Richmond times-dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1914-current, 1920-03-18
For tic Cause of Education

IT Il ianitor can command within $500 the
year OF the salary of the college president
under whom he serves; if the average girl
stcnographer can earn $1,000, compared with
the $3.50 year earned by the Virginia school
teacher; if Il hod-carrier or a bricklaycr
ceives nearly, if not quite. much for one
days work teacher receives in Il week;
if a street cleaner is better off by several hun
dred dollars the year than the moldcr OF
young American minds, then what incentive
is there for young man or young woman,
no matter what the measure OF patriotism,
TO devote years and money TO their prepara-
ton for a profession wherein the rewards
barely serve to keep body and soul together?
The answer is not difficult to find. 1t is
read in the conditions in the public schools
and institutions Of higher learning in Nir-
ginia and practically every other State in the
Union today They arc being deserted daily
by undcrpad. discouraged teachers, who can
afford 10 work no longer simply for tho love
Of the profession, and are being driven against
their will into other rocations where their
labors meet with decent reward Consider
the teaching profession in Virginia. When
the last school year closed, 90 per cent of its
teachers YEARLY closed their books for the
last time. locked the schoolroom doors be-
hind them and turned their energies into new
and more lucr3 tive channels The result: In
this State alone hundreds OF schools have
-,
age being estimated 3" 10 per cent and
thousands Of chi!dr"o IRE growing up in ig
norance for want Of some one TO teach them
Conditions in the higher Institutions are sim
liar To those in the public schools. Professors
no longer or will work for a beggarly
pittancc. whom more fertile fields arc theirs.
TO command, and young men and women no
longer find attraction in the profession. Thus
the ranks are depleted, and there are few in
of q ill hp w
cancies.
What does it portcnd? If teaching as 4
profession is permitted To die OF inunition
who will educate aud train the rising and
the coming generation: And with tho chill
drcn neglected, what is 10 become OF our
Wanted civilization? Happily, Virginia has
seen the crisis in its educational affairs and
the recent Assembly took steps to relieve in
part at least, the stress OF its public school
teachers while Richmond and other cities
are making moro liberal provision for them
But all they can do is not sufficient to solve
the problem. This is particularly true of the
higher institutions, which, if they are to be
saved. must be saved through private initia-
tive and private aid
One institution, OF which all Virginians
are Justly proud, Sweet Brar College, is at
tempting to solve its problem through an in
creased endowment wherewith to give its pro-
lessons living salaries and at the same time
make the profession profitable enough to re-
gain its attractiveness among young students.
In this it is following the example of other
leading institutions, and IL Virginia responds
rs Literally as the friends of other schools
have done il will have no trouble in raising
its 100000 fund. 1t deserves 10 win i'll
the campaign it has undertaken; it has done
Il wonderful work for the women Of Virginia;
it is doing very distinct service now in en-
phaszing before the public the limitations
placed on teachers, and it is striving to meet
the teacher shortage and preserve the State
from education retrogression. 1t deserves
success. and every Nirgnan will be helping
his own State and the cause OF education II
he contributes to tho endowment fund just
as literally as his means will permit