Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1902-01-18

Which, accompanies iiCi
reality Iilled with books. school ma
terials and few clothes-contalas
certificates of stock and bank books
galore!
You hear much said about ideals.
the Child" and the Teacher Whose
Soul Is in Her Work." while you are
wondering whether you couldn't cut
over your black skirt to look like one
y0u saw coming in on the train.
Then someone begins to talk, a
Westerner with a big. whole-souled
voice, and you lift your head and lis
ter. The speaker is down among the
ranks. face to face with those who bear
tine burden and endure the toll Of this
great work, for the reward which is set
before them, the lifting up of human
lives. Your children's faces rise before
you, and a mist gathers in your eyes.
You think of Tommy. He is not a
ckerub. He is not sweet" How he
would double up his grimy fists if he
heard that adjective applied to him. He
can do deeds of violence with those
same fists at times, and he loves to
play you most unangelic tricks. Still,
you and Tommy are good friends. You
forget your shabby gown and the single
dollar lying lonely in your purse, and
come into your kingdom as you see
once more that square, sturdy Young
face light up with interest, and Tie
pleasure Of seeing through things"
shine in those honest eyes. For this is
your inheritance, and in all your in
glorious shabbiness and poverty you
would not yield it up.
When it is time to go out to dinner,
you seek restaurant, and study the
bill Of fare with furtive haste in search
CT a cheap but substantial dish. You
are desperately hungry. The deacon's
wife objects to early rising, and you
had for your breakfast some half
cooked fish. n cup of muddy coffee,
bread that never would return to the
surface if cast upon the waters, and
doughnuts with no holes in the middle.
Doughnuts grown up solid do MT in
spire confidence. They suggest IN area
of rare dough where the hole ought 10
he.
AS you tramp from the station to
your boarding place that night, you
wonder if your soul is in your work,
and whether it is great gain to your
work If it is there. You muse upon the
child, that elusive phenomenon OF the
teachers convention, who is Sweet"
and fresh" and pure" who longs to
impart to you his budding thoughts
who is enthusiastic and responsive and
generally seraphic, and you wonder
what you would do with him if you had
Kim in school, unless you gave him
hymn book and let him sing, Il Want
to Be an Angel
Then next day you go down to school
and labor to induce Tommy no. to
spell carpet Dagger carpit bager, and
lead the eighth grade into the mys-
teries of bank discount. AS dry things
like the multiplication table We're re-
Sarded with lofty pedagogic scorn in
this school when the present eighth
grade were doing their lower-grada
work, they are handicapped in all BUSH
ness computations. So you struggle on
from day to day. You rise up early
and sit up late. and eat the bread of
sorrow. For superintendent are
often critical and exacting, children
hard to reach and parents unsympa-
thetic and uncomprehending.
Whom the gods wish to make mad
they first make school teachers. Let
no man think that l have reached the
second condition. l know whereof 1
speak. 1 have taught nine grades
with fiftyfour pupils for six dollars
week. l have been at the head of a
large country school, teaching the four
upper grades, and having at the same
time the first years work with a higl,
school class. for nine dollars a week.
have sounded the depths of hard
work and poor pay in our public
schools.
Not long ago sat at dinner with two
school superintendent. Not from
choice. for like to eat my meals free
from the shop" But by accident we
dlred together. Of course they talked
about the work. One of them, a robust
man, with prodigious appetite, re-
marked: Yes, we had to let Miss Gray
go. She was used up. She wanted to
stay, but 1 had to tell her-it was the
only thing to do. OF course, those
w schools are hard. We have to plan
ON using up good teacher in ten
years"
What is to become of her then? To
be sure, even in the hard places one
does not usually wear out in ten wears.
With strong physique, sweet,
wholesome nature, a heart that will
keep young and a saving sense of the
eternal funniness Of things, the teacher
o. our ungraded schools may last
twenty years. But the time must come
when someone with a younger. fresher
mind and body will take her place.
What is she to do? Give up teaching
and get married, someone says. That
answer is excluded. 1t involves chance,
or chances. which some of us never
get.
Go home and live on her savings.
says someone else. Last year saved
| sixty-five cents. OF course last year
was an off year with me. I was rash
enough to have pneumonia winter be-
fore last. and have been trying to get
back to normal financial circumstances
ever since. But at my usual rate Of
laying UP treasure upon earth,I have
calculated that in just seventeen years
l shall have enough to take me into a
home for aged women. And there, hav-
ing been so long used to saying to this
one, go" and to another, do this" l