The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1904-05-22

nre largely dead mechanism without the
vitnlizing touch of a properly qualified
teacher. 1t Is, after all, the teacher that
breathes theb reath of life into school,
We need better teachers and must have
them before we can have better schools.
But we are getting better teachers than
we pay for. With short school terms.
small salaries, poor school houses, UNI
classified and unclassifiable schools and
other conditions that render success al
most impossible, we cannot hope to COM
mand and retain in this business of teach
ing the rural schools.
After all back of this question of bet
ter teachers lies the question of better
pay. For meagre salaries, men and wo-
men cannot afford to put themselves into
the long and expensive training necessary
for the best equipment for this delicate
and difficult work of teaching. With the
short terms and the necessity of divid-
ing their attention between the service of
two masters, to make a bare living they
scarcely work at the business of teach
| ing long enough 70 master it or to make
of it a real profession. In the past be-
cause of peculiar conditions in the south,
we have been able to command, even for
| the meagre salaries that we have paid,
a teaching force Of more culture and re-
finement perhaps than could have been
commanded anywhere else on the CONT
] nent
| As the SOUTH However, rapidly comes
more and more into her Industrial and
agricultural heritage and the channels Of
profitable employment multiply, cam
| not hope to retain the best men aud wo-
men in the profession of teaching unless
we make compensation some what COM
mensurate with that offered in other
| fields of labor. AT present the annual
salary paid the teacher who works in
the immortal stuff of mind and soul Is
| less than that paid the rudest workers in
wood and iron-ess than that paid the
man that shoes your horse or plows your
corn or RANTS your house.
Competent Supervision.
/ 3. The evidence of the most successful
school system In every section Of the
country and the most successful country
town, and district systems in the south
proves conclusiyeH the necessity and the
wisdom of competent supervision. With
out competent Supervision and direction
| no great business can succeed This
business of education Is no exception to
| the rule. Each county system Of schools
must have competent head.
| The supervision of the county system
| should be a man trained to his work with
ability to make and execute plans for the
| improvement adilN training OIL TIE puDllN
| school teachers, to direct campaigns for
education of public sentiment on educa-
tional questions and for the advancement
of public education along all needful
| lines, to advise. stimulate and properly
| direct school committeeman and other
school officers; he should be endowed
| with tact, wisdom, common sense. char
acter, grit, ability to get along with folks
| and to command the confidence OF teach
| ers, officers. children and patrons.
In word, this man occupies the real
| strategic point in all this work of public
| education in the south today He must
be many-sided man possessing not only
professional training but rare qualities
of leadership. The work is difficult
enough and delicate enough, the respon-
sibility great enough and sacred enough
! to require the entire time. thought and
| energy of the most competent man, the
| entire conservation of every faculty Of
his head and heart and body. You can
not command such a man for long with
out paying him living salary. The aV
erage salary paid men for this work II
the south is less than $4,000 a year
Longer School Terms.
4. We cannot hope to give the grea
masses of our people more than the mere
rudiments of learning in public schools
| continuing only about 80 days year
We cannot hope to comnntS ,,ilu Othel