The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1901-04-25
President eraser, of the School
Board, Urges Better Work for
Interests of the Children.
NEW SCHOOLS ARE BADLY NEEDED
List Of Committees for Year Announced
Commission Hackley Heads Teachers
Committae-EDgin House for School


journed session at the city hall Tues
day evening and large part of the
evening was used in completing or
ganization President eraser read
his inaugural address to the Board as
| follows:
Gentlemen-It is often said that
public Office is a public trust. OF all
public trusts, there is none more I'M
portant or more sacred than that the
administration of which the people
have for the year to come entrusted to
us. It affects not only the welfare OF
| hundreds of children now growing up
bout us, but by virtue of the inexor-
able laws of heredity, generations yet
| to come. AS national honor and glory
depend upon the virtue and intellige
of the citizens, no other department or
instrumenta1ity of government has SO
great an influence upon the future well
fare of the nation, as that which for
this city, is left to our care. Let the
children of one generation be wholly
neglected as to moral and intellectual
education and if it should prove pos
sible for the nation to survive, the i'll
effects of such neglect would be pres
ent for many generations.
In this time of fierce competition IN
every form of industry, when the
power of wealth gives such advantages
to it's favored few, and the many with
out apita1 find themselves handicapped
at every turn, the thought that this IN
stitution, the system of free education,
is the one great institution to break
down the monopoly of advantages,
giving as it does to every child alike
i the opportunity to acquire that most
precious experimentation, should
make us all most loyal and interested
| in it's service.
And as this public trust is so impor-
tant to our children and to theirs, and
| to national welfare, let lis be most con-
scientious and careful in it's admins
tration. Let us be ever watchful that
each expenditure of money shall count
for the greatest good to these child
rem; and let their welfare be the guild
ing star of our action in every matter
considered by us.
The most important business of the
Board of Education is that which we
are called upon to consider first, the
engagement of teachers for the COM
ing school year. In the performance
of this duty we must lay aside political
or religious differences, and must dis
regard preferences arising from social
position or personal friendship, and
let true merit alone count. This GER
tain1y has. been the rule of the Board
in the past, and for the interests of the
school and for harmony, it must con-
tinue to be.
While teachers now employed whose
work is satisfactory should as rule be
retained, yet whenever the interests of
the schools demand change for any
reason, it should be made, however
unpleasant it may seem to us to do So.
Yet in reaching judgment upon these
matters, we must guard against being
influenced too much by rumor. Listen
to every complaint, but investigate for
yourselves, for complaints are some
times made upon an exaggeration, if
not a r1issta tement of the facts, for
reasons not appearing upon the sur
face.
The members of the Board, and par
ticu1arly the Teachers committee,
should visit the schools often, indeed
more often than has been the custom
of the past. While we are not teach
ers, and most of us would proba bly,
make failures ourselves if we should
attempt to teach, and therefore should
be slow and cautious about Judging of
the merits and methods of teachers,
yet the opinions of unprofessiOnal
school board men when based upon
what they actually observe in the
school room, such as the interest or
enthusiasm of the pupils in their work,
or lack Of it; the concentration of at
tention on the part of the pupils to the
work at hand3and the dignified and or
derby bearingssof the pupils, or the re-
verse; whether"the methods employed
by the teacher seem to hold the inter
est of thespupi1 and seem to develop an
independent mental growth, as distin-
guished from the acquisition of facts
or methods as an act of memory and as
a matter ofnduty; the actual progress
of the pupils in their work, and like
matters-opinions based upon such
observations, so very often coincide
with the opinions and views of the
professional teachers, that believe
your observations and investigations
in this wayiwi11 be much more reliable
and will produce more correct judg-
nent as to the ,merits of a teacher than
the opinions of presumably learned
men, that so-and-so is good or poor
teacher.
In the employment of teachers,
where there is indifference as to quail
i6cations and merits, it is only just
and right that preference should be
given to our own citizens, yet where
there is considerable difference as to
qualification and merit, we should not
permit Cur feeling for fellow citizens
to override our duty to the schools. II
should be Our effort always to obtain