The Detroit times. [volume] (Detroit, Mich.) 1903-1920, 1913-11-10
Finding of Teachers
Is Battling Problem

"Hoio t"o compensation IL very mucu
larger In proportion to population than
In the large centers. For instance,
In the city OF Montclair. N. j., with .
population of less than $4,000, accord.
Ing to the last census, and In Gary,
Ind, with 1900. the snperinten ents
are given a salary of $1,000, the same
as Is given In large cities like Cleve.
land. Washington. Los Angeles and
Denver San Francisco. with a pop-
ulation OF more than $4,000, how.
ever. pays Its school superintendent
only $4,000.
In some cities the compensation for
school heads Is actually more than
what the salary figures show, because
other considerations are offered, such
as furnishings and maintaining a
automobile and the making of various
expense allowances. While the new
educational directory OF the bureau
OF education will not contain the
schedule OF salaries of elementary
teachers and minor school ofiicials,
a comprehensive study OF the trend
OF salaries throughout all branches of
the teaching professions Is now being
made by the bureau OF education In
cooperation with the National Educa-
tional association. This detailed study
of salaries will be very thorough, and
will not be completed until some time
during the year OF 1914. because OF
the great amount OF work which IL en-
tailed
What will be the end of the salary
raising movement, which Is acceerat-
ed by the bidding OF one city against
another for the service of school ad.
illustrators. few men In educational
circles will venture to predict. some
of them believe that the larger cities
will keep raising until the superinten-
dents salary goes to $4,000, 10000.
or even to $4,000 q year for the cities
Of the largest size. School expeudi-
lures are multiplying each year, how
ever. and the probability Is that un-
usually high salaries for superinten-
dents will not come until better com.
pensation can be given by commune
ties to the teachers and minor OIL
Gals.
In the opinion OF many educators,
however. even with high salaries, the
time will soon come when 1t will be
exceedingly difficult to get able school
administrators, for the reason that
men today are not going In strongly
for the teaching profession, especially
In the elementary grades. Most
school administrators are drawn from
men teachers In the public schools.
and the public schools are getting
fewer men teachers each year. The
normal schools are not turning them
Iout, and college graduates seldom
make elementary teachers. The last
report Of Commissioner p. p. Claxton,
OF the bureau Of education, shows that
there were $1,000 girl graduates OF
normal schools in the United States.
last year. and only q little more than
1000 men. Except In q few sections
OF the country, normal schools e.
tablished for the training OF elemen-
tary teachers are attended almost en-.
tirely by girls, and little or nothing
Is done to attract men to the work.
As result almost every city In the
country finds itself short of q supply
Of strong and able men upon whom tt
can call for school administrators.
Boys normal schools have been
suggested as q means Of meeting the
crying demand for more man teach.
ers. especially for older boys classes,
and for school administrators, but
present-day school ofIicials have given
little or no encouragement to this
idea. The disposition OF the members
of most boards OF education Is that
the young man must 60 to the city's
regular normal school, even II the
young man finds himself the only one
OF his sex in a class of a hundred or
more girls. In only a few normal
schools over the country, according
to government reports, Is there an ap-
preciable number of man students In
comparison. with the number Of wom-
en-. In Pennsylvania. Oklahoma,
Ohio, Texas and West Virginia there
are a considerable number Of men
studying to be teachers, but in most
other states the attendance OF men
Is very slight. In the reports which
have come In to the commissioner OF
education, there is shown only one
normal school In the United States
where the graduating list contains an
excess Of men. and this Is at Athens.
w. Va, where EOS men and 40 -wom.-
en- were graduated to be teachers, last
year.