The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1908-01-31

It has often been observed tina
teachers as class are not well in
formed, that they are impractical
out of touch with the world and so
eiety, that they do not read curren
literature enough to know what Il
going on about them and that wha
they know, is in the nature of cut
and-dried or mechanical understand
ing of it.
That is pretty strong arraign'
ment Of our educators, and not very
encouraging nor complimentary to
the young gentlemen and young
ladies who are looking forward to the
day when they can rise to the posi-
ton of teachers. Yet there is some
thing in it worthy of study
1t is generally understood that the
teacher in the rural school is at the
greatest disadvantage in getting in
touch with the activities of the world
about them, and are really the most
in need of helping hand. They do
not as a rule take local papers,
though they take educational jour-
nails published thousand miles from
the place where they do their work,
and where conditions are different
from those that confront the teach
err One would think that anything
that came closer home in practical
application, would be hailed with In
terest by this class of workers, and
that they would respond promptly
to any offers of aid in their work,
but this is not borne out by the
facts here.
In talking with teachers of many
rural schools more than year ago,
we learned that most of them had
grievances and troubles in their own
districts which they wished might be
lifted, and when we conceived the
idea of getting out a special school
edition of the Republican and let
them edit it to air their ideas, we
wrote dozens of letters inviting them
to make use of the paper in that way
for one week, and we would do all
the work and bear all the expenses.
Only about one in ten were subscrib-
ers to the paper, so they were hardly
in position to claim representation
in it. Hardly any of them answer
ed our invitations, and some of them
who did, wrote back to inquire what
we wanted. In these cases we wrote
again, trying to make our offer plain
er. No ideas and no articles. came
in from the rural districts. When
we published the school edition we
sent copies free to about all the
teachers in the county, and as we
met them afterwards we always in
quired what they thought of the mat
ter contained in 1t. They usually re-
piled that it was fine, but when ask
ed what in particular they referred
to they did not know. Nothing that
was said by any of the writer's had
impressed them enough to be re-
membered so they could tell it.
A few weeks ago we announced
another special school edition, and
school fair, and invited all teachers
and school officers to participate. A
detailed statement of what might be
done and exhibited, was given on the
front page of the paper with a bord-
er around it and large catchy head
ing at the top to get their attention.
Copies were sent to nearly all the
teachers in the county, and in about
a week we began to inquire of teach
ers we met, to see what they knew
or thought about the school fair and
what they might do for it or for
their community through the fair.
With one or two exceptions they
had not read the article and it had
to be explained to them. In some
instances they had noticed the head
ing, but had not read the article
itself, though they had read the local
page. In some cases they had read
part of the school article but had not
thought about it.