The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1906-04-07

class of brain butchers who take the
money of the taxpayers for work in
which they are grossly incompetent,
and in which they have no interest
1t is the same characteristic that
causes the man who sells silks to be-
come lopsided Intellectually on that
one subject, or the lawyer to often be
a masterful fool on every subject eX-
cept the law. 1t is the stamp of per-
lection in and devotion to a chosen
calling.
The same amount of energy and the
same careful devotion to duty in any
other calling would bring greater
financial reward than can be hoped
for in the teaching profession.
In any other calling age and ex-
perience would be an asset in favor
of the possessor until the age when
the activities of life are ON the wane
at least. Not so with the teacher. He
must expect nothing in the line of
promotion in the elementary schools
after he has passed the forty year
limit, and from that time his work
must be gradually on the decline until
&c is relegated to the scrap pile of
energy. That this condition is arti-
fetal and entirely unjustified does not
change the merits of the case.
AT this period in life he has not
been able from his salary to lay by
much if any store for the future, and
his qualifications as teacher have
rendered him unfit for the duties of
the other callings in which the op-
position have been trained by years
of experience
The result is that the great major
ity simply stay in the profession for
the purpose of making living while
preparing for something else, cheat
ing the pupils who come under their
instruction and lowering the standard
of the profession while doing so.
Would it not be far better to pay
teachers with the right zeal for their
work and with unalloyed devotion to
duty. wages which would give them
competency which would enable
them to retire from the active duties
of the profession when by reason of
age and the diminishing vigor of the
mind, they are unable to keep pace
with the demands made upon them,
than that they should blast the intel
lectual future of even one child be-
cause of lack of preparation or proper
interest?
Would not the teachers, once re-
lieved from the anxiety and uncertain
ty OF the means of support in the dull
gray autumn of life, find more time
for devotion to duty and for prepara-
ton for the work?
The layman seeing only the wages
of a month thinks them large. But
he forgets that there are several
months of idleness every year, and
that the expenses of the conscientious
teacher is much more than those of
people in the general walks of life.
Another great drawback for the
teacher is that he seldom becomes a
fixture in any one place.
There is nothing upon which par
ents are SO sensitive as the delegated
management of their children. The
teacher may be absolutely right in his
actions, yet the parent never sees it
so. Consequently at the end of the
year, a protest is made and the teach
er Is not reappointed.
The exacting duties of the work of
the schoolroom, the erratic minds that
must be curbed and developed, the
constantly watching for a place for
next year, and the assurance that
every year but draws the individual
nearer to the place where the only
remaining position is the shelf, make
life that is worth more than Is be-