The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1897-10-22


state the sum of 81, zee, 1928. OF, an average
of $3.50 for each school provided they were
| SO arranged as to average thirty pupils
each. This amount, says Mr. Stetson is
large enough, If properly expended, to
furnish every child in the state with an
opportunity to be instructed by compe-
tent teacher for thirty weeks during each
year, and also to furnish high school in
every town of the state of more than
twelve hundred inhabitants, and to pay
for one, and in many instances two terms
of high school in the smaller towns
After paying all the expenses connected
with maintaining these schools there
would be q balance remaining large
enough to procure competent superin-
tendents for all the schools of the state if
arrangements were made to place thirty
five or forty schools in charge of each
superintendent.
This is what5might be done were the
money raised judiciously and systemati-
cally expended. What is done Mr.. Stet-
on illustrates by an example drawn from
one of the rural towns of about 1000/in-
habitants. This town Is supporting nine
schools where three could accommodate
all the pupils that attend thesnine Every
expenditure is about trebled by the exist
ing arrangement. By reducing the num-
Der of the schools the salaries of the
tea hers could be raised to a reasonable
sum, the length of the terms could be
greatly extended and still there would be
surplus big enough with the aid that
the state offers to maintain free high
school for two terms Of ten weeks each
and pay the instructor salary Of $40
month. The squandering Of school
funds is, says Mr.. Stetson appalling
to persons who have made a study of these
questions. 1t begins when the lot for
| the school house is selected and the school
house built and 1t never stops. Poor, un-
slightly and unfit for the purpose though
many of the schoolhouses be they cost
more than they need to if the construction
were placed in the hands Of competent
persons. For the school supplies the
highest market price is frequently paid.
Some of the items of expenditure are
utterly absurd Thus Mr.. Stetson re-
lates a case where man charged So for
a trip to town to get a pane Of glass
which cost with the setting 25 cents. The
price paid for fuel Is frequently higher
| than. is asked for 1t in neighboring town
markets, and it is common thing in
some towns for the seller Of wood for
school purposes to cheat in the measure
ment.
The waste In teachers salaries is m UGH
greater than anywhere else. Not that
the salaries paid are high absolutely, for
they are often very low, but high rela-
lively, that is to the value and amount of
service rendered. A great deal of the
money expended.f for, this purpose is prac-
tically thrown away, SO incompetent is
the teacher, while some of it is worse
than thrown away. inasmuch as some of
the teachers are SO unfit that they do
positive harm to the pupils. Worse still
than the extravagances and incompe-
fences which hir. Stetson narrates is the
lack of interest which the people of many
of the rural towns take in their schools.
They do not visit the schools, says Mr..
Stetson, and therefore cannot study
| them; they do not know the teacher
they are not familiar with the. work done,
the methods used or the results achieved
| They are content with voting money for
school purposes, and leaving the school
officers to select ! 8, erect buildings,
provide furnishings and employ teachers
Mr.. Stetson observes truly that good
schools can never be maintained in any
community in which the parents are in
different about what is done for the
schools and how they do their work.
Mr.. Stetson notes also decline in the
tone OF the pupils growing, no doubt,
very largely out of the Indifference and
| erroneous ideas of parents. Many Of
them feel, f" says Mr.. Stetson "that they
are not in school to yield obedience to
lawful authority, to have just respect
and wholesome regard for the teacher. to
comply with the rules and regulations
made by school officials, and to master,
by their own efforts, the work assigned
them. But, instead, many children feel
that they are sent to school to be amused !;
| eA4~o AZ AZ PfkI Y VI tl&C1L oooA-
ness to critioise the teacher, report what
she does or they think she does, and what
she says or they think she says. to COM
ment upon the same, and to have the
work which is given them to do put in
SO attractive and understandable form
that they can master it by simply nod
ding acceptance to its tender. They
waste their ensrgy, pervert their lives,
contract bad habits, come to be influenced
by unworthy and unwholesome motives,
and become selfish in feeling and action,
and enfeebled in mind and body. When
one realizes that there are 1876, $50 children
enrolled in the schools of Maine at the
present time, then does he begin to I'M
derstand the terrible waste that is being
made by these same young people. They
fail to appreciate the purpose for which
they are in school, what their attitude
toward the school should be, what work
they should do while in school, and wha
purpose the school is to serve in their life
| and devalnDmeOt -