Virginia citizen. (Irvington, Va.) 1891-1921, 1907-02-15
COMMUNICATION.
EDITOR CITIZEN:-

EDITOR CITIzEN:-
The school trustees of the State ha.
more trouble last fall to secure teach
ers for the putlic schools than eve
before In the history of Virginia
Many schools were without teacher
for part of the term and man,
that no teachers could be gotten fol
at all. Who is to blame for this.
The State Board of Education. Be
cause, in the first place, they appoint
ed the grand Division Superintend.
snts, who were so smart in their new
offices that they cut out many old
experienced teachers who were fully
competent TO teach and who have
done good work in our schools. The
County Superintendents have always
attended to the schools in the past
successfully, and could have con.
tinued to do 30. They knew the teach.
ers personally, knew who was capable
of imparting knowledge and who
possessed il. Often a teacher is well
educated and can pass q good exami-
nation when other characteristics
prevent his being a successful teach
er. Superintendents know such in
dividuals and can attend to them,
while these Division Superintendent
do not. They go altogether by their
intellectual ability. The appointing
of these officers was entirely uncalled
for, aud large majority of the
voters of the State did not endorse it.
But the State Board is in position
to rule tyrannically if they wish. and
| presume that they had some political
friends who wanted Jobs and the
Board was kind enough to- them to
institute these Offices to accommodate
their friends and tax the people of
the State to pay them fifteen hundred
dollars year each, and / presume
travelling expenses, also. They have
made mess of things so far; what
will it be in time? If they had paid
the County Superintendents better
salaries and lee them have a chance
to devote more time to the interests
of schools it would have been better.
L have been told that this State pays
more for books than any other in the
Union. Who is responsible for that!
The State Board. 1t is entirely out
of place for the State Board to elect
the County Superintendents. 1t is a
county Office and should be filled by
voters of the county as other offices
of the county are. But do not
blame the State Board for this, for
il they can have a pull aud put in
whom they please, all right. ANY
one would do so, except people who
had a proper conception of what is
right and lived up to it. But the
majority of people who have a po-
litlcal pull have no conception of
right. If they have they do not live
up to it. / think the State Legis-
lature is TO blame for allowing the
State Board to impose on the voters
of our State in this way. They
should see that laws are made per-
mittiug the voters in each county to
elect their superintendent. But now
they do not do that. They promise
before election to do all they possibly y
can for the welfare of the State and
Its citizens, but after their election
the promises made are forgotten.
Another reason for the scarcity of
teachers is the examinations. The
questions are selected by some clerk
who sits in soft. bottom, spring chair,
drawing fat salary that the people
are taxed to pay. He selects ques-
tions entirely too hard for such pur-
poses when the salary paid to teachers
is considered. A person smart enough
to pass the examination is capable of
filling position that pays much
better and will last all the year.
noticed that last snmmer there were
fourteen or fifteen subjects to be ex-
amined on requisite to securing q
first-grade certificate and / doubt
very much whether the man that
selected the questions could have
passed the examination. So wha,
can trustees do? They may be ever
so good and faithful, but when they
have all this against them no one
can blamethem-but they are blamed
when they fail 10 secure teacher fol
school. AS rule the patrons fuss
and condemn them, when really
they are not to blame. / believe il
good schools and well educated
teachers, but pay good salaries first
then require smart people to teach.
EX-TEAcHER.