Perth Amboy evening news., 1906-11-17

candor so characteristic of the Rr,ton
and gave American methods a iittI1
I rap, which was by no means ma
served, when he stated that the col.
lege professors and public scboo,
teachers are underpaid. Said he.
You have splendid buildings ev.
erywhere, but a school or university
building is a dead thing. The pro
f%essors, the instructors within, are
the soul of the institution, and in.
sufficient attention is paid to them.
AS a rule. they are overworked
and underpaid. A professor in a col
lege or university should have sonsid-
cradle time for study and research;
he should have less work, and, what
is OF more Importance, more pay. His
value is underestimated, and men of
much less value to a community re-
ceive much higher emoluments.
Frequently it occurs that a man
in such a position has considerable
leisure time, but instead of being
able to devote that time to research.
which would be of inestimable value.
to his students and to the institution.
his salary is so small that he has to
devote his leisure hours to tutoring.
or some similar pursuit, in order to
support himself and his family.
Were he able TO devote all of his
time to the institution, the men who
is continually helping to train the
great men of the country-for the
learning they imbibe makes many of
them great in a few years-the re-
searches and discoveries he could
then make would not only increase
UNNECESSARILY his value to the insti-
tuition, but would raise the plane of
the institution.
Il say, pay your schoolmaster and
schoolmistresses, your college profess
sors and instructors salaries more
commensurate with the work they
are doing and the results they accom-
plish, for much of the credit of a ma
tons greatness belongs to them"
All of what Sir William says is
true, particularly of the teachers, of
the public schools. OF all the pro
fessions there is none that offers such
poor financial inducements as teach.
ing. Only recently attention was
called to the fact that in a certain
city the woman principal of a schoo.
receives $500 per year, while the
Whether the fact that the ~janitor has
a vote possibly controls oilers, while
the teacher has no vote, explains the
discrepancy in the salaries we know
not. The difference, however, shows
conclusively that there is something
radically wrong somewhere which
needs regulating, The teacher in
question had to spend years in per-
fecting herself for her chosen profess
sion, while the janitor NEEDED no very
special training or skill. We do no.
want TO be understood as saying that
he does not earn the thousand dollars
per year-in all probability he does
but we do say that because of her
superior knowledge and the RESPONSE
bility of her position the preponder-
ance of salary should be in the teach
er's favor. To quote the words of
Gladstone: what we awkwardly
call social science is a great growth
of the day We live in, and the first
place among its achievements APP
pears to be due to the organization of
teaching" Il
Sir William Perkins criticism OF.
American methods should serve to
answer the educational authorities.
Beautiful buildings undoubtedly de-
light the eye, but when they are
erected at the expense of the under
paid teachers who labor within their
walls, who give the best years of their
lives to the noble cause of education,
it would be far better if the struc-
lures were less of architectural mod
els so that the compensation of the
teachers might be more in accordance
with their abilities. -Elizabeth Jour
nal.