The Palatka news and advertiser. [volume] (Palatka, Fla.) 1908-19??, 1915-09-24
The American School Marin
BY FREDERICK j. HASKIN

5 switches and general ignorance, ha
= nothing in common with the woma
e teacher of today, who has been train
| ed scientifically for her work. Sh
= has finished a course of study tina
= is broad and far-reaching. 1t cover
= regular grade studies.
Teachers of Foreign Birth.
: Although supposedly a teacher o
= English, the American schoolmarn
may have to be familiar with othe
languages. In cities having an i'm
migrant population thousands of chill
dren each year must first receive in
struction in their native language be
fore they can profitably enter a elias!
where only English is spoken. 81
the schoolmarm may be only Ameri
can by adoption, but she is invariably
the most American of Americans. She
may be Polish, Hun, Lithuapian, Rus
sian or any other nationality by birth
but she has been trained to impart
American methods to the young fell
low countrymen assigned to her care
She does this so effectually that with
! in six months they are ready to enter
the English speaking classes.
The high salaries paid to many wo-
men teachers in America are indicated
, by the large parties of American
schoolmarms who for years have
been swelling the ranks of European
tourists. This summer whole special
trains and hundreds of private cars
have been chartered by bodies of
schoolmarms, who have attended the
San Francisco Exposition and spent
their vacations touring the great
Northwest of their own country.
But the schoolmarms are not quite
satisfied yet. They are still agitat-
ing for pay equal to that given men.
Thousands of them resent the fact
that the average monthly salary for
men teachers is $78 20 in this country
while for women it is $64 81. They
expect to have these figures equal
lied soon. The schoolmarms as q
whole may not stand for woman Suf-
frage, but their tendencies are strong
ly in that direction. If the one day
strike for women workers proposed by
the suffragists takes place in New
\ Ork city next month, over $4,000
schoolmarms will participated con-
dition which will turn nearly 100000
children into the streets for day.
When Schoolmarm Marries.
The schoolmarm has long been re-
garded as an unmarried woman who
used the schoolroom as a stepping
stone to the marriage state, Just as
men used it as a means to some
more favored profession, such as med
cine, law, or the United States Con-
5ress. Now women are beginning to
regard teaching as a life work. and
still claim their woman's right to hap
oiness by marriage with the men of
heir choice. Domestic and social
have so changed that it is
low possible for woman to marry
without giving up her work.
Until comparatively few years ago.
woman forfeited her position by
marriage. She does so still in some
titles, but this will not be the case
ong. Court after court renders the ]
Iecision that the woman who wishes
o marry need not relinquish the pro-
ession it required years for her to I
earn.
The heroism of the woman teacher '
S we'll established, In times of
anger she does not lose her head I
t fire breaks out she will either save
he children or remain with them un-
il death. A North Dakota school l
1arm sheltered her scholars and kept
hem safe and warm during a three I
ay blizzard, to the joyful surprise of !
heir parents who had mourned them e
S lost. In the Hawaiian leper col v
ny an American schoolmarm is Civ c
lg her life to the instruction of the !
hildren of incurable lepers. l.
The American schoolmarm is not o
ways a white woman. The uplift
the colored people in this country r
ives much to the devotion of a few
omen, who obtained their own edu. v
alton by tremendous effort, and de- ?
oted their lives to educating their T
ace. When the United States took l
barge of the Philippine Islands hun a
reds of American women teachers .
rom the leading colleges in the coun- Il
ry went to establish the public school e
vstem there. Now their services a
re less needed, because the dark
iinned native girls who have taken v
eacher's training are doing as loyal +
'ork on their native island as many |
the best teachers in Continental o
Inited States. !!
Il aaninu Tbiprs Mat =