The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1897-08-17
An Under-Estimated Vocation.

To Dr. Lyman Abbott's demand for a
broader instruction in morals in the
public schools-or, to use his words,
the education of the people in all the
elements of character necessary to good
citizenship in a self-governing COM
munity," which must,''include fashion,
ing the affections and the will into an
earnest and loving desire to move in
harmony With the eternal, immutable,
divine laws of life"-the Rochester
Herald makes reply as follows: I'm
agine the kind of teachers that you
can get for five or. six hundred dollars
& year doing .. KIND ofTyqrlS that only
persons of the. highest mental and NOR
al endowments are capable Of Imag-
inc them doing it under the direction of
the men that constitute the boards of
education throughout the. country and
the superintendents of public education
and their assistants throughout the
various states.i AS weil might you ex-
pect to see a silver whistle made out
of pigs tall"
OF course it is ridiculous, when looked
at in humorous mood. But then, so
is the view which most persons take
of the functions Of school teacher in
the primary and intermediate grades.
When a man gets sufficient learning
and sufficient culture to fill a chair in
one of our big universities the Ameri-
can people know enough to pay him a
salary on which he can live in comfort
If moderately economical, and they de-
fer to him as one of the truly valuable
and estimable workers of the day. In
fact, there is as rule nothing too good
for a college, professor He can be. if
he wishes to be, social pet. a much
sought companionS of other foremost
men and a big hug" generally. No
man save possibly some of our magnet
ic clergymen in fashionable 'congrega-
tions is more' deferentially treated or
more effusively appreciated. |
We are not Sorry that this is so.
Certainly the man who dedicates his
trained powers and best energies to the
working out. Of academic problems in
order that his. feliowmen may profit
intellectually is well worthy of our high
esteem. But let us, with an eye to COM
parisons, look at another part of the
educational nnechanism-the primary
school. Here we not infrequently find
simply an asylum for.the INDECENT fem
mime relative of the ward school con-
troller, who with, no preparation be-
yond the possession Of an easily Sc
cured teachers certificate and a pull"
and with no ambition beyond the earn
ing of pin money until some man shall
marry her. is entrusted with the care of
children at the most delicate and crit
ical period in their lives; the period
when first impressions are formed the
seeds of habit planted and the ground
for the foundations of character first
broken. It's impossible to. quarrel with
the INDECENT Tehtive for working a pull
TO get -indifrerentiy performed job
for the smalLpay that's In Utmost of
us. similarly placed. would do the same.
1t is useless to condemn the controller
for using his authority in this manner,
since so long as school boards are gov
erned by politics the pull" is inevit-
able. and II one controller doesn't use
1t another one will. But what shall we
say concerning the Intelligence of the
public opinienrMhioh calmly and peace
fully tolerates this: Anomalous condi-
tion' permits school teaching I'm the
most important part OF the educational
mechanisnsap be fsgarded as d kind Of
hiling-in work for Observation-Disclosures or