Geauga record. [volume] (Chardon, Geauga County, Ohio) 1952-1962, 1962-05-17
Number 4 in a Series

itself it to blame AS long schools set up to at
tract the wrong type of person and to protect the IN
adequate person in holding their job and getting reg
ular pay raises whether earned or not taxpayers
will be reluctant to vote adequate money for schools
If the present school officials would the writ
ing on the wall and change the inequties that keep
good wel-quafied teachers out of the teaching pro-
fession and pro C t the incompetent personality,
schools will suffer.
What about pay scales? Do you realize that girl
with qualified education degree is paid $l176O week
in the Chardon school system to start? With guar
anteed pay raises every year? With pension arrange
ment that amounts to about six per cent increase in
pay over the person working under social security
This is higher weekly pay check than girl with
comparable education earn in any other business
with the possible present exception OF engineering
(there's shortage of engineers at the momenD
School teachers contracts are drawn up yearly
basis and as a result often compared with others
on yearly basis. Actually teachers in ChadOn teach
only 1876 days year and pay comparisons should be
made that basis.
So if the starting pay is SO good, why haven't we
got more applicants? Because school system is de-
signed to attract the kind of person who is looking for
and getting of the most attractive offers in the
world the offer of marriage, home and family. The
personel manager of any industry could look at your
sweet girl graduate and tell you she's not long for the
business world someplace between eighteen months
and two years.
Ir industry the same type of applicant, because
employers know her heart is set different goals
reluctant to hire her in any responsible position and if
they do their pay scale is lower to start.
But these are the people school system is gear
ed to. Not just at the beginning but all through their
life.
The education girl gets to be school teacher
happens to be about the best possible education she
can get to manage a home and family It's reason
able that at least nine out of every ten girls
that graduate rs teachers have intention of MAX
ing teaching their life work.
But after thev are hired they step into an environ
ment created to suit them and their needs and keep
competent people out mainly the nine month school
year.
The man. who would make serious competent
school teacher is forced out of teaching by the nine
month system The girl thrives ON it.
After she's been married while and has her fam
lily under way, like everybody else she finds her fam
lily needs little money. The easy way to get it is
to go back to school, BY shorting her family little
and her job little more, she can manage to get
through nine months Of school after fashion. The
three months in the summer fits her to try it again
for another year But she isn't doing justice either to
her job or her family
But again she's keeping a competent man out of
the field because the wage scale is lowered to her work
ing demands rather than meeting the needs of COM
petent teacher pay check for full years work
One way of checking the value of teachers is the
simple of asking their pupils Almost always stu
dents will put their teachers first The who
goes into teaching is not putting ip couple of years
until he gets married. He is embarling a career
that is not stop-gap but prospective life work.
If he is adequately paid he goes home at night to
a comfortable home and comes to work refreshed the
next day He considers it humating if he has to look
for some kind of menal or stop-gap employment dur
ing the summer
Invariably the male teacher is in favor of year
round job. Almost equally the opposite, the female is
opposed to it. | have heard several women teachers
say "If had to teach all year round would quit
1t to the school system would be better off if
they did.
If school board would start to switch over to
yearround (probably fur quarter) school system and
revamped their salary schedule in accordance, we
would Immediately be able to attract better class of
applicant for teaching jobs. Some of women
teachers who are swamped with the job of raising q
family and teaching school would quit. They would in
the long run be better off So would their families and
so would our school system