The Savannah morning news., 1902-05-13

To GET THE BEST TEACHERS FOR
THE CITY SCHOOLS.
PRESENT RULES DEFECTIVE.
sUPT. AsHMORE OUTLINES FAULTS
AT MEETING OF SCHOOL BOARD.

ent System Fails to Take Into
Proper Consideration Attributes
beyond the Range OF Mere SchOl-
nrship-EHOrts to Secure Higher
Grades hurts Emciency-COmpen-
sation should Not BE Entirely
Question of Characterization of
New Blood Desirable.
The May meeting of the Board of
Education was held at Chatham Acad-
envy last night. Its most interesting
feature was the report of Supt. Otis
Ashmore, in which number of sugges-
tions relative to the selection and pro-
motions of teachers, were made.
There was present at the meeting. in
addition to President George A. Mercer.
who presided, Messrs. Henry Blum, Lee
Roy Myers. P. A. Stovall and ]. r.
Saussy.
The report of Supt. Ashmore adj
verted with regret to the death of Mr..
]. E. Way, principal of the Massie
School, and referred to the selection of
Mr.. C. j. Orr to fill the vacancy thus
created The superintendent reported
that the changes made had given sat
isfaction since they were placed in
operation. The present enrolment in
the schools is 9,056, an increase of SOS
over the enrolment at the correspond
ing period of last year. OF these added
pupils 300 are in the white schools of
the city. Continuing. Mr.. Ashmore
says in his report:
THE rules of the board, defining the
duties of the superintendent, state that
he shall make such suggestions as may
in his Judgment, tend to promote the
greatest efficiency of the schools.
I'm view of this rule 1 desire to call
the attention of the board to a mat
ter that affects most vitality the inter
est of the schools and which deserves
your most serious consideration. l re-
fer to the selection of teachers.
As the Teacher, So the school.
LAS the teacher is, so is the school,
is an aphorism in education whose
forceful truth is recognized by every
one who knows anything about prac-
tical school work. DR.. Schaeffer, the
efficient state superintendent OF edu-
cation of Pennsylvania. says: The
efficiency of a school system ultimate
~ resolves itself into the problem OF
the best methods of securing good
teachers. We levy taxes, erect build
ings, devise school systems, prescribe
courses of study, purchase books ana
apparatus, maintain libraries and
laboratories. but of all these means
and agencies not one is so potent as
the living teacher Says Baldwin:
Little but blunders and failures can
be expected from teachers ignorant of
educational principles, and without
skill in their application
ITO one not intimately ac-
quainted with practical school
work the great differences De-
tween a good teacher and poor
one do not readily appear. Childhood
is innocent. parents are often forbear-
ing, careless, or ignorant. and the daily
plumbers of the weak, unskilful and in
efficient teacher often pass unnoticed
until the results of such teaching are
revealed too late in dwarfed intellects
and unsymmetrical moral development.
Present Method Excellent, but
"Our present method of selecting
teachers is in many respects excellent.
1t arranges the applicants as nearly in
the order of their merits of scholarship
as could reasonably be expected. 1t is
remarkably free from the personal
however, that some of the most impor-
tant qualities of a teacher are not re-
vealed by an examination. An exam
ination is a test of scholarship, and
hence essential, but when teachers are
selected / believe we could improve
upon our present plan if the Commit
tee on the Examination of Teachers
would give more attention to the claims
of age, experience, professional prepa-
MT nd
eral personal appearance. Our pres
ent plan does, indeed, include all these
considerations in the examination, but
it is difficult to apply these estimates
when the real selection comes.
There is another danger to which
we are exposed in our present plan of
selecting teachers, and that is the
practical exclusion of outside competi-
ton. According to our present plan
new entries into the system are prac-
tically confined to the position of as
sistant with its meager salary of $3.50
a year This circumstance limits the
applicants too much to local residents
1t matters not what may be the age,
experience, or slGll of a teacher who
wishes to enter our system she must
face a condition that places her on
salary basis of the young, unskillful,
and inexperienced assistant, and often
far below a teacher of less qualifica-
tons for the position she occupies.
An Infusion of New Blood.
THE wisdom of infusing a certain
amount of new blood from the outside
into a school system is everywhere rec
ognized DIR. William H Payne in
his excellent work on school superVi-
sion truly says: Every school has it's
peculiar elements of weakness and of
strength; and the laws of heredity will
work their results here as elsewhere.
A repeated involution of peculiarities.
such as is inevitable under the circum-
stances where all the teachers or a
large proportion of them, are drawn
from the same school, will
finally result in an abnor-
NAL condition of affairs And he
adds with much significance A school
system cannot be long maintained in
healthy state without the infusion Of
new clements
Il think it is wisest and best TO OBJ
serve a proper plan of promotions in a
school system. but in filling positions
any system of promotion should al
ways be subordinate to real fitness and
merit in their broadest and best sense.
We should seek to keep the channels of
outside supply as freely open as those
from within. and from the applicants.
without regard to favoritism. family in
huence or relationship political pull, or
personal appeal, select the best
Higher Grades. Higher Salaries.
There is another evil connected with
our present plan of prOmotions which