The Charles Mix new era. (Wagner, Charles Mix County, S.D.) 1???-1911, 1907-11-22
GHO0HS
@ILEss

From Maine and Missouri come COM
plants of low wages paid to teachers in
the public schools. A committee of the
Maine Teachers Association has i~nvesti-
gated conditions in that State, and re-
ports that the average monthly salary of
men teachers Is Sl1.61 below the average
for the nation. and So1.27 below the ay-
erage for New England. For women
teachers the average monthly salary is
Sl2.91 lower than that for the entire
country. and $11.W below the New Eng
land average. The majority OF women
teachers in the State work for from six
to nine dollars a week. About one-eighth
are paid more than ten dollars. Over
1000 elementary and high school teach
ers board at home, and this explains how
II is possible for many teachers to sus-
tain themselves IN their small salaries.
Maine has good teachers, and 1,S76 of
them have taken partial or complete nor
NAL training courses. The committee
finds that $3.50 women working in the
Maine cotton mills get an average weekly
wage of $500. while the average pay of
women school teachers is $500 a week.
The average weekly pay of men in the
cotton mills is $S.O1, according to this
report. and the men teachers receive
S0.lS. The committee says that the only
other occupation in Maine for which fig
ures are available is that included in the
wooden industry, where the annual wages
run from $3o7 to $500. The average pay
Of school teachers. including principals
and superintendent, Is 1921.
In an address before the National Edu-
~cational Association at Los Angeles re-
Gently. President Benjamin Ide Wheeler
of the University of California criticised
the prevailing custom of prescribing a
college education for all mental ills and
condemning when the potion failed to
cure. He said the public school must be
made and kept the school for all. without
recognition of classes or conditions. and
that it must shape its work and plan so
az to close no door. but rather open the
freest opportunity fox the best achieve
ment and the highest advance. He
thought, however. that the present rigid
system Of the grades, whose chief excuse
has been economic necessity. must yield
to permit the more rapid advance Of gift
ed and diiigent pupils, and that it should
be borne in mind that the school exists
for the child and not for the grade.
Sup;. Maxwell Of New York has urged
principals to give the group system of
teaching and grading a trial. The gen
cral principle is TO so arrange the pro-
gress Of pupils that each may have in
dividual attention. Classes are separated
into divisions and definite times are fixed
for study. This allows bright pupils to
DO more advanced work by going from
one division TO another as fast as they
are able.
IL now appears that Lord Curzon, who
recently was appointed chancellor OF the
University Of Oxford. is to take up resi-
dence there and devote much of his time
to injecting new life into the old insti,u-
ton. From this vantage ground he will
push his public appeal for funds and car
~ on, a scheme for undermining the
course al study.
The New York Board of Education has
decided 20 restrict the use Of feather dust
erx and to introduce the vacuum-cleaning
process in one Of the new school houses AZ
4 trial.
President Schneider Of the Chicago
School Board u advocating the japanese
imperial rescript on education as the
standard Of ethical and moral teaching in
the Chicago public schools. A copy Of
this rescript. which recently has been
translated. shows 1t to be = sort Of edu-
cational creed. issued some thirty years
ago by the Emperor of Jaaan. 1t in
clades such injunctions as devotion to
parents and family, modessy. moderation,
b~epevolence, pursuit Of learning. cultiva-
ton Of arts. advancement Of the public
good. respect for law and loyalty - ~
State.