The Forrest City times., 1897-07-09
The Free Normal.

the teachers with us, they are our friends and we are glad they have been benefited, and all that, and have not said anything adverse to their institution, preferring, as we had the normal here, to encourage the work, that we might get all the good out of it possible. But, as an esteemed contemporary puts lt, whatever ofgood there was m t has now been accomplished, and t is thing of the past" and we deire to register our views on tho injustice of the appropriation for this purpose, coming as it does within the scope of our opposition to paternalism in all it's forms, and while the normal is no doubt greatly beneficial to the teacher, we fail 10 see what more right the state has to prepare a teacher to follow his profession for a liveli- hood than it has a farmer, or mer. t4ant, and who would say that to do the latter would be justice to the taxpayer? None, no, not one! Thinking npon these things we were forcibly impressed by an ar- ticle along this line appearing in an esteemed exchange, and as t covers tho ground so thoroughly. and acceptably to our views. we reproduce It, as perhaps an abler statement of the case than we could nave madc. We regret that we wero SO engrossed in the consider. ahon of the main subject that we 2 forgot to note the location of the sewspaper from which we clip tho To- ,s,ilowing: "The News fossSsesi,es to call attention to tbe 'Sarmal farce, the pernicious prin. ctpie that supports it and the evil results that follow.
 It IS very harmful principle 2f patcrnalism, and while it's osten. C. aloie purpose is to increase the F efficiency of the teachers to the ul- llmxte benefit of the scholars there can be no question that it is hurtful rather than helpful to our school interests. What more right has the State of Arkansas to ap. propriato money for the prepara. ton of teachers than she has to do tho same for lawyers, printers, doctors, farmers or any other class of men?
 A school teacher goes into busi ness, like any other man enters bis, for the money there is in 1t and all this tommy-rot about his starving for the love of humanity IS stuff Of course the successful teacher must love his work, but it Is the salary that he is to receive which causes him 10 sign a contract to teach, and pot desire to turn h's talent to the uplifting of the human race. The ordinary public school teacher, for the amount of work he does and the preparation he has made to do that work cor. rectly, one of the best paid class is men in the country.
 "We would not be misunderstood on this salary question. As an or. dinary rale, our teachers are paid every cent they are worth; the News would like to see them paid good deal more, but it would i''St demand that they be worth n good deal more.
 That the principal of the nor. nal appropriation is wrong is ap- parent on the face of it; that it's e, suits are equally as hurtful ough, to be fully as plain to one who Will take the time to investigate the matter with some degree of care Paternalism towards public school teachers results in poor teachers. Teaching school for while is held out as a tempting stepping stone to the young man for something better. He does not see the weary toil and hard days and nights of preparation between hlm and a salary that lie ahead of the lawyer