Monday, March 16, 2020

Teacher Responds to Mrs. Funderburk's Claim That Teachers Overpaid, March 16, 1920

From The Monroe Journal, Tuesday, March 16, 1920

School Teacher Replies to Mrs. Funderburk and Incidentally Asks a Few Questions

To the Editor of The Journal—

In reply to a recent article published in The Journal about the fat salary paid to our school teachers, I wish to ask the author of said article a few simple questions. Have you ever taught school? Do you know anything about the real work of the teacher? Have you formed your “opinion” of the school teacher from some person who is pretending to teach, whom you happened to be intimately acquainted with? Do you know that the best educated men of our country agree that the nervous strain of one hour in the school room is equal to or more than that of two hours in any other office work? Do you know that the work in the school room is only half of the work of the teacher? Do you know that the real teacher is studying and planning to make better citizens of your brother and sister while you are sleeping and dreaming of some “opinion” to publish that will keep them in blissful ignorance? Do you know that the trainers of dumb brutes are paid many times the salary of the trainers of our boys and girls? Do you know that the meager salary paid the teacher is causing many of our best teachers to leave the profession? Do you know that the progress and stability of our nation are in the hands of our teachers, the trainers of our boys and girls?

These questions are submitted not for mere idle “opinion,” but for study and thought.
--A School Teacher

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