APPENDIX TO THE BREVIER LEGISLATIVE REPORTS.
TWELFTH VOLUME.
The Common School Law--Debate in Continuation.
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.
THURSDAY, February 9, 1871.[IN CONTINUATION FROM PAGE 258MIDDLE OF THE FIRST COLUMN.]
Mr. NETHERTON. Mr. Speaker: In further considering the propriety or impropriety of adopting the report of the committee on the pending bill, I desire to reply briefly, to the argument, if such it may be called, of the gentleman from Fountain [Mr. Cunningham] who has just spoken in defense of the report submitted to the House by the Committee on Education. The gentleman in his defense of said report contends that the changes proposed by my bill, proposing to amend sections thirty-four and thirty-five of the present school law would be oppressive, inasmuch as the grade of scholarship required thereby would virtually throw out of employment a large number of teachers who are now only able to get license for six months, and under the law proposed would be compelled to quit this vocation and seek some other. In reply to this I will remark that the teacher should, before being licensed to teach, be required to possess the same degree of proficiency and ability for the work of teaching which is required by those who engage in any of the professional avocations of life. If the gentleman from Fountain would employ to discharge their respective duties, a Physician, a Lawyer, or a Mechanic, it would not, I suppose, be the services of the quack, the petifogger or the bungler that he would seek; but it is supposed that the Physician of experience and ability, the Lawyer who understands his business, and the Mechanic skilled in workmanship would be the men whom he would employ to minister to his mortal ills; to transact his legal business or to erect his mansion: and then if this be true, upon what hypothesis or by what parity of reasoning would he retain in the school room as educators of the immortal mind those who are able to receive upon examination, only the grade of scholarship now requisite to obtain a six months license to teach?
Will he contend that even the health of the body is of more importance than the cultivation and development of the mind intrusted to so great an extent to the teacher? Does he consider the work of litigation of more consequence to the people of Indiana, than the advancement of our public schools and the elevation of the standard of education in our midst? Does he deem the workmanship of the mechanic of more value than the intellectual structure erected by the teacher; whose business it is to give shape and direction to the youthful energies of those whose education is to so great an extent committed to his hands?
Manifestly the labors, duties and responsibilities of the teacher's profession are such as to require of those who engage in it a higher degree of proficiency than can reasonably be expected under the provisions of the present law, permitting teacher's licence to be granted for only six months, with a grade of scholarship below the actual demands of our public schools; while by thus opening our schools to incompetent and inefficient teachers we are virtually in many places, depriving the people of our State of the services of that greatly needed class of teachers who have prepared themselves for the work of teaching; having, on examination received teachers' license for eighteen or twenty-four months. The incompetent "quack" in the pre-eminently important profession of teaching, comes forward for employment in the school room with very meagre attainments and only a six months page: 522[View Page 522] license; yet because this individual is under our school law, barely eligible to be employed by the Trustee and paid out of the tuition fund, and will perhaps, as well he may, teach a few dollars cheaper than the teacher possessing years of experience probably, and twenty-four months license, he, or she, is permitted to enter upon the arduous task of instructing the youthful mind of those who to-day, sir, in many parts of Indiana are rapidly approaching the close of the school term with but little if any real improvement or true progress in the vast realm of thought and education; in the true sense of the word.
As well may we expect water to rise above its source, or that the bitter fountain will send forth sweet waters, as to hope that our public school system will ever met the demands of the people; as those true interests require, while we are by the present low standard of proficiency required of those who teach our common schools taking from the truly earnest and well qualified teachers in our midst the just incentives to labor in their appropriate spheres as instructors, and retain in their stead those whose low grade of sholarship, inattention to any adequate preparation for their work, together with the lack of earnestness arid interest in their work so often clearly manifested on their part, all show clearly that they have either mistakened their calling or entered upon it before they were in any way prepared to discharge its manifold and arduous duties, while the trne interests and education of the rising generation, the hope of our State, are being daily sacrificed as the result of this sadly mistaken notion so unfortunately exemplified in that portion of our school law which the pending bill proposes to amend.
Mr. Speaker: I by no means depreciate the educational advancement which Indiana has made since the adoption of her public school system, but after the progress we have made in this direction, and with our Colleges, Universities, Academies and High Schools opening their portals to those desiring to prepare for the work of teaching, will it be seriously contended by the gentleman from Fountain, or any other member in this House that we are not prepared to take this step and that there is not a sufficiency of teachers in every county in the State who are, or before the first of September next--the time designated for this bill to take effect--will be prepared to pass the requisite examination on the branches which should all be taught in our public schools (as contemplated in this bill,) and receive a grade of scholarship worthy of the vocation upon which they are to enter, and which to-day involves more for the weal or woe of the citizens of our commonwealth, both for the present and future, than any other interest, vocation or calling short of the proclamation of the Gospel of Eternal Truth.
Sir, as soon as we raise the educational standard in our State to that position it should occupy in connection with our public schools, we shall find competent, earnest and energetic teachers ready and willing to take the position of teacher in the common schools and discharge the duties of their vocation in a manner worthy of themselves as well as the sacred and important trusts committed to their care.
And what have we to gain by defering this step? Manifestly nothing, as I hope will be clearly evident to every member on this floor; who, it is hoped, will, in the vote to be taken in a few moments refuse to concur in the report of the committee and allow this bill to go forward in its regular order to its final passage. All the features of this bill proposing to change and amend sections thirty-four and thirty-five of our school law have, I deem it, been sufficiently discussed in these remarks and those I made when I first rose to discuss the bill and the committee report, and I consider it unnecessary to occupy longer the attention of the House. Sir, in discussing a measure so clearly in the interest of the people of the whole State, now is the time to raise to its proper elevation the standard of education in the public schools of Indiana; and let us, Mr. Speaker, and gentlemen of the House of Representatives, at this session of the Legislature take an important step in that direction by the adoption of the provisions incorporated in the pending bill, and in future years we shall receive the thanks, approval and grateful approbation of those who shall reap the untold benefits of a thoroughly efficient public school system, and with joyful success be enabled in our public schools to prepare to discharge respectively the necessary duties of life; and with bright prospects before them ascend the hill of science amid the effulgent rays of the golden sun of literature which shall illuminate their pathway. [See page 258 middle of first column.]
