West Virginia argus. [volume] (Kingwood, W. Va.) 1877-1946, 1901-10-24
TEACHERS WAGES
And Boards OF Education i'm Preston
County.

term, although many of them are
young and inexperienced and will
teach their first school this coming
winter. Still there are few schools
without teachers. and where the
matter is uncertain and the schools
Will only be all taken up by employ
ing everybody who appears, no diff.
ference how young or Inexperienced
and all the No. 3 teachers in the
county.
About twenty-five of the best
teachers of the county have dropped
out of the ranks during the past
year and gone into other business
that pays better, and secured posi-
tons of various kinds more perma-
nent and better pay than teaching.
We also know of several other teach
ers who will teach their last term
this winter, as they already have
other work and positions in view.
What is the reason for all of this
backsliding in the ranks and almos,
wholesale desertion of the work by
our teachers1 The answer is plain
enough, and the facts are a disgrace
to Preston county. Our teachers
are not paid as well now as they
were nearly twenty years ago, and
while wages and salaries in every
other line of business or profession
have increased the pay of our teach
ers has actually been reduced, and
right during the most prosperous
times known for years.
The highest wages paid No. 1
teachers in the county is but Sss
per month, and from that down to
lower than the law allows in at least
one district. The last two years we
taught in Kingwood district, seven
teen and eighteen years ago, we got
$40 per month teaching at Pleasant
Dale and Green's Run, and now
after all these years our teachers
with the very best grades only get
SIS in this district, where the wages
are as good as anywhere in the
county. When common laborers
can make more than that working
on the streets, or the farms even,
how can you blame the teachers for
deserving the business and going to
work at most anything else2 In
order to qualify themselves for the
business, they are compelled to
spend years of their life in hard
study, and at school and college
or summer terms and Institutes and
examinations, involving considera-
bic expenditure of money, as we'll as
precious time, aud then after all
this, being qualified to teach over a
dozen branches, can only secure
the same pay that any ignoramus
who cannot read and write, and
possibly never spent an hours time
or a cent of money qualifying him
self, can make at any kind of COM
mon labor requiring nothing but
muscle to perform. Right at Nor
gantown, Fairmont and Clarksburg.
towns around us, common laborers
who worked on the streets and had
brains and education enough to
carry brick and mortar upon build
ings that were being erected this
summer, received from 81. so to 81
per day, considerable more than our
No. teachers are receiving for
then work.
One great trouble is that our peo-
pie, and even the teachers them.
selves, do not pay any attention to
the nominees for Boards of Educa-
ton of the different districts, and
consider these positions so small
and unimportant as to be unworthy
OF looking after, simply because
there is no pay in the Office worth
considering. This is a great mis-
take, as these positions are very i'm
portant to the welfare of our people.
as nothing can be more important
than the education of our children
and the general management Of our
schools, the erection and equip.
ment Of new buildings and the levy
for same and teachers salaries, and
we urge and insist that these posi-
tons be considered more carefully
hereafter by our people, and if
these places must be controlled by
politics, we demand that the domi.
nant party select the best men they
have for members of our School
Boards, and don't allow old fogies,
who are fifty years behind the times,
to get on the Board under any cir
cumstances. The custom has gen.
orally been to elect some heavy tax
payers who had no children to send
to school, or teach, and who was
only interested in keeping the levy
down as low as the law would allow,
in order to tighten his taxes and
give him more money to invest in
I.rl -. III. .1