The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1919-03-10


normal school, with view to accept
ing a Job at $630.64, which is the av-
erage teachers salary.
This $630.64 average does not mean
that most teachers receive so hlgn
salary. Hundreds of rural communi-
ties hire a school teacher for consid-
erabiy less than they pay a farm
hand. In Maryland, for example, $50
is the entrance salary in rural scnoois'
and Maryland is not the state with the
lowest average of pay Moreover, TINS
charwoman's wage is not PAID Tor
twelve months in the year, but only
during the school term. S1Nty-tWo per
cent of our school children attend
schools. yet less than half the amount
expended in teachers salaries goes TO
these country schools.
Conditions in city schools are little
better, for the city teachers slightly
higher pay is eaten up by higher rates
of board and rent and heavier e4peh-
oiturcs on clothing.
Ditch diggers and unskilled labor
ers earn. or rather draw, higher pay
than We" is the way one teacher put
it.
Microscopic raises in teachers sal
aries during the last half century have
been accompanied by greatly in
creased responsibilities TIE school
| teacher no longer limits her work to
assigning lesson in the fundamentals
and hearing recitations. She is re-
| quired to teach singing, harmony,
plant life, drawing, paper cutting, folk
dances, to tell stories, and be model
| of neatness, manners and speech. The
latest addition to her curriculum in
| many cities is a health crusade. in
which she is supposed TO lead her
class to the knighthood- of perfect
health via tooth brush and washrag
| drills am other ceremonies.
I IL Of
intellect, personality and real teach
| ing ability should be in charge of
every school room. But a happy
| combination of Intellect, magnetism
and ability is not often to be engaged
for s630.64 a year.
The male teacher in elementary
schools, both rural and urban, is fast
entirely to the pay situation, and at
that the man teacher has always de-
manded and received a higher salary
than his woman associates, who
often outranked him in experience
and ability.
The vanishing of the s.hoc1master
is unfortunate. Many men are suited
for teaching boys and girls, and would
prefer this work to law or mechanics.
But a man will no longer enter
profession which promises $500 a
year if he lives long enough and
1
cipal or superintendent.
| Worse than The case of the vanish
| ing schoolmaster is that OF the van
| ishing Schoolmarm.
Why should 1 spend my life teach
ing Peters and Marys for $50 a month
for seven months in a year when
| can get a steady position as clerk at
| $1,000 year and no Worries" de-
mands a young teacher after two years
of schoolroom experience. 1t is use
| less for the school superintendent to
| assure her that her work is very salts
| factory and that she will surely be pro-
| NOTED next year. Suppose she will?
She may teach thirty years and never
! equal the $1,000 a year and no worries
offered her now. And SO another sue
| cessful teacher, who might have made
teaching her life work, gives UP her
chosen profession because she cannot
afford to continue in it.
War did not create the shortage of
teachers. 1t aggravated a shortage
that had existed for some years. There
| is and always will be a certain per-
centage of women and men who
will take up school teaching as
a career in spite of low pay, nerve
racking work, long hours, and heavy
responsibility. These are the born
| teachers" on whom depends the sue
cess of our future school system At
present, besides these faithful few the
ranks of school teachers are filling up
| with eighth grade graduates who have
had no training as teachers and who
enter this important profession only
until a more lucrative position ap-
pears
Responsibility of raising the teach
ers' salaries does not rest primarily
with congress. Individual states fix
rates and grant increases according to
local state conditions. While some
states have number of times slightly
raised the minimum and maximum
| wage scales, other states have made
no provisions and have none in view.
| Only eight state legislatures announce
their intent to take up the matter of
teachers salaries at the 1919 session.
One reason why tea cheers remain
underpaid while other classes prosper
is. according to the bureau of educa-
ton. the lack of a compelling voice to
mand justice. The demands of a
department of education headed by a
cabinet officer could not be so asily
discounted as the requests of a bureau
| of education often are. "A national
teachers union would be another
mighty force which would soon obtain
for itself a living wage
While the teachers await the aid of
some compelling force. the states and
local communities begin to realize for
{ themselves the urgent need for more
/ and better trained school teachers.
Even the close of the war and the
shorter list of other opportunities will
not drive hack to the school room the
5 majority of the thousands of teachers
who have entered other occupations.
Unless they are assured something
sands of trained and experienced