1034 
The RURAL. NEW-YORKER 
.Time 5, 1020 
Stop kicking 
at the price of paint 
Buy Lowe Brothers’ 
What a paint costs you, de¬ 
pends on how much surface it 
will cover, quite as much as 
how much it costs per gallon. 
How long it lasts, depends on 
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The paint that Lowe Broth¬ 
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leading dealer in each town. 
Send for circular—“Figure 
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510 EAST THIRD STREET, DAYTON, OHIO 
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IF YOU TRY IT 
YOUll BUY IT 
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T he demand for 
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Particulars upon request 
Farmers Fund, Inc. 
M. W. Cole, President 
Alliance Bank Bldg. Rochester, N. Y. 
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National Farm 
Equipment Co. 
Dept D 
98 Chambers St.,New York 
School 
One School District ‘ Does It Ourselves” 
Last year our school district, in com¬ 
mon with others throughout the State, re¬ 
ceived notice that we would have to install 
sanitary toilets of certain types approved 
by the Department of Education. The 
types approved by the department were 
rather expensive, and the trustee appealed 
to the district superintendent, who told 
him it was the law and we must comply 
with it. The trustee then consulted a 
lawyer, and was told that we could fight 
the matter in the courts and probably 
win out. but it would cost more than the 
toilets would, and his advice was to pur¬ 
chase them and not bother to install them. 
His opinion was that after they were 
purchased the matter would be dropped, 
as far as the department was concerned. 
The toilets were finally purchased for 
$170. and it certainly was a cheap look¬ 
ing pile of junk for the money. 
Considerable dissatisfaction was felt in 
the district over the matter, as well as 
over many other things. The matter of 
compelling a large amount of time to be 
given over to physical training was the 
chief of these. Several teachers are au¬ 
thority for the statement that if they were 
to give this training the amount of atten- 
ion they are expected to they would have 
very little time to teach the three R’s. 
At the annual school meeting held 
May 4 the general dissatisfaction culmi¬ 
nated in the adoption of the following 
resolution : 
Whereas, on advice by the district su¬ 
perintendent that a ruling by the State 
Education Department was the law, this 
district was forced to expend a large sum 
of money for an expensive, impractical 
and unnecessary so-called sanitary toilet 
for the school property; and, 
Whereas, a large amount of the teach¬ 
er’s time is taken up with attending con¬ 
ferences and with physical teaming exer¬ 
cises for the children, which latter seem 
rather unnecessary for children who walk 
from one to one and one-half miles to 
school every day; and. 
Whereas it would appear that the De¬ 
partment of Education is more concerned 
in forcing districts to provide unnecessary 
exercises and accessories that create jobs 
and sales for said accessories than in prac¬ 
tical educational matter; and, 
Whereas the voters of District No. 5, 
town of White Creek, Washington Coun¬ 
ty. State. of New York, believe it is for 
the best interests of the pupils attending 
the above district school to dispense with 
many of the requirements of the Depart¬ 
ment of Education; therefore, be it 
Resolved. That, in the o’piuion of the 
voters of the district here present, the 
newly elected trustee should be empow¬ 
ered to raise enough money by taxation 
to pay the total expenses of the district 
school for the year 3920-21, in case the 
Department of Education decides to with¬ 
hold our share of the public money and 
teacher’s bonus because of our not com¬ 
plying with those requirements, and we 
suggest that; the trustee call a special 
school meeting of the residents of the dis¬ 
trict to vote on the question. 
It is vei’y probable that the special 
meeting called for in the resolution will 
be held soon and the matter thoroughly 
thrashed out, and in the meantime the 
trustee is instructed to hire the best 
teacher it is possible to secure, with the 
understanding that should the bonus al¬ 
lowed rural school teachers be withheld 
through any failure of the district to com¬ 
ply with the requirements of the depart¬ 
ment, the district will make the deficit 
good. 
District No. 5 has always taken consid¬ 
erable pride in the conduct of 4s school, 
and for several years now has kept the 
same teacher, a graduate of the Albany 
Normal College. In theory the public 
money was to be a help to the weaker 
and more sparsely populated sections to 
have better schools, but in practice it 
seems to be a club held over the rural 
schools to compel them to follow the fads 
and fancies of the Department of Edu¬ 
cation. JOHN COTTRELL. 
Who Pays for Tuition? 
My children are still under 16 years of 
age. and I am sending them to a high 
school in a neighboring district, as there 
is no high school in my district. As I 
understand it the State pays $40 for each 
child per year. If excess tuition is 
charged, must I pay it, or should my dis¬ 
trict pay it? Is there a law about it, or 
what is the custom iu other districts? 
New York. E. M. K. 
We have explained this several times. 
The law requires school attendance of 
children, up to the age of 16 years for 
certain exemptions. As it compels at¬ 
tendance, the State and district are under 
Matters 
obligations to give proper education. If 
the district does not provide a coui'se of 
education to fit the age and ability of the 
child, the parents may send him to the 
nearest high school (after he finishes 
what the distinct has provided). The 
State provides a sum of money to pay 
this extra tuition fee, and if this does 
not cover the extra charge, the district 
must pay the balance. 
The Underpaid Rural School Teacher 
I disagree very strongly with “Mother 
Bee” in the article on page 7,S7 
in regal’d to school conditions. She 
says teachers are paid more than they 
eai-n. and cites $10 to $15 per week as 
wages. I wonder if she realizes that un¬ 
skilled day laborers in our cities are paid 
$30 to $40 per week, and that there is 
more loafing on the job now than there 
was when this same class of labor received 
only a dollar a day. Teachers (in New 
Yoi’k State, at least) must have a good 
education and some training befoi’e they 
are allowed to teach. 
The author says that teachers work 
but 30 hours a week. I think she is much 
mistaken. Perhaps a few' teachers do 
try to shirk, but the majority of them 
do not work with their eyes on the dock 
They usually reach school before half¬ 
past eight, and do not leave until nearly 
five, or if they leave school as soon as 
their classes are over, carry home work 
to do in the evening. I am acquainted 
with many teachers, and was one mvself 
before my marriage a few years ago. I 
know that I am not exaggerating when 
I insist that rural teachers work inori 
than 30 hours a week. Most teachers in 
i-ural schools have no noon hour. Thev are 
expected to look after the children, su¬ 
pervise games, etc. Where there is a 
large school this hour is often harder for 
the teacher than the regular class work 
yet I notice “Mother Bee” does not count 
this as one of the houi’S in which the 
teacher works. Yet I would like to ask if 
the laborer is not given an hour nooning, 
free from any work or responsibility? 
Why should the teacher be denied this 
period of i*elnxation? 
I think the reason why we have such 
poor rural schools is because there are so 
many people who want to get something 
for.nothing. They begrudge the teacher 
a living wage without thinking that the 
teacher must receive at least as much as 
untrained laboi\ or else only the inefficient 
and lazy will be left in the profession. 
The worst grumblers are usually those 
who are not willing to help remedy the 
conditions of which they complain. Usu¬ 
ally they do not condescend to attend 
school meetings, but reserve the right to 
criticize trustee and teacher if taxes are 
high or the school poor. As a member of 
a rural school boai’d I know this to be 
true. We shall have better rural schools 
as soon as farmers (and their wives) ai’e 
willing to spend as much thought, enei’gy 
and money on their children’s education 
as they do on improving their dairy cattle. 
As .1 he R. N.-Y. truly says, "We must 
do it oiirselves.” mbs. m.a.b. 
New York. 
Believes in the Sanitary Toilet 
• Recently I have noticed several items 
in The R. N.-Y. concerning the State 
educational ruling on sanitary toilets. 1 
am the mother of three children, two in 
school. We have paid about $50 school 
tax this year. On account of the short¬ 
age of teachers. I am teaching in a nearby 
rural school. Am I qualified to express 
an opinion? 
I think the ruling concei’ning indoor 
toilets one of the best things that has 
ever been done. Provision has been made 
concerning schools that have a very small 
attendance and assessment or schools that 
are soon to bo abandoned. Permanent 
schools should have the vei’y best equip¬ 
ment that the district can afford. They 
should do all they can to protect the 
health of the children. Outdoor toilets 
are the opportunity for more vice and dis¬ 
ease than anything else in our rural dis¬ 
tricts. Where a child is compelled to use 
one in all kinds of weather it is impossible 
to keep the children from having wjet 
ankles many, many days during the Win¬ 
ter and Spring. It does not seem to me 
to form an argument that the pupil does 
or does not have to do so at home. At 
home a child is able to put on dry stock¬ 
ings when necessai’y. At school there is 
no chance to change. 
Outdoor toilets are usually near the 
school building, bi’ceding disease, flics and 
bringing to the study unpleasant odors. 
But more than anything else, the outdoor 
toilet is seldom if ever locked. It is open 
to every passerby, be he diseased driver or 
syphilitic tramp. If there is no running 
water on the school grounds chemical 
closets may be substituted for the flush 
closet. “First Health, Then Wisdom. 
If the district has no sanitary improve¬ 
ments, let the school lead and teach the 
improvement. Do not keep the school on 
a low plane to keep it with the district, 
but let the district rise to keep with the 
school. If this lulling is not a law, I hope 
it will be made .so before the year 1S ° ut - 
It seems to me that the parents ought to 
rise together and see that the ruling is en¬ 
forced, even if they have to dig dowm a 
little deeper into their poeketbooks at tax 
time. MBS. MABEL F. E. BERRY. 
