OUR COMMON SCHOOLS. 207 



Mr. Eeynolds: There are two things that are getting a little mixed in this 

 discussion. The paper advocates the township trustee system. But let us not 

 apply that to the examining of teachers. We had tlie township system of 

 examination of teachers, and we had plenty of it. This is, as I understimd it, a 

 proposal to substitute for district school boards the township school board, and 

 if that is the proposal I have nothing but hearty praise and commendation for 

 it. 



We need to centralize our school government more. It has been too much 

 divided up into little communities, with sometimes hardly an educated person 

 in the district to control the school. I have known a township examiner who 

 could not write his own name. I have examined former township superinten- 

 dents who could not pass an average of three on a scale of t^n for an ordinary 

 teacher's certificate. Let us not go backward in this matter. Oar county 

 superintendeucy system is a vast improvement over the old township superin- 

 tendency system and the township board would be an equal gain over the 

 present school district board. 



I want to relate an incident or two showing the kind of teachers that we 

 sometimes have in these little inland districts. We have heard a great 

 deal about the high and noble calling of the teacher, and the great skill of the 

 teacher. Of one candidate I asked the size of the lower peninsula of Michi- 

 gan, and took a map and pointed from the Straits of Mackinac to the Ohio 

 line and from Lake Huron to Lake Michigan, and asked her, " what is 

 the size of that body of land? " She said she didn't know. " I don't know 

 either," I said, " I don't suppose any one in this county can give it in exact 

 miles, but I want to know your idea of the size of that land." Fnially she said, 

 after a great deal of hemming and hawing, "about fifteen miles by twenty 

 miles." And yet I was badgered for weeks by the district board to give that 

 girl a certificate. Another instance, of a man who had been township superin- 

 dent. One of the State questions in grammar was to compare certain words, 

 and among others was put in the word "circular," for a catch; this ex-town- 

 ship superintendent said, "circle, circular, much more nearly circular." 

 (Laughter.) Now what is the root of this difficulty? It is largely, as one 

 gentleman has said, because we have not gone down deep enough into our 

 pockets. 



A school director was once arguing with me about teachers and I askeJ him; 



" What are you going to pay? " 



" About eighteen or twenty dollars." 



" You cannot expect to get a competent teacher for any such sum as that ? "■ 



"Well, the man we want to hire would chop wood if he didn't get the school 

 and that's all he could get at chopping wood." 



Such was his idea of a school teacher ! 



Just so long as we have twenty-dollar teachers we shall have schools not 

 worth attending; and I am not at all sure but that the suggestion of the 

 gentleman on my right, that we pass a law providing for a minimum rate of 

 wages would be a good one. You cannot get properly prepared teachers for 

 $20 per month. The price will not create a sufficient supply of qualified 

 teachers to meet the demand. You must hold up the hands of our county 

 boards and encourage them to draw the lines tight. Let no worthless teachers 

 through ; let none who is not qualified receive a certilicate. Do not encourage 

 those who beg for special certificates, certificates that will be good for three 

 months. We have had too much of that sort of thing, and the spirit of the 

 community must back up the efforts of those who would raise the standard for 

 teachers, even though in so doing we are raising the price of teachers. 



