The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1912-05-22

srades and in the lower grades some attempt was made to follow the state course. "The most any teacher could snow me was an elementary book of points, no prose in. it or anything
 which seemed to me worth while. Iii almost every other instance the teach> CTS devised their own courses.
 C. E. Biltonf said that he was vital-
 iy interested in the school question because he had children in the schools
 schools seem to have no goal to lead the children up to and that only a nit Or miss plan was in evidence. He urged the adoption of the resolution and it was passed unanimously.
 Mr. Dening spoke in general about he found it. He said he had jotted down a few things he wanted to say and was glad of the opportunity to say them. T am here as an impar> tial and an unprejudfced judge'- he declared, 9sand I intend to throw my influence on the side that is right Untils have formed my own opinion must of necessity follow the school board. I would like to say a word about the teachers. AS a whole they are net bad lot. They are not near as good as they might be- It isn't necessary for me to name the bad ones, or the good ones. Now it isn't altogether the fault of those teachers If they are not successful. A; great deal has to do with the environment of the school in which they teach.
 Have a poor. environment and al- most always you have a poor teacher. With a poor environment you cannot get good teacher. So it isn't. sur- prising that these teachers who prove to be unsuccessful here go elsewhere and make a success. Teachers must have 3 good place to board That h. <r q xr,if st tion. Then they are handicapped by the department of the children. The department of the children Tn Trum- bull is very bad. That is probably on account of the many changes in teachers. It is also que to the fact fuse to back up the teacher. The teacher needs the support of parents and if child is punished the parent should not feel spfteful to the teach CT unless the punishment is wrong fully administered Discipline goes to the wind unless the teacher has the backing of the parents"
 At this point the chairman inter- rupted to explain that there was bus mess before the, meeting which 1t was desired to get to and Mr. Demingl said he would say little more. He eA- tion The buildings. at White Plains and Lower Long Hills are in terri-l ble condition; they need 10 be rel built, new locations would be advis-| able and change of teachers would not do any harm. He urged that thel people if they had any complaints tol offer would go to him or members of the Board of Education rather than to any one else. He suggested the| plan of uniting the Chestnut Hill and the Lower Long Hill schools, and the Daniels and the White Plains school. " xr~ z-YY . be spent in buildings and equipment but not much good could be. accom- plished unless good teachers were se- cured and to secure good teachers 1t is necessary to pay higher salaries.
 Mr. Bilton said that he was glad MT. Deming had had the opportunity of expressing his views. 'Dr. DeaneI called me up today and said, You've got things started out there and MT. | Deming has the right idea of things and is going to aid you.' MT. Bilton was satisfied that MT. Deming had the situation properly in mind.
 A resolution relative to teachers salaries was introduced The salaries | are too low and the resolution was to have appropriations increased to pro- vide higher salaries. 1t was explained that the teachers had received less for teaching the children of the town than, they had for teaching foreigners.
 
 of the teachers who are incompetent. | These teachers have to do their own janitor work in some instances, which | in itself lowers the standard of edu- cation. It was shown that 39 cents | a week is what Trumbull pays to ed- ucate each child. Irving Smith took | exception to the statement that the teachers have to do their janitor work. He said that they were not obliged to do it. Edward Nothnagle | said he had been accused of being the spendthrift of the town because of the Board of Education, secured an appropriation to pay s a week to | janitors. He said that the teachers could do the work themselves and keep the s and most of them did. The payroll for teachers he said amounts to $95 week for nine teachers, they | receiving from $10 to. SIP a week. Personally, I'd be glad to make the payroll &20O a week. he said. The enrolment in the schools is less than 200. He didn't think that SSc was as much as is paid for teaching child in Trumbull. He thought that a re- vision of figures would show more. MT. Bilton who stated the figures said he took the statistics from the last town report.
 The dilapidated condition of the buildings was deplored. They were said to be heritages of 75 and 100 years. 1t costs considerable of the school ap> to keep them in repairs. The construction was poor and cheap. There had always been grunts and unsavory hints when anyone ever att tempted to get a higher appropria- ton. MT. Nothnagle also said that the only way to settle the problem of better teachers was to pay more for them. There are better inducements in other towns and the cities and it is hard to get teachers to come to the country towns now. Teaching in the country towns is no sinecure; the hours are long as the work outside of the school amounts to a good deal:l there are poor lighting facilities, cold rooms and not single convenience. He said the town of Trumbull consid- cred itself fortunate in getting a teacher to stay two or three weeks.
 M. B. Curtis suggested that the churches be used for schools, if no other arrangement could be made. It; hurt the churches. Eight or ten times as much money goes toward the support of the churches as toward the support of the schools, and at that the ministers are not half paid.
 W. B. West, new conner to the town, was interested in the school question. He said his impression had been that the schools were in very poor shape. He found from a study of the reports that only S475 23 |