New-York tribune., 1912-12-05
TEACHERS PLAY HOCKEY!
Miss O'ReiI|y Is Sure City
Would Learn a Lesson.
CALLS UNION THEIR HOPE
The Socialist -Suffragist Thinks
They Should Have Shorter
Hours and More Pay.

What's the matter with the schools?
The teachers need union. There's the
solution OF the whole problem, and II the
Board of Education, the school investi-
eating committee, Superintendent Max
well, the teachers and q few other people
who are tearing their hair about the pub
lie schools had only thought to ask Miss
Leonora O'Reilly, suffragist and Socialist,
she would have set them straight long
ago.
''If the teachers had backbone enough
to band together and some fine morning
just stay away from school they would
teach the community a big lesson" Miss
OReilly told a Tribune reporter yester-
day.
You couldn't hire thugs to take the
teachers places" she said. "You couldn't
bring women from the washtubs and fac
tories to stand in the schoolrooms and
battle with forty ective little minds, The
community would have TO listen TO the
demands OF the teachers.
And what would those demands be?
For living wage. shorter hours and a
voice In the administration Of the schools.
Living wage? Indeed they don't. The
equal pay bill helped only the teachers
highest up; those in the lowest grades
don't get half enough. It's an abomina-
ton, the salary for which young girls
have to work. when they have spent the
best part Of their lives preparing them
selves for their work
Just SO long as teachers are willing
to teach classes Of eighty they will be
given eighty, or more likely eighty-fve.
They must strike for fifteen. That's the
largest number one person can handle
efficiently. Look at the private schools!
There. where everything Is done which
brain can devise and money procure for
the good Of the children. the classes are
limited to fifteen. II that Is the best
the poor child, too. The poor man pays
enough in taxes to guarantee his child a
good education.
Teachers hours are too long. Look
at them after they have been I'm the sys-
tenn ten years and you see how they
are overworked. No teacher can do her
best work for more than four hours a
day. and that in two periods. too. There
should be two hours Of teaching, then a
recess, then two hours more.
Besides being overworked. the teachers
OF to-day are made mere pieces OF ma.
chinery. They are given no voice in
the conduct Of the school They have ia
teach what they are told. and In the
way they are told. The Board OF Educa-
tion sits on them and for them. Now
the man behind the wheel In every indus
try has ideas which the manager cannot
afford 10 neglect. The teacher IS the man
behind the wheel. It's all very well for
the men higher up TO theorize. but the
teacher knows exactly how the theories
work out. The board should recognize
her intelligence.
Now, all these good things the teachers
cannot gain as individuals. They have
been trying for nifty years and more
and each year the system has been grow
Ing a little more complex. the teachers
have been reduced step by step Into
mere cogs in the wheels, and the indi'
yldual is useless alone. No one to-day
can accomplish anything except through
numbers. Until the teachers make thefi-
selves respected by the school heads
through their numbers and solidarity,
until they show they respect themselves
by thus banding together to secure tneir
rights OF course the men higher up
viii continue to let them teach eighty
children for eight and nine hours day.