The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-06-06
TEACHERS DISTRIBUTE A THOUSAND PETITIONS Active Canvas for Signatures Will Commence This
 Week. INSTRUCTORS LETTER Let a Living Wage be Given Before Merit System
 is Adopted.
INSTRUCTORS LETTER

z6IS anu organizations interested III Jle teachers movement to secure adequate salaries.
 The following communication has been received:
 To Editor of the Journal and Courier:
 At the meeting of the American In stitute of Instruction held in New Ha- ven last July, Superintendent Carroll of Rochester. N. Y, made very elo- auent plea in behalf of justice in ad- justing the salaries of teachers.
 He said; If we do not increase wages promptly our teaching force will rapid 1 ly become unfit to teach the children of intelligent, cultured Americans, and the private school will flourish as it never has before.
 "Men and women of the best promise cannot often be tempted to teach for the salaries offered. They can hope to receive higher remuneration as stenog- raDhers. as bank clerks, or as experts in many industrial lines
 "The teaching profession Is uncer- tain in tenure, is trying to health, often Heads to stagnation of intellect and often limits social life,
 Tn many parts of the country there is a dearth of grade teachers. In many lcitjes and states the normal schools arc lpatronized largely by women of little lculture and ordinary aims. The deter ioratioa of the quality of the teaching force that has steadily been going on for several years can only be arrested lby proper remuneration"
 Our profession is entitled to a re- lmuneration that will attract and hold the very best talent. It has, too, long Ibeen assumed that teachers can live without food or clothing for three months of the year, and it has likewise been assumed too often that summer lterms spent in department stores or in lhctel dining rooms are productive of in- lcreased worth in the school room,
 In New Haven, after girl has lspent practically fourteen years in Ischool, eight in grammar school, four lin high and two in state normal, she lmay be appointed to teach in our Ischools if her scholarship is so high Ithat she is included in the first ten or fifteen ranks out of class numbering lgererally hundred.
 For persevering, faithful efforts she Is awarded $500 per year! As there arc twelve months in the year she act uaily draws s25 per month, $s,25 per week, or s,S9 2-7 per dayl And yet we Iare constantly reminded that teaching lis high art! And we are expected to Iba growing teachers studying at the lcollege and taking various courses for lself-imnrovement. all on $S9 2-7 per Iday
 l The Business Mems association re- minds us that we are dependent upon them for our bread and butter. We do not look upon our salaries as char lity offerings-teacher of New Haven earn their salaries many times over Out of the salaries paid to most of the grades we have about all we can do to actually pay for bread and butter never mind dessert!
 Superintendent Smith of Auburn, Me, in an address to teachers, said; When we consider the service actually ren. ldered by our teachers. not ideal service but real, not what ought to be done, but what actually Is done, Is 1t true that lthey are receiving as much as they Iearr-are they receiving all they earni If this is so, then what shall we say lof the quality of the work of the Ischools, what of the training the na- ltions gives it's children? If it Is true that the wage rate of teachers Is an ac. Icurate measure of the quality of the lwcrk of the public school, then submit I've had better have done with our glo- lrihcation of the American public Ischool,
 Many city has had civic pride ienough of peculiar sort to build hun ldred thousand dollar school buildings, lbut has satisfied that pride herewith, mot seeing that incongruity of placing in those buildings teachers of the $s0t Isort. We know that our country, more tgenerous than Europe toward all other kinds of labor, pays it's teachers lower Isalares than any progressive country ot the old world"
 MT. Luekey in his sermon of week iagu favored increase of salaries on the lrnerit system,
 We should like to suggest that a fa1i living wage be adopted first
 Former Superintendent Kendall said Ithat the merit system could not be sue Icessfully adopted in so large a corps Eof instructors as New Haven has lsomething over 800.
 The system of inspection, as such, ltends to make teachers exceedingly nervous whenever they are visited; un- Idev such strain her real skill and effi- ciency cannot be given full weight, and Ithe unassuming artist found in every school is often passed by.
 There are three conditions to fulflll before any teacher in this city would feel ready to work under the merit system, viz:
 1. Some person in authority and near to the teacher must assume responsi- bility, and know intimately her strength and her weakness. The school princi- pal ought to be the man best fitted tc make this diagnosis-but this implies that every school principal is a req teacher and able to estimate the work of his assistants upon a pedagogical basis.
 g. The principal should follow con- stantly the work of supervisors and pronounce, without favoritism, upon its success or failure. and this is not say ing that he himself should be a special. list. He should see what instruction oi aid the supervisor gives. : g. The superintendent with compe- tsat principals and supervisors, should