Republican farmer. [volume] (Bridgeport, Conn.) 1810-1920, 1918-03-01

49,
rotary Of State Board of Education.)
am asked by your committee of
arrangements to attemt to answer
the question which probably more
than any other haunts the waking
hours of the superintendent of
schools. That question with some of
you is Where in the world can I
find efficient teachers?" With others.
it has come to be: Where can I find
somebody who will keep SCHOOL,"
The question is an old one. but it is
| taking on new aspect. Ten years
ago, in the remoter and more sparsely
settled regions of New England,
schools remained closed for weeks at
a time because nobody could be found
to teach This winter l have known
of schools in sections of Connecticut,
far from remote and thinly populated,
which have had to wait until teach
ers could be found. For a long time,
the rural superintendents has suffer
ed while his brother in the city has
somewhat complacently called his
! teachers away. Today, the city SUI
perintendent is losing out in competi-
| ton with still larger cities, with COM
mercial and industrial enterprises and
with war work. The public is likely
soon to find its children unschooled
| because there are no teachers, skilled
or unskilled, trained or unframed,
competent or incompetent who can be
| found to keep the schoolrooms open.
But" you say, this is simply a
war condition which will pass with
| the war; There is everywhere a
shortage of labor, and this is merely
part of the general shortage" 1--WE
must face the situation and find ex-
| pedients to tide us over this period of
extraordinary stress
Expedients we must undoubtedly
| find, if expedients there are, but it
will be sad failure if we as a people
| Il don't mean you and I as school,
men but all the people of this state
and the other states) prove unable
| to see the real situation and face the
issue.
The truth is, as I shall abundantly
show, and as you schoolmen doubt
less realize, this present shortage is
simply one of the many breakdowns
which the unusual stress of warfare
has brought about in social and po-
1itical machinery which was worn out
and obsolete before the war and
which ultimately would have col
| lapsed anyway. The war merely
fastened the inevitable.
The man-fashion answer to the
question is PAY adequate salaries
and scrap your obsolete machinery
Higher Salaries Required.
For a, long time, everybody hal
recognized that teachers ought to be
paid more than they are paid, ant
salaries have been increased. Board:
of education have timidly formulated
schedules which they thought the
appropriating bodies might stand, thu
appropriations have been passed herr
and there but in the end a 10 PEI
cent. or 20 per cent. increase ha!
been Forthcoming. That is all over
We must make up our minds, not tt
10 per cent. nor 20, nor SO per cent.
but to two or three times the salary
scale we are now paying. And ther
we must exact as we shall be able te
exact proper qualifications for per
sons who assume to teach the chill
dren of the state.
| Let US see what has been happen
ing.
& In 1855, SIS per cent. of the teach
ers of the state were men. In II
years this had fallen to 80 per. cent.
in 20 years more to 10 per cent; II
another 20 to per cent.
At the present time, the percentage
of men teachers in Connecticut i:
less than 7 per cent, and most OF
these men are in administrative posi-
tons And such is the history Of
most of the states. None like it ex
lists anywhere among the great power:
of Western Europe.
Now, the significant thing is, no
that men gave place to women, bu
that women replaced men because
: they could and would work cheaper
As soon as you once employ a woman
because she is less expensive than {
man you inevitably begin to emplo,
= younger and inferior women becaus'
) they will drive out, in competition fo.
a place which has substantially NJ
qualification bars, more mature ant
5 superior women.
BY the beginning of the presen
century we had reached stag
t where, outside of few of the large
5 cities, practically all the teacher
f were young girls. inexperienced ant
, with no permanent interest in teach
: ing Today the sudden great increas
! in the number of well-paid position
: in other women's professions, and il
. commerce and the industries. ha
ushered in period in which it i
, difficult to secure anybody to teacl
7 at the salaries paid.
In other words, we have reachet
the dropping-off place. Sooner o
: later we should have reached it any
> way.
Salaries Compared.
: Let US compare women teachers
salaries in the state of Connecticu
with salaries paid to other wome
workers. Men teachers don't coun
especially at So or $40 per week.
, Using the last figures obtainable
those for the last school year, 1 fin
that the range of teachers salarie
in the state is from $35 a month t
$40 g. month. Averages for towns an
cities are used. OF course there wer
{ | individual salaries less than SIS an
greater than $7S. The most commo
l salary was $5S per month and tn
bulk of the towns and cities wer
: paying less than SIS per month. S
> the typical teacher was receiving las
year an annual income of rather les
than $500.
= Miss Charlotte Holloway of tn
: Bureau Of Labor has very kindly full
J nished me with information regardin
| present salaries of women, who" {
Miss Holloway states some years az