The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1918-03-25
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
INFORMATION BUREA
FREDERIC J. HASkIN. Director.
Washington, d. G.
THE SCARCITY OF TEACHERS.


American educators are beginning to
be alarmed over the increasing
scarcity of teachers Within the past
six months hundreds of young women
have left the profession for better-paid
lines of work, while the recruiting
average of the teachers training
schools is fast falling off. In New
York City the waiting list is only half
the size it was this time last year.
Obviously. the teaching profession
is losing its attraction for women: and
the cause is not hard to fathom-
Teachers salaries are too low to COM
pete with those now being paid in al
most any other occupation.
In a letter sent to local boards of
education in all parts of the country
recently. Dr. P. p. Claxton, United
States commissioner of education.
, predicted that this shortage will grow
wherever possible the salaries of
teachers should be raised.
THE cost of living has increased
nearly so per cent since 1913, and APP
proximately one-third since 1916,
saws Dr. Claxton. Food has increased
IS per cent in price; clothing 1O6 per
cent; fuel So per cent; drugs 100 per
cent and home furnishing goods rs
per cent"
During this period the wages of
labor, both skilled and unskilled, have
advanced. Every working map, from
foreman to hodcarrier, has received
some increase in his wages. The sal
aries of commercial employees are
higher than they have ever been be-
fore. while even the professional man
one of the most poorly paid indl-
viduals in America-has raised his
fees. But in very few instances have
the salaries of teachers been in
creased.
what impatiently even before the war,
but now, with new opportunities for
women opening up on every side, the
school-marmS are reslgnlng on a
wholesale scale. Instead of rushing
forward to fill the vacancies left by
male teachers taken in the draft, the
women are creating a list of vacancies
themselves.
LAS a result" says DR.. Claxton
| standards of efficiency in the schools
are being lowered at a time when it
is more important than ever before
that they should not be lowered but
should, on the contrary, be raised as
rapidly as possible. Conditions which
will follow the war will demand a
higher standard of general intelligence
ind ustrial efficiency and civic knoWl-
edge and virtue than we have yet at
tanned; and this can be had only thru
better education"
| Since the war, nearly every Euro
pean belligerent has reformed its edu-
! cational system. In France and in
Germany. the high school, for which
| tuition was formerly charged, has
! been put within the reach of the pro-
| letariat. In Great Britain a new and
extensive educational program has
been provided, calling for continuation
| schools. free medical treatment for
children, and for large fines in the
case of persons preventing children
| from attending school. Everywhere
! the idea of increasing the efficiency
of the future generation thru greater
| educational facilities, has taken root
and is flourishing.
! In this country the teachers have
| listened to the words of educational
authorities on the new responsibilities
/ of teachers with mingled feelings
Some, who live partly on the income
! of their parents have felt proud an6
patriotic: others have maintained ar
i enigmatic silence. and still others have
i raised protest. After reading thai
| the schools were the laboratory of cit
izenship. in which the teachers were
the chemists, two teachers in an east.
ern city turned in their designations
! remarkinG that theirs was too large {
| job for the money. Each was earn
| ing the munificent salary of $500 6
year, which she exchanged for &
Enlistment.
The question of teachers salarie.
has long been on the American pub
lie calendar. For some time it ha:
been recognized that our educationa
| institutions could be improved Man,
improvements have already beer
made, and many more suggested, bu
one of the improvements suggested
remains continuously unpopular, ant
that is to improve the school teacher.
salary. In this respect evasions have
| been made with skill and diplomacy
In the first place, teachers wer,
requested to consider the fact tina
they worked for only nine or ter
| months year, and that their hours O.
duty were shorter than in most occu
pations. The last, according to teach
ers, is fallacious, but popularity be
lieved. In other words, when yo,
argued it that way a salary of $500 {
year actually became $50 a month
because the term was for only tel
months-tc say nothing of aboundant
holidays sprinkled about the schoo
year.
In answer to this. the teacher
pointed out that. altho the schoo
term was for only ten r-onths the,
had to live for twelve months. which
made theiI monthly income only $50
1t was hard for the average teache
to secure employment for those two
months, they said, and anyway sh
needed all of that time and sometime
more in which to recuperate from tn
strain of the schoolroom.
One other elements of dissatisfac
ton among women teachers is the sys
tenn of unequal pay laid down b.
most boards of educate That is
woman doing the same kind of worl
as man in the schools is paid les
for it, In some cases a male teache
is paid $1,000 a year for teaching
special subject, for which a woman
teacher is paid only $500. This sys
tenn of unequal pay is excused on tn
| hal J, fa lie
| to support, while women do not
theory that has been proved to b
merely theory and not based on act
ual face. Women teachers an owe
the country are still fighting thi. in
justice.
Heretofore, the question of teach
! ers' salaries has been largely in tn
hands of parents. whose taxes supper