The Washburn leader. [volume] (Washburn, McLean County, N.D.) 1890-1986, 1914-01-02
The School Teacher
Not Appreciated
Ask Yourself the Question if she
! is Paid According to Know
4 ledge She Gives Out

tI1s w oJ W. ut'SAAAACSAAS!Nht "
education gives an address be
y fore State convention, he doe.
not seem to feel that he has
done his full duty (judging from
.ia number Of meetings that il
has been my privilege to attend
within the last few years. un.
less he says something about the
ihefficiencies Of the country
school teachers, the few years
during which they remain in the
work, and the fact that many of
them teach simply i'll order to
earn money for their wedding
trouseau.
While | would not for mo-
ment presume to be capable of
debating with the gentlemen in
question, it is difficult to escape
the impression that theirs is not
the only point Of view in the
premises. Many years Of field
work in the rural districts have
given me an opportunity to see
al great many rural schools and
their teachers, and as practi-
IcAl sanitariam / take the liberty
1of presenting for consideration a
side Of the problem which l have
not yet heard county superinten-
dents emphasize in their conven-
tipn addresses.
First Of all, the point SO often
made, that these young woman
teach but a few years and then
marry, might well be interpre-
ted as meaning that they are of
such a high standard that they
are in great demand as wives
|a4 Interpretation which should
ha heartily Endorsed.
Certain it is that the average
young woman has few, induce
ments offered to her to remain
a teacher in the many country
schools l have seen. As rule,
she leaves a home which is super
ior to the homes of the parents
Of her pupils, in which she is
forced to board if she lives in
the community where she teach
es. She is paid miserable sal
ary as reward for exposing her.
self five days a week to indecent
and insanitary conditions sur
rounding the school, which jeo-
pardize and occasionally end
either her health or her life. She
is blamed by her patrons for not
giving better education than
she succeeds in giving to un-
healthy children who on an ave-
rage are not physically or men
tally capable Of digesting the
education she does give them.
She has little or no sympathy
from her school board in regard
to the difficulties that she faces.
If-she suggests improvements in
the sanitary surroundings, her
suggestions usually fall upon deaf
ears. She is superior in education
refinement, culture, and in near
ly every other respect, to the ma
jority of parents in the commu- |
nifty in which she teaches, She
lives q life of self-sacrifice, too !
often combined with indlgna-
ton and pimples, because Of the
class Of food she is forced to
Eat. If she sends home from
school a pupil who has the itch o
in whom she suspects some con-
tagious disease, she is blamed for
ler officiousness; if she contracts
he disease herself, she furnishes
! substitute at her own expense.
But she is the greatest civil
izing influence today in our rur-
H. districts, and is deserving of
much more sympathy and suppor
md Of much less criticism, than
he is receiving.
Without denying that q more
'edagogically trained class of
eachers might be obtained if
hey were paid better salaries,
venture to suggest to their
'ritics that they will probably be |.
lble to retain their young woman
year or two longer if they
improve the present indecent and i
nsanitary conditions under whic
hese young women have to work
o . point where the girls can
each without endangering their |;
lealth and lives; and these teach i
u will certainly have better I
uccess ii their pedagogic eff II
orts # the sanitary conditions 4
urrounding tie schools are i'm
'rOved 10 4 point where the 1
ountr school will not form
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