The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1916-04-01

prepare, fires to keep, house to tidy up
and her own personal chores to do, the
keeping up of her wardrobe and per-
Sonal belongings. Then would she
not be the center of gossip if she re-
ceived company in her cottage?
Then this cottage is to be a COM
munity center too. That would mean
another big burden upon the teacher
and remember that in many districts
the teacher is held responsible to
greater or less degree for the condi-
ton of the school house, its order and
cleanliness
THE cottage idea is not new. 1t
has been in use in Great Britain for
many years, and these are some of
the objections urged, or rather some
of the effects there of the system: 1t
has saddled upon the schools many
very old and infirm teachers, who
are kept because they have no other
home, and they are more in the nature
of cottage mothers than teachers of
schools. This keeps out the young,
progressive blood and the school sys-
tenn then deteriorates.
TN a sparsely settled community
a young girl teacher could not safely
live alone. 1t is fact that the coun-
try school teacher is more often vic
dmiZed under the present conditions
than any of us like to admit Her
en- up the school room are taken in
to account by tFamps and marauders.
1t seemed to me upon some inVeS-
tigation while in Britain that this cot
tage system was the one thing that
hampered her school system and that
our freedom from it was to our credit
and accrued to the benefit of our
school children.
Then if the teacher is far from
town who is to do her purveying, sup
plying her groceries, do her fetching
and carrying. 1t is hard enough good
ness knows for the country teacher to
get her errands done even when she
has family to rely upon.
"One argument against the married
teacher is that she teaches school with
divided mind. Would not the teach
er who had to do her own house
work and board herself rest under
the same difficulty. For it takes no
for two than it does for one, or at
least no appreciable more time is con-
sumed. Then one must take into ac-
count that
&c Thoughts shut up are like bales
unopened to the sun'-do we want a
teacher that is narrowed and hemmed
in by having no converse with other
than immature minds. The constant
association with subordinates, the
contact with immature minds is just
the thing which may ultimately make
a teacher, pedantic, dogmatic and
domineering, and that is just what
every teacher fights against after she
has been in the work avery few years.
Instead of laying this extra bur-
den upon the teacher, why not use
some of our excess energy in convert
ing people to the idea that the teach
ing of the children is the very great
est obligation that rests upon them as
be SO 10th to do it's share of taking
the responsibility of providing a
boarding place for the teacher? Let
the trustees bestir themselves and if
there is no other way, encourage a
good respectable family to build on a
room for the teacher. A little educa-
ton will make the people understand
that the teacher is human and needs
rest and quiet; nay, more, that the
school will benefit by attentions be-
slowed upon her. Why should a COM
munity of parents hire a teacher and
then expect her to give up everything
in the world, all of her time, COM
pany of her own age, do her own laun-
dry, keep her fires and maintain a
social center for their entertainment?
Would such a proposition be put to
men who teach? How many men
would like to have such a job cut out
for them?
Lets have some bulletins to edu-
cate parents up to the idea that it is
little short of criminal to shirk all re-
sponsibility of their children and to
endeavor to make the school teacher
responsible for the mental, moral and
spiritual growth of the child. Let the
comfort of the teacher, her boarding
place and Surroundings be discussed
as fully at school meetings of par
ents as her wages are And we must
Der that the parent who throws
all responsibility upon the teacher,
who wants to delegate everything to
the schools, who shirks his parental
duties, is. when anything does go
wrong, the severest critic and cries
out the loudest about the inefficiency
of the public school system. Also
that the more complicated and intri-
cate the machinery, the more ma