The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1921-12-15
EDUCATIONAL.
(By LILLIAN L. CHLOUPEKl,

The public school business is the most
important business in the country. 1t
has 105,6s3, los stockholders (the peo-
pie of the United States). They en-
ploy at least 100000 teachers to han
die the business. There is a branch of
the business in every village, district
and town in the country. Practically
every square mile from Canada to
Mexico is part of a school district.
Dividends are paid annually or semi
annually The dividends are trained
boys and girls--trained to think,
trained to act, trained to bear
their share in the worlds work,
Dividends never fail, but as in some
other good businesses dividends are
better some times and in some places
than in others. In another business,
however, when the dividends fall off,
the shareholders Immediately seek out
their board of directors and say
"Why?" Sometimes the answer is;
"our working force is inadequate" or
"our turnover is too great" Some
times it is that they are not able to get
the right kind of workers; sometimes
the plant is not sufficiently large or it
is too large or it is old-fashioned and
out of date. Sometimes the machinery
is worn out or inadequate to handle
the business. Sometimes the organi-
zation is not the best that it should be.
A business may need an efficiency ex-
pert to come in and plan the work a
little differently, Sometimes it is mis-
management.
All these conditions may be found
in the school business too, but curl
ously enough, the stockholders are not
on the job. They have been all too
content to let their boys and girls go
through the plant and not to ask
whether the results were the best that
could be attained.
What the school business needs is
l00,O00,000 active stockholders who
shall say, "Why do only Is out of 100
children who enter school graduate
from high school? Why are there s.
100000 people in the United States
who cannot read or write? Why we're
there $4,000 schools without teachers
last year? Why were 100000 teachers
teaching who had had no professional
training for their work? c Why ,were
over a. million children without seat
room in school last year?"
If the shareholders got the answers
to some of these questions they might
make the interesting discovery that
thousands of schools had been strug
Cling along with poor school buildings,
underpaid teachers, poor equipment,
negligence on the part of parents and
truancy officers, which made adequate
work and adequate results impossible.
When shareholders invest their money
in a prize COW, a popular stock, bust
ness concern, they watch that COW,
that stock, that concern with unabated
interest. Everybody has money in
vested in the public schools of Amer
lea. Everybody can help to make these
schools the best in the world.
1t looks as if there will be teachers
for the youngsters of Wisconsin in a
few years if the Wisconsin people do
their part. Nine normal schools of the
state show an increased enrolment of
25 per cent in the teacher training de-
partments. Twelve hundred and
twenty-four more young people are
studying to become teachers this year
than last. The increase in teachers
salaries is largely responsible. If the
Wisconsin people really want trained
teachers, they will maintain these in
creases and get trained teachers. OF
course, if salaries were dropped, young
people would quickly go into other
| lines of work. There are not yet
enough qualified teachers for all
schools, and no alarm need be felt over
} the "army of unemployed teachers"
There are still at least 81 counties
which could not secure enough legally
qualified teachers this year to fill their
schools.