Daily Kennebec journal., 1897-03-11

Il
LAW or the State. and II II Is found In Its
i operation not to meet the wishes or cx-
| pectations of it's friends. then IT can be
Mr.. Mccullough of Washington: Mr.
| President, / do not wish to appear as u
opposition to this bill. Last week. TOOK
occasion to send to the eaucat,ors .,,,, 30, o.
| posed bill and asked them their oplnlon
of It. and to advise me. | have received
quite a number of letters ana WniIe tne
| measure has some strong supporters. u
| great many of them think tnat tnis is
radical legislation and should receive
| careful consideration. One OF the prihci-
| pal objections to the bill is the first clause
| of section S: 'He shall not grant TO the
same candidate more than three thru
| grade certificates" Now we nave some
| very excellent teachers who have i;lbofeu
| in the schools long and faithfully ana
| have brought up and introduced into the
| higher grades competent graduates
| from their schools as could be found, VINO
il seems to me- under this act, would be
debarred from receiving certificate 10
| teach for more than three years IN sue
cession II this Is true. 1t would De a a
| feature that they objected to Is that II
takes from the school fund $65o. for the
purpose Of paying for these examiners.
| Another objection advanced is that IN
| many OF the counties. especially IN WASH
ington county. where these places are set
| apart for examination. II Will cost con
| siderable for teachers to go to those
places to be examined, with no surety
| that when there they will receive y GER
| ticate. 1t seems to me tina, if there was
| II public necessity and n general outcfy
| for the passage of this bill. we would
| have seen some petitions here. have
not seen any. II may be that they nave
| not thought it necessary. The senator
| from oxford says that in The rural dis
tricts they know that the schools are not
managed by efficient teachers. If that
| is $50. why not have the act apply to the
rural districts? AS ,nis is "a matter. of
| more Importance than any other piece
| of legislation that has come before this
| session. II matter in which we are all
| deeply Interested, and as 1t does not go
| into effect until Sept. |, 1899 and the Leg
| islature meets soon after no injustice
will be done To anyone, and move that
| this bill be referred to the next Legisla-
| ture. In the meantime ,ne people can be
| educated and pass upon this. and the
representatives that they. send here two
years from now will be thoroughly COM
| petent to vote upon this matter.
Mr. Walls of Knox: We are well aware
that this is an important piece of legis-
lation. Our State superintendent CORE
| sponded with all the school superintend
| ents throughout the State. and many of
the teachers. making INQUIRIES covering
| this ground. and | think il has been
demonstrated by the senator from Oxford
| that about IS per cent. of them favored
| u measure similar to this. The object of
| this is TO stimulate those who contem
plate teaching and those who are already
| teaching. so that they will endeavor to
| iii themselves for better work. They
| nave something 10 learn every u:tN fria-
tive 10 methods of teaching and the prin
cples that they are to teach. This Is
intended to hold something before them
| that will show them the necessity Of
| reading upon the principles of teaching.
| | know of many teachers who never read
| "A book upon the subject or took any in
| terest in methods of teaching. Ii they
| get their certificate and their money and
Il certain number Of weeks. they are sat
| isfied many of them | do not say this
| is the case with the large majority of
est and Woodworking people. We shall
have two years and "A half before this
! goes into effect. and as it goes into the
| fall of 1899. the Legislature meets and ad-
iourns before this bin will take effect
Ii leaves it SO that we can adopt it and
start upon it now and work upon II. Civ
ing "a chance to find whether II will work
| or not. and If after trying 1t for two
years. the State superintendent. or those
who are interested in it, find that it is
| not practicable. of course they would be
the first ones to come to this Legislature
at the next session and say: We do not
| want it, and want il changed. The idea
as | understand 1t. is that the grade
matter is left somewhat discretionary
with the superintendent or those whom
| he may assign to perform the duties. OF
course at the outset they will be quite
liberal. The examination will not be
rigid and will be conducted in the same
way as any good. sensible man would un-
| dertake to conduct anything that is for
the benefit of education or the business
he is engaged in. If a teacher. after
teaching for three years. has not interest
enough in the matter of teaching to en-
deavor to qualify herself to- teach in q
| higher grade than the one she was able
| to get into first. she might as well be put
out of the schools We do not believe in
this stationary business; we believe in
progression. In some other states that
have adopted this measure. the lowest
grade can be held for only one year and
this measure gives three years.
| | feel that no injustice can be done to
the teachers spoken of in the cities. Your
! primary teachers should be the best
| teachers in the schools. and 1t is the hes;
| Investment. when you hire your primary
| teachers, to get those who are best quail
| fled to teach. My experience has been
that ! hired teacher who was, teaching
| smartest young ladies in our section. ana
put her into primary school, and the
results from that were the best of any
| thing did in that town. From that time
we have made selection according TO
| adaptation and fitness of the best teach
ers that could be found for our primary
schools and. today. we can show you in
| started in that primary school have
shown themselves right through. They
got started right. This idea of teaching
| without any idea of how to teach is
worse than thrown away. You know
| that if they. have been taught in such Z,
manner that they. have got to be REIN
/ structed. they are in worse condition than
| II thcy never knew anything about it. If
you nave got to get false ideas out of
| tHetI HeduS lnat tney received in their
| primary work it is worse than IL they
were never there. think that in this
| bill there is nothing that would work in
| jury. As you say. it is for q trial of two
| years. No doubt the honorable senator
Will be here in two years. and he will
| have chance to look the matter over
| and he can at that time say that we do
not want such legislation and the thing
| can be disposed of. I hope the bin will
! pass and that we shall give ii a trial for
| the time required.
Mr.. McCullough: This bill says grad
yates OF colleges may receive a certificate
Tor fVe years. graduates of Normal
/ schoois for three years and of High
schools and academies for three years
anu no longer. BY tnat third grade the
| teacher can only receive a certificate for
1 three years.
Mr.. Roberts: The second grade certi-
| hcate Is intended to cover the best of our
common schools. The third grade is in
tended to cover only the very poorest and
smallest schools. with beginners as teach
ers. and We are expecting that they will
be able to get out of the third grade into
the second grade. If they cannot, they
are not worthy of being teachers
Mr.. Mccullough In cities you may
| have teacher who is qualified to teach
| and fits herself by examination and
| proves that she is qualified to advance
| to the second grade. How is she going
| to get a school in that city unless it is
| vacated by somebody i'm the second
| grade? COmnnna hac