The times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1890-1903, 1900-03-13
Tho country scl,ooi1na'am.

AT q. time when city SCnCOl EiedCLtiS axe
clamorins for more pay, it IS only talr
THAI someone should say. a word for the.
teachers in the hill girt town of !N1assa-.
chusetts Until about three years ago.
teachers Of mngraded schools in these
towns received from five to six dollars a.
week paying out of this two or two and
a half dollars for board. Such schools.
were tie easy goals of incapable, but as
piring country girls who disdl1es mousse
work. for in man.. cases they could
board at home and save The imrorta-s
Icn Of teachers was discouraged and es-f
DecialIy the college-graduated girl who,
came with her credentials vas subjected
to a criticism of which the homebred
teacher knew nothing School Supervisors
tacitly owned that poor payment poor.
work, but they professed to be unable to
better school conditions.
Then came change. To-day the small
towns receive two dollars q week from
the State on condition that only we'll
equipped teachers shall be employed.
This gives the teachers many liberties.
among which is her selection Of "a board
ing place away from the school neigh
borhood. if advisable. The school year
has been heightened to thirty-two weeks.
As a result, college and normal gradla-9
ties are doing excellent work in the un-.
graded schools: but they come and go:
seldom ican teacher be induced to
remain over two terms, for an eight
dollar school in a sequestered district
is not the Excelsior to which young.
hopeful life aspires. And so these rural
schools seem set apart as pracuce-ground
for teachers who have an experience"
to earn, before the good" position will
offer its higher honor and salary.
Our weak schools. with their dozen
or less, pupils. are the expensive schools
of the State. Put four of these into one.
secure a permanent teac cher at five
f1undred-dollar salary, and school expen-
ses, including the transportation fees,
are reduced, while gains to the pupils are
more than doubled. The lone country
schools need the city teacher: she may
not be better In intellect or in character
tl:an the country could furnish. but she Is
the other; and this other when a noble
kind, is healthful life-infusion, reve-
lation to the home child who did not
know that the world was so large anu
that his part was dn 1t.
But says the contender for low wag-
cs. ...tale expenses of a country teacher
are small; society, which usually means
the two or three neighborhooi families.
with an occasional village social, demands
nothing in dress, but appropriateness.
and nothing in charity, larger than dimes
Now he doesn't know. With the right
teacher. her school-children stand for So
ciety. for charity and for al, else that
she has TO give: She needs to go before
them as we'll groomed as If she presided
over city schoolroom. The children
..care" with all their aesthetic might, and
the teacher defrauds them of an art
lesson every day that she is poorly dres-
sed. There is deal Of school housekeep-
ing to be done in and about the country
schoolhouse If hysienic laws are kept. and
tanitor,s work is hard on dress. Foot
wear. on the country roads. needs renew
ing every few weeks. It should cost
the country teacher IS much to dress as
ii costs the city teacher.
"It is easier to control and to teach ten
than flfty.'' says the fair-waSe scepic.
But ungraded work. varying from primer
to higher mathematics requiring three
or more classes in many of its branches.
cannot be as easy as gadc-teaching with
its systemized one-class Where the mes
nerlsm Of numbers in wanting, the teach
en- needs to do much outside work. to
keep UP her pupils interest in books. In
heal thful exercise, In good comradeship,
is discipline. and IN all school adjuncts
.tConpensat ion?, Yes: but If any, class
of workers deserves a bonus is IS TIE
faithful, aard-Horking, self denying
country teacher.-Boston TRANSCRIPT.