The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1907-07-11
Teachers Salaries
and their Grading
Shall It Be By Merit or By
Clock-Interesting
Statement.
E. G. CoOLEY's VIEWS.
Superintendent of Chicago
Schools Before National
Association.


schools at the meeting of the National
Educational Association in Los An
geles. Cal. yesterday is given below:
Mr.. E. C. Cooley spoke on the ques-
ton Shall Teachers Salaries Be
Graded on Merit or BY the Clock" He
said.
"since the welfare of the children is
the fundamental consideration in the
carrying Of the schools, teachers sala-
ries' must be flxed with reference to
the value of the services rendered. IN
.creases of salary based upon length
of service, and increases of salary bas-
ed upon zeal, student-like habits, and
must alike be tested by
this criterion Of efficiency.
"A teacher in a good school may in
crease In. efficiency for four or five
years, even if she relies exclusively
upon her school room experience for
Information and inspiration, but, un-
less the teacher is induced in some
manner to study, the chances are that
before the end of the first decade
decline in efficiency will set in, which
will proceed steadily as the years go
by A schedule Of salaries, then,
should include a lower group, making
provision for yearly advances for four
or five years, At the end Of this PEE
riod II teacher does not give evid-
ence Of Increase in efficiency, in pro-
fessional zeal, and in student-llke
habits, she should be stopped. No
teacher should be allowed to advance
in salary after she has ceased to adj
vance in efficiency.
Scholarship and habits of study are
factors that must be considered in es-
timating efficiency No teacher who IS
not student can long remain really
efficient If a teacher wishes to I'M
part a piece of knowledge, she must
not only have appropriated it herself
but she must have gone beyond 1t and
around it. She must see It in its re-
lation to other facts and truths. She
must know from what II originated
and to what 1t is intended to lead. The
teacher should study educational pro-
.cesses and educational philosophy and
methods. Her study cannot cease
with entering the, work, but must be
lifelong. She can retain sympathy
with the learner only by continuing to
be q learner herself BY this means,
too, she can avoid the depressing eff
feet of constant association with inn
mature minds and ideals. It Is true
that many good students of books are
poor teachers, and that something
more is required of q teacher than
ability to absorb book knowledge or
even laboratory knowledge. strl the
chances are extremely large that one
who is a student win be a better guide
for other students than the mere en-
pirlc.
Teachers should not be encouraged
to get into the system and then let
the clock work. Advancement based
on length of service only. does not do
justice to the teacher who has the real
professional spirit. The suggestion
that we can keep people up to the
mark by mere fear of dismissal is
made by those who are not familiar
with current history. Everybody
should realize how extremely difficult
III is to get rid of an inefficient
teacher.
ut must be admitted that this
scheme leaves out of account excep-
tional natural ability, the power Of
the born teacher; but most of our
teachers are not born, but are made,
and we are compelled to frame our
schemes to fit the needs and capaci-
ties of the plain, ordinary teacher
who has to learn her business,
"Our great cities have found 1t me-
.cessary to establish normal schools for
the preparation Of their teachers, 1t
will soon become as legitimate part
of the work of the normal school to
carry forward the training of teach
ers after they enter the service as 1t
was to take them from the high
schools and make teachers Of them
The normal school that can fulfill this
double function will soon establish It,
self in its proper place. at the head Of
the school system"
Teachers Compensation Other Than
Financial.
President George w. Nash Of the
Northern Normal and Industrial school
Aberdeen, South Dakota, spoke of
Teachers Compensation Other Than
Financial" He said in part:
"Dinoysius, the younger, deposed
from throne of grandeur, wealth and
absolute power, became a poor but
happy schoolmaster. The sGepter
gave him only disappointment, the
birch brought Infinite satisfaction. The
tyrant of Syracuse learned in his de-
cllning years that the teacher enjoy
ed compensations not weighed in the
steel yards or balanced in the ledger
Of the merchant.
How important is mere wealth to
purchase the comforts of religion or
the enthusiasm of patriotism. Yet we
all know how real and priceless are
these compensations and how utterly
intolerable life would be without them
Satisfaction and contentment are the
chief ends of human activity. 1t is for
these that every rational human ex-
ertion is. expended; for these men la
Dor necessarily; for these they make
war and conclude peace; for these
the explore the uppermost parts of
the earth and follow the intangible
spirit of the mighty ocean along its
trackless trails to its mysterious
haunts in the brooding deeps; for these
men sacrifice comfort, health, friends
and family to engage in ceaseless