Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1913-02-17
SWISS SCHOOLS.
Position and Salary of Teachers
Schools for the People.

| Nearly 80 per cent. of the teachers IL
Switzerland are men," said w. X. Tate
supervisor of rural schools in South
Carolina, to conference Of educators al
the United states Bureau of Education
| Mr. Tate has Just returned from a three
months investigation in Switzerland un-
der the auspices of the Bureau
give hundred dollars is considered a
good salary for a teacher. After a life
| time of service he may go as high as
| $500. Living is cheaper there than here
however and in addition to his salary he
is furnished with a dwelling a certain
amount of garden land and wood for fuel
| His dwelling is generally in the SAINT
| building with the school. His position is
of considerable local Importance. Aside
| from his duties in the sehoolroom he Is
often secretary of the local creamery as
ISOLATION, leader of the village band or
ganist in the church. and general INTEL
lectHal guide for the community
when a teacher is engaged for Pc
siton it is for life or a long term of
years. He settles down with the people
whose children he teaches and generally
expects to make that particular Job his
life work. And he stays. Changes are
rare. Twelve new teeahers in one year
in a system of 240 was considered very
unusual. The record for continued SER
vice in the. same village Is held by q
teacher in Thurgau, who has occupied
the same position for 50 years. One
teacher that / visited has held his posi-
ton for "A years and his father held the
same position for IS years before him.
zone of the most attractive features Of
the Swiss schools is the cordial personal
relation that exists between teacher ana
pupil There is nothing of the military
in the discipline of the school, no lining
up; no marching to- classes. When the
children go to the classroom. they shake
hands with the teacher. greeting him as
II they had not seen him for long time
and are really glad to see him The
whole relation is one of charming nat
uralness and kindness on both sides.
+ I'm the Swiss eantons school is In SEES
sion from to in winter time with an
intermission of two hours at noon three
hours for the younger ehildren) In
summer the children have TO be at school
al A. NJ
Failure to be promoted is rare, Af-
ter the four years of elementary training
in the primary school, prescribed for
everybody, the children proceed into
schools that are carefully differentiated
for the various types of children Some
OF the children enter upon technical
training; others are sent through the
gymnasium and ultimately to the uni
versity; and still others are prepared for
business life or any other suitable ca
reer, according to the ability and apti-
tude of the individual boy or girl,
Commissioner Glaxon, who introduced
the speaker, said he believed Americans
would derive much benefit from Mr..
Tate's study of conditions in Switzerland.
which will soon be published as a bulle-
tin of the Bureau of Education. I'm
Switzerland" said DIR. Claxton, Its a
case OF the school for the people, not the
people for the school We can learn much
from switzerland-more perhaps than
from some of the larger countries of
Europe