The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1903-06-11


law to attend to one of the most solemn
obligations springing from his relation as
parent-the education of his child.
''The second, or school house problem
is one of minor Importance and is in part
provided for by the loan fund established
by the recent act of the Legislature The
Association for the Improvement of the
School Houses, which was formed last
year by the young women at the State
Normal College and which has rapidly
spread through the State has been do
! ing fine work and should be highly com
mended The school houses must be clean
and comfortable. Flowers and flags and
pictures are good things and l heartily
approve of them, and it is well to cudtl
vate in the people taste for the finer
things of life, but do not let us magnify
all of TINS unduly while forgetting certain
far weightier matters.
"Have a fine school house if it is pos
sible, but let there be no sacrifice OF
teaching efficiency. It is we'll that the
people should be proud of their school
! house, and take care of it. but let us
| have no nonsense about the school house
taking the place of the church as the cen
/ tralizing point and influence in the com
munity, statement made by one of those
who spoke at the Richmond Conference.
/ Education cannot replace religion.
1--WE need we'll built houses, which can
1 be warmed, ventilated and lighted. There
must be room for the classes and such
simple equipment as is needed by them.
Spend the rest on your teachers. They
may be less snowy, but they are much
more useful.
"How shall we secure good teachers for
the schools? There are at present some
1 5,474 teachers employed in the public
schools of the State. These are, as you
all know, under the immediate supervision
OF ninety-siX county superintendents The
character Of the work done and the wise
expenditure of the public funds are go
ing to depend largely upon these super
lntendents Three years ago when ] first
attended one of their meetings.
though a very small number were pres.
ent, l was impressed by their earnestness
OF purpose and their grasp of the prob
lens before them. In the past year l
have attended most of their district gath
erings and that helpful general meeting
in Raleigh, and I have been greatly en-
couraged, for the future of the state
lies largely in their hands 1t is a sur
prise to me that such men, as most of
them are, can be induced to undertake the
work at the pitifully snHall salary offered
eight counties paying less than 800, and
one paying $50 for the administration OF
$12,250, and the care of $500 children, A
large part Of them are college trained
men and all seem to be filled with a high
purpose to spend themselves in the SER
vice of their State There are the men
whose hard task it is to select the very
best teachers in spite of factional fights
denominational preferences, family con-
nections and the claims OF a mistaken cha
charity. The supply Of material must
come from the better class of secondary
schools, the colleges and the University.
Now this supply is altogether insufficient.
/ do not mean that a sufficient number is
not turned out but that the number of
well trained ones is far too small. The
small salaries are causing more and
more men to drop out of the ranks of
the teachers. They cannot live on $50
or $40 a month for four months. This
spring the University offered a ten weeks
course in the more elementary classes so
as to prepare them better for their work
The expenses were reduced to a minimum
Announcements were sent to every name
on the county lists; they were published in
all the papers, and not one man applied
A few women did, but they were diverted
to the spring course at the State Normal
College. This seems to indicate that few
men in the lower public schools regard
further training for their work as a wise
investment The burden therefore, falls
upon the women. They must drudge ard
serve for the $11013 which is the salaries
now annually doled out to them
Il wish to mention in this connection
the splendid work which is being done by
the State Normal College for women in
Greensboro in supplying teachers for the
schools OF the State Nearly half of
the graded school teachers now come
from that source, and hundreds OF the
teachers in the rural schools Our educa-
tional system would be sadly crippled, but
for this source of supply of earnest, we'll
trained teachers.
we are justly proud of the great
strides taken in material progress, of the
busy factory towns opening up, of the
millions invested in industrial enterprises.
the great trucking interests, the money
stored in the banks and the growing ease
and comfort of life This Industrial
awakening is teaching the lesson that the
prime factor in the success of a business
is to have capable superintendents, good
managers, efficient foremen. Energetic
trained men are at a premium. They are
sought for and can command their price. |
Hereafter the rule viii be for the school
as for the factory, that you must pay for
what you would have, and you will get no
more than you are willing to pay for /
And it is far better that this should be
well understood as the basis Of the agree
ment between teacher and State. It is I
idle to think that you can get service
when those who teach the children are
paid less than the masons or carpenters
who build the houses.
THE necessity for a higher reward in
The teaching profession is being more and
more clearly shown each year at the Uni
yersity The graduating classes average
fifty or sixty young men who have spent
four years of hard work and a good
many hard earned dollars for their train
ing. The demand for these men in busi-
ness, IN factories, as chemists and geolog-
SITS and electricians is generally conslG-
erably IN excess of the supply. This year
we could have placed two or three times
.he number of available trained men.
These various professions assure their en-
rance nDou tbci4. 1fo v.sorIy at from $T50