The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1905-09-01
INSTITUTES AND EDUCATION.
A Shot at John Doe and You. Prin-
cipally You.

With each recurring month of June
comes the college boy and the sweet girl
graduate, thinking they know-O! SO
much! But in reality, knowing, o! SO lit
tie, and unable to make any practical
use even of that.
July brings it's vacations and summer
schools, and August its applications (for
jobs, commonly called positions) and the
annual Institutes.
The work of the institute goes on
apace, and half of the teachers or pros
pective teachers are carefully avoiding
anything which might reveal their lack
of understanding. Another barrier
which many of them place in the way of
progress and happiness, is in not trying
to get acquainted with their fellows and
the people in general.
They live in their books. The com
munity in which they are spending the
week or the month, so full of opportun-
ity, holds but little which they care for.
They shut their eyes upon it.
Only one teacher out of several reads
the local paper and cultivates personal
acquaintance with the men and women
of the community who move barriers
and do things. The teachers seldom
-'let down the bars and never 'take the
shingle off the roof
The school year opens with tenden-
cy to bring the teacher in touch with
the whole community where she teaches,
but the public is hard to please. Sug
gestions come; complaints are filed, and
censure is added to complaint. Earnest
effort is checked, enthusiasm is damp
ened and ardent spirit which was push
ing good work, recolls upon itself and, in
a sense, barricades itself from those it
should mingle with the most-those
whom the teachers tact should meet
and place itself on a level with. An
honored level
1t is an old saying that teaching un-
fits the teacher for business, and this is
true. The business man learns to yield.
The teacher learns to carry her point.
She learns to do this in school, and
presently she is doing it out of school,
and people make allowance for it be-
cause she is teacher. But the public
is to blame for this because the public
does not 60 half way, where teachers
and public are concerned.
But this is getting almost personal.
We don't care. The public seldom does
its part by the teachers, except in dol
lars and cents, and there is another
phase of life in the field of education.
The place where all are lacking is along
lines of personal sacrifice and mutual
cooperation.
Next Monday IS election day, and
good time to turn new leaf in these
matters Will you turn it? 1t may be
very busy day for you, but the buster
you are, the more evidence of your real
worth if you make personal sacrifice
and attend the school election to use
your influence for better educational
work; not for better work in the school
alone, but in the community at large.
Have no fear of your neighbors not up
holding you in your suggestions in this
direction, for they too have been wishing
for something better, and could not de-
fine that feeling and put it into form.
If you live in town or village, one
thing which has come to your attention,
is that many people whose children at
tend school, find fault with existing con-
ditions at school, but do not associate
with the teachers and school officers in
trying to have things better. Talking
among the neighbors and making them
dissatisfied with the management, and
offering no remedy IS detriment great
er than the thing you complain of.