The Jasper weekly courier. [volume] (Jasper, Ind.) 1858-1922, 1897-04-09
Permancy Of Place for Teachers.
Lebanon (Ohio) Exponent.)

There is no more serious impedi-
/, ment to the success Of the country
o schools to-day than the uncertain
> tenure Of position of the teachers.
. What business is there which
|, changes hands so continually and
so certainly? Employers usually
; avoid temporary employees. They
are never thorough, never interest
ed, never skilled. They are une-
: economical in every sense. They
: waste material; they waste time;
/, require more bossing; do their work
poorly. They are the most expen-
; sive, though hired at the lowest
rates. They are never responsible,
and generally untrustworthy.
Is the business of our schools diff
ferent from all others that changing
hands does not injure it? Or is it
a less important business than all
others?
Our country schools suffer great
ly from this evil. 1t takes at least
. three years for teacher TO attain
his best in given school. The
: first year he is learning the school
and the school is learning him.
The second year he begins to make
the school what it should be. The
third year will finally establish him
so that he can really be of highest
service the fourth.
In many country schools, the
teacher is always beginning. His
predecessor has left no records eth
er Of the pupils or the work which
has been done. His plans may
have been excellent; bdf no trace
of them is.te be found. Even the
, classes he had formed, their pro-
gress in the different subjects, are
entirely undiscoverable as a matter
Of record. The new teacher must,
! therefore, begin work from the be-
ginning, form new plans, organize
new classes, and base his whole
work on insufficient knowledge.
Could anything be more recklessly
wasteful? 1t is not the teachers
interests we are speaking for, it is
the important vital interests of the
, children in the school. tits not the
teacher who suffers most; it is the
community. Strange, that the very
:. highest concerns of society should
be thus utterly disregarded and so
seriously impaired.
The only remedy for this is per-
mlnency of place for the teacher;
Under our present sub-district sys-
ten this will never be. This. has
been sufficiently demonstrated dur
ing the past twenty years.
Let all the teachers of township
be hired by central board, and let
those teachers be subjected to some
executive inspection, and teachers
will remain for five years where.they
now remain one.
The township|management, which
will compare and contrast the diff
ferent teachers, will detect the com
pctent and incompetent, retain the
former and let go the latter.
The leading causes of changes in
ths teachers are now purely local.
He goes or stays, not because he is
a poor or good teacher. 1t ia be-
cause he is'or is not the relative Of
some director or other influential"
person in. the neighborhood; be-
ca lse he is or is not needy; he did
or did not favor the children of GER
ia n families he did or did not call
on some young lady in the neigh
boThood; he did or did not teach to
suit some ignorant busybody; he
di or did not go to some church,
and so on. :. :. Al.
His success as a teacher is often
times the least and last considera-
tion.
Tais could not be if the hiring
power were sufficiently removed to
be free from some of these local in
fluences, and if his success. as
teacherswas decided by some COM
pctent person specially designated
for the purpose.
This would be accomplished by
alb ,lishing the sub-districts, and
placing the hiring Of the teachers
with the Township Board. The
duty Of hiring teachers would then
be OF sufficient Importance to ie-
quire and demand attention,
The advance agent of prosperity
is displaying line Of samples that
is receiving general APPROVAL
Hun,ingburg Argus. :.
The advance agent Of prosperity
is displaying line of samples that
is receiving general approval
Corydon Republican.
1t would seem that the approval
is extraordinarily general. The
samples seem to have affected the