St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1896-02-13
FOR NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. SAKE.
What the Teachers of ST. Paul Are
Really Doing.

What the Teachers of ST. Paul Are
Really Doing.
To the Editor of the Globe
Inc hand that rocks the cradle
rocks the world" Nay, verify, now
adays not quite! Almost before the
cradle ceases its swaying the little in
mate Is sent to the kindergarten cat
three years to the private-at five, the
pubic institution. Henceforth,
mother, your mission is largely out of
your own hands, you have divided it
with the kindergarten and her sue
cessors-the grade teachers
What kind Of women shall they be?
DR.. Winship, in his recent spirited
address before the teachers, said in
substance that on no institution or in
f1uence are the man and woman of
twenty years hence, who are to be and
do all that, then is or is done, so pro-
foundly dependent as upon the schools
and the teachers Of the present and
immediate future. What kind shall
they he?
The Pioneer Press of Friday, says in
substance, that teachers need not COM
plain If salaries are cut down, hours
heightened, extra meetings imposed
and rooms crowded, Clerks, book
Keepers, stenographers, ETC., are tired
to death, too, and receive less pay"
True enough. Teachers, as individuals,
nave not an iota more of claim to con-
sideration than the rest of mankind.
No, one cares; no one ought to care, for
the teachers physical condition, consid-
erlng her as person, as an individual,
more than for the physical condition Of
any saleswoman in the city. The ques-
ton is not what do you want her to
bear, but what can you afford to let her
bear? She is the woman who lives
more hours every day with your chill
dren than you do yourself. Have you
not a right to demand that your chill
dren have her at her best, not when
her vitality is at ebb tide? Can you,
ambitious fathers, who are raising men
to be the bright lights Of the next CEN
fury or the clear-headed right-mind-
ed average men of the next generation,
can you afford, say, to leave them for
six hours mot five) every day in the in
fuence Of a woman troubled, worried
by work undone for lack of time and
vitality, or fretted by the nagging, sap
ping neve-tapping of fifty (not thirty
f1ve) other pupils besides your own boy?
VIII your son get the best that is in her?
Is she, hurried and worried, likely to
train him in clear, impartial cool, good
judgment? Will she, wearied beyond
expression by tireSome standing, by
late work the night before and the dis
ciplining Of forty youngsters-any three
she, I say, have the patience to listen
to his original thought, and follow or
guide him patiently through an original
investigation?
Time approaching fifteen years have
been associated with educators, and
never, until I read it in the Pioneer
Press, have I heard of seventy-fve as
the proper number Of pupils to the
teacher. In her idlest dream 10 city
teacher contemplates it as the regular
thing. Fifty comes nearer what is eX-
pected, practically. Teachers have
BEEN told within the week in this city
that they may consider temselves for
tunate If they escape with less than
sixty. The room cont aiming less. than
forty is the exception, to be regarded
as a snap" -"s $50 'S''a7 ,"SaA-
The man who talks of five hours as
the teachers time Of work knows
nothing of the matter. Pupils enter
the rooms at 8:45 and lis. From that
time the teacher must be on the alert
Schools close nominally at $3.50, but
show me one teacher who ever leaves
her building before o'clock, except
on teachers meeting days, and 1 will
show you fifteen who stay until after
5. Talk of even this as the teachers
work! You might as well talk of the
lawyer as working only during the
time he is in the court room, leaving
out the hours Of investigation, working
UP of his case, brief making, etc. So
with the teacher, hours upon hours
are spent by her also in investigation
and working up of her various
cases. and should be paid for just
as the lawyer is paid for all his work.
not merely the time spent before judge
and jury.
AS for the teachers meetings, for
myself 1 hardly see how it would be
practical to do away with them. 1t
seems out of the question to dream of
supervisors visiting each of fifty
buildings and instructing one or two
teachers in each, when grade meet
ing can bring them all to her for an
hour at a central place for instruction.
In conclusion, let me remind that the
teacher exists for the school. 1t is a
mere matter of fact and statistics that
seventeen times the vitality is used UP
in a given time in dealing with the
growing than would be used in dealing
with the adult mind.
Therefore is the teachers work not
to be compared with that Of foreman
over forty or fifty adult workmen.
Nevertheless the latter is often better
paid. The clerk or saleswoman deals
with goods, the teacher deals with the
imperishable mind, the immortal soul
Of the children that we claim are dear
err to US than life itself. Shall they be
considered as giving the same sort Of
service-shall they be reckoned for on
the same schedule?
The officers under the present regime
are doing manfully all they can to
keep our schools UP to the most envia-
BILE standing they have climbed to dur
ing the last ten years; but it rests,
after all, with the great army of de-
voted fathers and mothers to uphold
them by insisting that the girls and
boys shall be under the influence Of
women of the most wonnanly kind, I'M
spoiled by the effort to carry double
load for retrenchment's sake.
w