The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1912-01-09
MISS BONN ARGUES BEFORE BOARD OF EDUCATION ON
 PETITION OF TEACHERS
Advances Strong Arguments to Convince the Board of Logic of One Mamimum
 Salary
Commissioners Lay the Matter of the Teachers Salary the
 Table Indefinitely

jections that some of the members of ythe board have made in talking with them; but do not mean to weary you.
 First, from the standpoint of a IT. crit system. You argue that one maximum schedule affords no oppor- tCnity for rewarding meritorious work Surely, the present schedule does not either, and you cannot call rewardfng meritorious work on grade III a. pro- motion to an entirely different grade tion into grade VIII, a reward for meritorious work in grade V, for which grades the teachers may been trely unf1tted- But given one maHum for all the grades, especially meritor- ious work in any one grade may be rewarded in that grade by being given $100 over the regular maximum, enough more to make the extra effort worth while.f The postohce schedule is an example of exactly this same thing, their highest maximum being $J,20O for excellent work.
 Another argument you sometimes raise is that some teachers are not quite so efficient as others, and that they may be placed in lower grades with less disadvantage to the school system, and these grades paid low CT maximum accordingly. In the first place, the school room is no place for an inefficient teacher. Which of you are willing that your child spend even one year in the room of an inefficient teacher? Sec Cndly, what woman of average intel hgence and ordinary ambition can work for 10 years, under competent supervision and professional leading, and still be unable to do well the work of some particular grade or grades2 Thirdly, will you do injus- a few? And, lastly, can you afford to impair the confidence O. the public in your school system by recognizing with a lower salary any grade. in 1faT7 Ta1a teacher2
 Make No Distinction.
 Again. you sometimes object that some of your lower grade teachers have not the education requisite for teaching in the upper grades. The board of education demands of its teachers but one set of requirements, which all teachers fulfill before en- tering upon the work Of, teSchinng. n tween the educational requirements that you demand for teaching second grade or sixth grade, fifth. grade or ter to chance and the accumulationS of years of experience. Therefore. you cannot legitimatelyl object to the granting of the same maximum on the basis of difference in education.
 You do grant that years of exper- fence up to a certain point should be teachers on $500, and they proceed at aa uniform increase of $50 up to the three different maximumS. This shows too, that you recognize that experience is worth a great deal in teaching. Now, the whole point is, show that such a schedule does not adimt of rewarding merit. It can scarcely be a matter of providing for ineffi iciency. It is not a matter of difference in educational require ments- What is it?
 Teaching a Gift.
 Some of you very rightfully recog- nize that the amount of work in each grade is about the same, and that teaching is teaching for just so many hours of the day, no matter in what grade it is done. The question then resolves itself into whether the diff1- culties in each grade balance. We have attempted by means of this chart ties in the grades
 Miss Bown then produced a chart by which she sought to convince the member of the board that while the first grade involves little teaching it requires the expenditure of much energy in the formation of habits, training in discipline and the devel- control. As the grades advance these factors of the teachers work become smaller, and the scope of studies be- comes broader. Miss Bown pointed out tha, the lower grades involve a certain amount of drudgery. while the upper grades involve the wider exer- else of the inherent instinct to teach. She con+iuued:
 To summarize. skill in methods are knowledge. and lastly power of un-