The Lancaster news. [volume] (Lancaster, S.C.) 1905-current, 1908-10-17
South Cardinals Schools :
Another Valuable Paper
by Prof. w. III. Hand


Change of Teachers.-Tnef FREQUENT
change of teachers is constant brake
ana clog on the progress of the
schools. 1t robs them of ANYTHING
IKE an unbroken course Of work and
nxedness of policy. Every new
teacher introduces some new feature
into the school-perhaps a good fea
ture in itself, yet no better than what
1T displaces. 1t requires readiustment
to install anything new, and the time
ana friction are loss, unless the
change is decidedly for better. Gem
eraliy speaking, our best schools are
those which have the fewest changes
In the teaching force. 1t requires at
least one fun session for a teacher to
become acquainted with his patrons
BY becoming acquainted with patrons
1 mean far more than mere social
knowledge of them. l mean an an.
preciatlon or their tastes and their
locals ana their ambitions, and a
knowledge of their peculiarities. if
you please. Until he understands
these he is not in position to serve
them and to lead them, and a teacher
VINO cannot lead is of but little force.
Not until after teacher has taught
from four to six years in communi-
ty Is he prepared to give it his best
services. Yet how few teachers re-
main in one school three years.
Some places change teachers every
year SIMPLY because they have &C.
CURED the habit of doing SO. Like
any other bad habit, this one grows
upon people. The trustees and the
patrons frequently realize that their
schooi Is iar inferior TO some other
schoJI, and rush to the conclusion
that they need a change of teachers.
when the truth is that thew have 81.
really injured their school by too
many changes. Have any of my read.
ers ever seen pupil, or an entire
class, set to work in the same place.
In arithmetic for instance, at the be-
ginning of each of three successive
sessions each time by new teacher?
ls it probable that this would have
been done by any one reasonable
teacher teaching the school the three
sessions?
This evil of change reigus in the
town and country schools alike I
have In mind one town in this State
which had six principals in eight
years. Change was the ONLY remedy
it knew and it believed in heroic dos
es. great many rural schools rarely
have the same teacher two years in
succession. Many of these changes
in both town and country schools are
due to the neighborhood iealousies
and quarrels already discussed Many
community has its chronic critics
OF the schools, who are dyspep.ic nv
nature and sour by habit. A teacher
never satisfies them longer than one
year. They know all about schools
and their own children are parapons
of perfection II any teacher finds
one of these children anything but a
paragon straightway there is trouble.
10 listen to these disgruntled fathers
and mothers with their tales of woe
requires patience and grace. In their
eyes there is but one remedy-change
teachers. Not two months ago /
heard man not far from go years of
age declare that he intended to "break
up" the only school in his district un-
less the trustees dismi issed the pres
ent Hteacher. 1t had never occurred
to him that perhaps the trustees were
in the right. Such man is in a
small way an Anarchist.
In some instances fault finding and
dissatisfaction are unwitting.y en-
couraged by the board of trustees. The
board, either ignorant of its function
or disposed to dodge an unpleasant
duty, asks the patrons to elect the
tcdCucT. OuCu course 1S an invita-
tion to division and the disappoint-
ment consequent to defeat, and will
inevitably bring about discord. What
is the board appointed for, if not to
manage the school by lessening the
occasions for discord?
A good many towns make it rule
to employ only young inexperienced
teachers, and at the end Of each wear
drop thos1 who have failed, keeping
the more successful ones until they
have become really sarviceable, then
let them go because the trustees and
the people are unwilling to pay for
good teaching at par value. Some
places boast that their schools are
the gateway to the promotion OF their
teachers. This may be q credit to
the school and discredit to the peo.
pie. 1t is not creditable, if the peo-
pie are simply letting efficient teach
ers pas' out from their school in ex-
change for crude einexperience, because
the latter is cheap.
A few town school boards are given
to the ipdefensible habit of advertis-
ing (sic) every year for applications
for every position in the school, when
the board does not intend to elect a
single new teacher. The King who
marched his army up the hill, then
marched it down again, did no more
childish thing than these boards do.
The thing is not only indefensible,
but ii is hurtful to the school, unjust
to the teachers and dishonest to pos.