Bisbee daily review., 1919-12-11
Bisbee, Arizona, Dec. s. 1919.

with our educational system that is more important than the caliber and character of our teachers. Next to the home, and doubtless in many cases even more than in the home, the greatest influence brought to bear upon our boys and girls is that of the teacher. Indeed during their waking period the teacher has the children for a greater number of hours than has the parent. It is not only their intellectual progress, therefore, that is to be considered, but also their higher well-beine in every respect
 The above is quoted from a Cana dian educator.
 But the teaching profession faces degeneration for several years it has been gradually impoverished by its failure to attract young men, espe- cially those of pronounced ability and high ideals. A few scholarly, elderly men may still be found in the profes- sion outside of the colleges, but the number of such is deplorably small. The young men now teaching frankly tell us that they are teaching only to earn funds with which to fit them selves for a different profession. Paralleling this attitude is that of the women of the corps-scarce one in ten but expects in the near future to renounce teaching in order to grace a home and rear family of her own. 1t is true that this attitude has been forced upon her frequently by school officials, becaue of the all tOO-com- mon provision that married women may not teach in public schools. For mer successful and acceptable ser vice, and that finer appreciation and more intimate knowledge of the child which comes through motherhood are thus too often lost to the profession through a weak concession to the shibboleth, Let no married women be employed so long as single women ap- ply"
 Married Women Forced Out
 That married women have been forced from the profession and that this spirit is abroad let the following facts attest: Out of approximately 600 900 teachers in the public schools of the nation, 100000 are between IF and 19; 150,OO0 are less than p years and 3OO,O00 are less than 26 years. What wealth of experience, what ma turity of counsel these can impart to their charges!
 But this is not all-of the above, 50o aaa Lo,-o hoI Iage fban fuvn beyond the eighth grade, 100000 have had less than four years beyond the eighth grade, and 100000 have had no professional preparation for teaching. This means that one-third the teach ing force of the nation are not even high school graduates and one-half have had no special preparation for teaching. Sixty-five thousand teachers are today substituting on sufferance, having been unable to pass the lowest tests prescribed for teachers in their several states. The number of new teachers needed annually exceeds one hundred ten thousand, yet the total number of graduates of all normal schools of the United States is less than twenty-five thousand. How long could law, medicine, the ministry, or any other learned profession com mand public esteem, or even exist, on such a showing? Yet we Americans fondly assume and proudly assert that the public school is the cornerstone of our democracy, and the greatest melt ing pot of the nations, fusing the var. ious immigrant peoples or at least their children into a great homogen. eous American race. How sadly our wishes and imaginings have erred the cantonment records of 1917 abundant ly prove.
 Low Salaries To Blame
 To become and to remain efficient as a profession it must be stabilized as to educational qualifications, moral standards, teneur of position, and a just compensation. That high stan. dard of academic requirement is no cause for the present shortage of teachers is clearly seen from the fact that in such states as California where such requirements are unusually severe the supply still exceeds the demand. because the compensation is made commensurate with the require ments. That a lack of such compen. sation may override even love for the profession mad also be seen from a report of the National Education association to the effect that 22 per cent of the teachers of standard quail fications resigned during the year 1918 to accept higher salaries in other lines of work. These aspects of the profession. however. have received such notice in the public prints that it may not be necessary or advisable to discuss them further here.
 Two dangerous policies have re gently found adherents and advocates in tho Warran nisfriof. The first is