Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1900-02-16
SCHOOL TEACHERS
NOT PAID ENOUGH
Some Get the Pay o.
a Oitcher.
RAISE GRADE OF TEACHERS
BY All Means, and if You Raise
The Pay of Teachers Then
They Can Raise Themselves

The Pay of Teachers Then
They Can Raise Themselves
Mr.. EDIToR-I am glad to see the
Public Free SCHOOL, question has
evoked some discussion in your
paper and agree with your Five Oaks
writer in wishing it may prove in
teresting and profitable, Now Mr..
Editor no one can expect to please
everybody and no one knows this
better than one who has been trying
to teach for 80 years, | would like to
state a few facts and ask few
questions and leave the suggestions
and answers to others who are bet
ter qualified TO answer and suggest.
We will start ont with the assertion
that no vocation or profession is so
poorly paid as the free school teach
ers of our county. S1S, $50, S25, per
month, this does not include board.
Now Mr., Editor we see men along
the Clinch Valley r. r. measuring
and inspecting lumber whose
wages are from $50 to $125 per
month. Which is the harder, a
technical examination on all the
text books Of the Free Schools or
learning TO count tie knots, and cal
culate the feet in a board? How is
1T that the wages for commissary
clerks in the lumber and coal regions'
are about $50 per month"; The coal
digger makes from $3.50 to 81 per
day In the mines, A man who can
run a saw mill receives from 50 to 81
per day. Nay We will get lower still.
The man who has just sense enough
to drive pair of<nules, or Drawn to
handle pit T shovel gets from
S1.25 to Shopper day.or about same
of a first grade teacher, And still
the cry goes over the land about the
inefficiency of our teachers, that
such and such teachers have their
hands in the public crib, and schools
year after year, drawing their money
right along, as a kind of gift. One
is lazy, one too easy, one is proud
&c. Oh! how many objections some
people find to the teacher. Is it any
wonder that the young men who
have qualified themselves 90 into
other professions and leave the free
schools to the girls and a few sold
fogies" like the writer? One more
word and we will leave the teachers.
Raise the grade of teachers by all
means, and if you raise the pay of
teachers then they can raise them
selves, Water won't rise above it's
level".
Now as TO the indifference of some
parents in sending their children to
school. Perhaps your former Cedar
Bluff correspondent touched the key
note when he ivocated compulsory
law. Some people will never be in
duced to send to school in any
other way. We see people in every
neighborhood who will not send to
school and of those who do send
not many help their children in the
preparation of their lessons at home,
or show much interest in the school
and give the teacher the generous
support and cooperation so necessary
to the success Of the school. We
wonder If the patrons OF any school
have allowed their teacher (perhpps
a LADY, to procure their own fuel and
maybe make their own fires?
Well some one says We have too
many school houses and that the
attendance is too small. An average
Of from 20 to 80 pupils is as many
as any teacher can handle to an ad-
vantage, where the pupils are so
scattered in their studies, and as the
school population is continually
shifting and changing it might be
better to mount the houses on wheels
and move them around in order to
please some people, Yes give us
longer terms, and as some neighbor-
hoods don't seem to want schools
and won't support them when they
have them. Why give the schools to
the people who do not appreciate
them? Query, how many schools