[article from The Nevada School Journal (1909)]

 

EMPLOYMENT AND SALARIES OF TEACHERS

By A. A. CODD. Goldfield School Board

December 21, 1909.

            THIS subject is one of the most important matters that can come before any body of School Trustees, and it is one to which I have devoted a great deal of study and thought.

            The price you pay for an article usually indicates the value or worth you are going to get out of the same. If you wish to pay $7.35 for a suit of clothes—you can find them—but you usually only get that amount of value out of them—but you can pay $50.00 for a suit of clothes--and you will get that amount of value out of them, and five times that amount of pleasure in wearing them by knowing that you look well and you are in style. This is true in every walk of life—You get what you pay for in money.

            The manner of teaching in our public schools is changing so fast and so much is asked now of the teachers, that there is no comparison between the teacher of today and the old school master 40 to 50 years ago. You will hear it said once in awhile, "If we could only return to the old style of teaching; and when are they ever going to stop adding their new fangled ideas?" We can no more stop the advancement in educational methods, than you could have the farmer return to the old method of cutting his grain with the sickle. This is an onward movement, and we must keep pace with it. The old school master who just taught reading, writing and arithmetic, and taught it with the hickory stick, has seen his day, and so has the sickle in gathering the grain; and we must advance along with this great movement for better things in every walk of life.

            The conditions and the situation of our public schools in Nevada must of course be taken into consideration in discussing this important subject. We have now in our school laws what we term schools of the first and second class. The first class schools are those employing ten or more teachers; the second class, those employing less than ten teachers. So it seems to me that in order to get some real practical good out of this subject we should take it up under these two heads.

City Superintendent

            Trustees of the First Class Schools are given authority by law to employ

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a City Superintendent who shall have under his direction the teaching force of the school. Therefore it is this man, "the Superintendent," that the Trustees of the First Class Schools must first consider.

            FIRST—His character must be without question.

            SECOND—His scholarship and experience in teaching, and his knowledge of school work and school methods should be of a high degree of excellence.

            THIRD—His social standing and personal appearance should be such as will command the respect of the public.

            The School Board Journals have had a great deal to say about this man—the Superintendent—and I have come to the conclusion that the School Board must stand right back of him and support him fully, and if the School Board cannot do this, they should not be at all backward in coming forward like men and calling for his resignation and telling why it is called for. No School Board have the time to investigate, nor does the public demand that they should be able to judge of the qualifications and abilities of teachers, where any considerable number are to be employed. But the people do hold the School Board responsible for the man they place in the office of City Superintendent.

            Our Nevada school law provides for reasonable permanency of tenure for the City Superintendent, by giving the School Board the authority to elect him for a term of four years, but with the right to call for his resignation at any time for cause.

            When the right man is found for this important office, the Board should not hesitate in giving him the assurance of his position for at least four years, so that he can give his entire time and thought to the working out of the best plan of education for the schools that are given to his care.

            If the right man is elected to this office, he will be a man that has given the first part of his life to preparing for school work; who has spent all of his earnings in the past in taking special courses of study, buying books, etc.; and be may come to the Board practically "broke." Too often it is the case that a School Board will begin to figure on how low a salary they can get this man for, and very seldom do we find that more than $1500 to $2000 per year is paid. As a consequence this man is very apt to begin right away planning for another field or another business, and may have on his mind at all times the idea of getting into some other line of work that will pay better than his school business. Therefore, in order to remove this uncertainty on his past and secure his best services, the School Board must pay a salary that will enable this man to have a little more than "just a living,"—for no man that has the ability to conduct the affairs of a large public school successfully, is going to be satisfied with "just a living salary." If he is that kind of a man, he would receive my negative vote for the position.

            In selecting this man, the best aid of our State should be sought in tracing his standing and ability. For instance, the heads of our University and State Normal School. and the State Supervision Department should be consulted in the matter of his scholarship, and every avenue should be sought to trace out the best man that can be found for this important place.

Salary and Support of City Superintendent

            Then when he is found, the Board should pay him a liberal salary and give him such hearty support as will remove from his mind the thought that when he is dropped from this position he will not have the price of his railroad ticket to go to some other position that holds out about the same inducement.

            Now, do not understand that I would spend the school money foolishly or recklessly in giving big salaries, and not demanding value for what we pay; but I do know that a Board cannot expect to get the right man unless

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they will pay the salary, and cannot expect a man to give his best efforts if he is not well paid for it.

            The Consolidated Mines Company of Goldfield, which is the greatest and richest gold mine company of the present day, would have been an absolute failure if it had been controlled by some mine promoters that I know. But the men that controlled it had the ability and forethought to place the development of the mine and the construction of the mill in the hands of the best mining men that this country has. The absolute management was placed in this man, and the result is that one of the best producing mines and the best gold mill of the present age are at Goldfield. A magnificent salary was paid to this man, a salary that brought him to Goldfield ; and then it was the backing he received that enabled him to do the great things. This is not only true of a gold mine. You can trace it in every line of business, and then right to our educational institutions of higher degree, and to our public schools.

Work of School Trustees

            The School Trustees should at all times take a full hand in the matter of the business side of the school work. It seems to me that the business side of the school, and the teaching side are entirely separate and distinct, and yet the two must work in perfect harmony. But the City Superintendent should be relieved of the worry of devising ways and means of getting the money for running the schools, and the handling of the business end of the work. And here is where the School Board and the Superintendent will clash, if the latter does not watch out. For an ordinary School Trustee to come into a class room and tell the teacher or the Superintendent how a class should be taught would naturally cause trouble. That is out of his line. The Trustees should take upon their shoulders the burden of providing the money for the building and equipment, and for the running expenses of the schools, and they should see that value is received for every dollar spent.

The Employment and Salaries of Teachers

            As stated at the first of my talk—this is one of the most important subjects in school work for the Trustees. We can build magnificent buildings, spend hundreds of thousands of dollars of the public money, then get in a lot of poor teachers and the school will be an absolute failure. Though the Superintendent be the best man the country can give, if, when it comes to the election of teachers, the board take any person who may apply, or who may have the support of some political friend, or whose family is poor and needy,—if employment is on these grounds, the school cannot be good. If the School Board, under such circumstances, vote to give her the position, and 40 to 50 children are placed under her care for a whole year, what a wrong may be done to all these. Sometimes she is left in the school for life, to the continual detriment of the school. For her, marriage might be a success, but teaching could only be a failure.

            I really think that such employment is criminal, and Trustees should be deprived of authority to employ teachers who are incompetent, no matter what certificates such teachers may have, for when one considers the little lives that are being moulded into manhood and womanhood under the care of teachers who are incompetent, he knows somebody has committed a crime against the school.

            Now, how shall we improve the situation? It cannot be done in a day; but with a carefully outlined plan, and with the steady advancement of this plan by good men, each school of the First Class can be put on a strong basis of efficiency. Require the City Superintendent to certify to the ability and competency of every applicant, and employ no one whom he does not recom-

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mend. Retain no teacher whom he finds unsatisfactory in her work. Then hold him responsible for the success of the school.

The Deputy State Superintendents

            Give the Deputy State Superintendents certain power in the selection if teachers for our schools of the Second Class, and then let the Trustees cooperate with them by paying adequate salaries; and I know that the results will be such as to command the hearty support of parents and the general public, for merit and service will then be the watchwords in all our schools.

            We have now in Nevada a splendid system of schools. We shall need some new work in them in the near future,—something along the line of Industrial Training. I am convinced that Nevada cannot long hold out against this great movement for a more complete education for the masses. Our State supervision system has been a great agency for school improvement in the last three years. It has stimulated the desire of our people for better schools, and is placing clearly before them, by means of Teachers' Institutes and other agencies, the ways and means by which this may be brought about. Nevada's schools can be made just as good as the people want them, and I am satisfied that the final verdict of the people will be, "We want the best."