.