The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1900-03-29
TEACHERS PAY.
John Mulvaney Gives Rea-
sons Why 1t Should
Be Increased.
HOURS ARE NOT SHORT
Much Work Must Be Done
Outside of School
Hours.
To the Editor of "The Jersey city News: !:


The question of the compensation of our
| teachers and principals has been unset
| tied and unsatisfactory for many years.
| We members of Boards of Educatlon'
| who have to do directly with the schoois,
and who have opportunity Tor opSerVinS
| the conditions which surround the teacn-
| ers and the work which they nave 70 do,
| do not for moment doubt that all RANKS
| of the teaching profession are greaely I'LL
derDaid.
| ers work than that for only five houfs
| day, for only five days in the week, Iof
| only ten months in the year, teacner
| does her work sitting at a desk IN COM
| Portable easy chair, in class OF twenty
| or thirty pupils. All she has TO do IS can
| the roll, mark absences, hear recltatlons
from book in which the answers are are
given, and give, out the lessons 1or the
/ next .day-and that's ALL
/ But we know of the hard training, the
| exacting requirements made OF them pe,
| fore they are qualified to take hold OF a
| class of boys and girls, and by a diIerenl
| course of action toward the different chll-
! dren, SO mould their character and so
/ develop their brain power that they may
/ be turned out of the class at the enu Oh
| the term OF five months as fully devel-
| oped as possible in that length of time
/ To do this the teacher, during those nve
| hours each day is under the most tense
| and continued strain. Each pupil in her
| class has different characteristics, and
/ each peculiar characteristic of each in
| dividual pupil must be recognized, Watch-
/ ed and studied, so that intelligent ]udg-
| menC can De IOrIneu DIS W IlOW bCol ~
deal with that particular Characteristic,
/ whether to smother or develop u, ana
! how along what lines. She sometimes IS
required to take what appear to be VIC
| ious tendencies in child and SO develop
| them that in their application they be.
! come good. This work and its results, II
| successful, can only be accomplished, IN
the first place, by long and earnest study
| of that most complex thing in creation
the mind and nature of child and IN the
second place, by. the. application IN the
1 class of the knowledge ACQUIRED
through that study. This application Is
analogous TO the work of lawyer in the
mastery of the principles involved in it,
or to the work of the physician in the ap-
plication of remedies after diagnosis OF
the physical peculiarities which make up
the condition of his patient. The work OF
the teacher is harder, however, for where
as the lawyer or doctor has at one time
| teacher, for only five hours a day, for
! only five days in the week, for only ten
months in the year. has forty, fifty and
often more, given subjects upon which to
| apply, with no time for thought, the prin-
ciples learned during her hard prepara-
tory training. And that is only the work
done in the class room.
Out of class she must make up and
keep the records of each pupil, and other
! clerical work. and in addition must devote
a large portion of her time to the prepara-
| ton of lessons for the next day, in all
her different subjects In this prepara-
/ ton she must keep in mind the peculiari-
| ties of the individuals in her class, 30 that
1 her presentation of the lesson in one or
4 a half-dozen different ways, may be lucid,
| intelligible and interesting to every pupil,
4 and SO that the remarkable tendencies in
any one may be brought to subserve the
| purposes of the school. Neither branch of
| this work, in school or out, can be per-
| formed without the exercise of the strong
| est, most exacting effort and strain.
| We require them, too. to dress well and
in taste: to continue professional study,
| to be up to the times; we require of them
| sweetness of temper, high ideals. strong
sense of duty, professional zeal, all com
| bined with hard common sense. In a
1 word, we require of themseverything con-
| sidered necessary or desirable in the make
up of a profession-and for this we have
been paying them the wages of day labor
erS.
The citizens of this city ought to be
| proud of the fact that almost without ex-
ception our teachers fully meet the re-
4 quirements made. They go further, and
work and of their pupils, many of them,
out of their scanty wages, spend money
| in the purchase of books and apparatus
| which meagre appropriations render inn
possible in any other way. They also
!! spend their money in efforts to beautify
their class rooms with pictures and other
decorations, in order to make them at
| tractive to pupils.
1 In this matter of compensation we can
not of course expect to compete with
| larger citiess they are more prosperous
| ana derive income ITOIH SOURCES WHICH
we have not: and in training our own
| teachers the fact that we afford them
| without expense a professional education
and means of livelihood ought not to
| be lost sight of. But making all reason
| able allowances, the fact remains that
| the salaries we pay our teachers is mex
| cusably out of proportion to the services
| they render.
/ assume forty weeks work in the year;
| out of this they feed and lodge them
| Selves and buy clothes, and attend pro-
| fessfonal schools, and subscribe to maga-
| two years they nave their wages in
creased by IS a year, or twenty cents a
| week; in three years more we give them
| $120 a year more, or So a week; at the
| end of twelve years of hard and faithful
| service, and when in ordinary course
| about thousand children have passed
| through teachers hands, she receives
| another increase, this time of $96 year,
| or $40 a week. By that time she has
| become so welded to her profession that
| she couldn't exist without it, and that be-
! ing the maximum she then settles down
to the cheerful contemplation of spend
/ ing the balance of her days revelling in
the Oriental luxury which can be. pro-
cured for the SIS week which she is
/ allowed to earn for the balance of her
/ days, if her health keeps good.
4 The result of this treatment has been
/ that in many instances we have educated
the daughters of our citizens, given them
a
1 which they have applied for and easily
procured positions in other cities at a
| salary so much above what we pay, that
If nays them to bear the added incon-
4 veniences which work in another city en-
tails We may say that they do wrong,
that they ought to have more pride in the
city which has given them what they
| have and so on. But how can we expect
! a spirit of local patriotism or civic
gratitude in those whom we treat in this
Wav? How even can we expect a spirit
i of pride in others when we pay good
teachers less than the wages of a
/ mediocre stenographer, who may have
but little education and less than a
| years professional training? A servant
in a family is paid as we'll, on the
1 How is it possible for teacher, with
/ out the strongest effort, to have in her
civic pride, when she sees how other cities
no better off than we, show that they APP
4 preciate the Importance of her work in
| the development and prosperity of city?
| The excuse is that we can't afford it,
/ We can afford it, If we look at it proper
ment of this city-a development which
! would make of it a metropolis--is the lack
4 Of pride in what little we have Residents
of other Cities not nearly as good as this
| are loud and never ceaSing in sounding
| the praises of their own towns. A Jersey
| ly ever opens his mouth except to find
| fault with his home, and generally regis
i ters at hotels as coming from New York
| This spirit Is wrong and unjust and often
| er than not, unfounded We have his
tory surroundings, and opportunities Of
| which we may well be proud. At times