The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-03-25

| the teacher seldom receives adequate compensation. I desire to make no in 1 vidious comparisons. But l assert con1- dently that the average teacher Is paid l less than the average cook. Let us see. l | think I am placing the salary of the average teacher high at s4oo, or $50 per month for eight months. Fortunately many teachers have homes at which they l may spend their vacation. Otherwise l board for the entire year would consume | at least S200 Even If one can spare no more than $s0 for clothes, SO for laundry, | s2O for professional reading matter and slo l for recreation, there Is a balance of but s6, | saved by the teacher in one year. This assumes perfect health, does not take into | consideration travelling expenses to and l from school, nor does 1t consider the yital- l ly important matter of attendance at summer school or vacation travel. 1 Let us now compare the wages of the cook At s15 per month her cash salary Is s1sO. Her board worth s2c0 is saved and she saves her laundry bill of s2o This makes an income of s400, the same as l that of the teacher. The clothing will be not more than S45. the reading bill nothing. and sundry expenses s35. This leaves cash balance of s1N.
 "The cook ought to save, therefore $40 the year more than the teacher, ano some of them do Besides all this the 1 teacher spent four years In college pre- na ring for her work at an expense oi l from s1O00 to $3o00, while the cook vas paid a salary learning her vocation.
 "Even the machinist who earns $7o pei month Is earning as much and propaois | clearing more than the school principa
 who receives sioo per month TOT i'inilee ,'s,-
 term. He, too, can earn money whiie lea rning his trade The salary of the av' eraye male teacher really is less thar that of a common laborer.
 Grave Digger Better Paid l "r know a city where a large ceme terv is near a school. The grave digger
 is paid more than the principal of tht
 school. The salary of that principal i'
 half that of hank clerk with less edu cation.
 '.The teacher is not in the class with z Pullman porter: and remember, teachers that when you drop the customary 10 pei cent tip into the hands of the ebony
 waiter your exalted position requires vol to thus enrich one whose earnings o rather income is twice your own.
 But while we deplore low salaries ant ask for better things for the teacher. ye we must also in many cases ask bette things of the teacher and deplore the lacl of fitness to receive better salaries. 4 poor teacher is dear at any pnice. Nj one deserves anything because he ha simply chosen teaching as profession or rather as a vocation. He only de
 serves consideration who brings such qual
 jties of mind and heart to his work tha he possesses complete control of thu
 school, and that for good. The teache
 who secures better salary and better con
 dltions shall bring to his work bette
 prepa ra ton. greater dignity, sound ethi
 cal procedure, and above all an abiding
 sympathy for the work, the child an,
 the community.
 .I heard recently of a community whcl
 was greatly disappointed in a high-price
 teacher they had employed. evidently wit
 the idea that the good salary would in
 sure a good teacher. They found tn
 teacher lacking in spirit and sympathy
 though possessing scholarship and first grade certificate. These do not mak
 the teacher any more than gaudy feath CTS make useful birds. Such persons hur the cause and operate to keep the salarie low.
 school Architecture
 : .The subject of school architecture though really but subdivision Of tn subject of~school hygiene, is of espe cial importance in Alabama, just now owing to the fact that we are just en tering upon great school building era School buildings ranging in value fror !, the $500 country schoolhouse to the cit high school, which. with its equlpmen representing financial outlay or aual ter of a million dollars. are being cor str,:cted over the state at an unprece : dented rate.
 . .In the past school has been held i
 rented rooms. in unsuitable halls. i : neiQl1borhood houses. and all sorts of in , adeuuate. improper and often unsafe an insar1itary buildings. But all this is be