Energy and enthusiasm are their predominant characteristics; what they lack in training and in scholastic attainments, they endeavour to make up by zeal and devotion to their work. No higher praise can be given to them than that of the Bishop of Manchester: "All sorts of plans are adopted in the different States to improve the quality and increase the quantity of the teaching power, but hitherto, it must be confessed, with very limited success; and more complete appliances for training teachers is still one of the things wanting to the perfection of the American system of public schools. At the same time, I must allow that the deficiency is very much less striking to the outward eye of a casual observer, than would be the case under similar circumstances in England, on account of the much greater natural aptitude for the work of a teacher possessed, as it appeared to me to be, by Americans generally, and particularly by American women. They certainly have the gift of turning what they do know to the best account; they are self-possessed, energetic, fearless; they are admirable disciplinarians, firm without severity, patient without weakness; their manner of teaching is lively and fertile in illustration; classes are not likely to fall asleep in their hands. They are proud of

their position, and fired with a laudable ambition to maintain the credit of their school; a little too anxious, perhaps, to parade its best side, and screen its defects; a little too sensitive of blame, a little too greedy of praise; but still, as I judged them from the samples which I saw, and in spite of numerous instances to the contrary which I read of but did not see, a very fine and capable body of workers in a noble Apart from the question of adequate training, I know not the country in which the natural material out of which to shape the very best of teachers is produced in such abundance as in the United States. That, with the shaping process so very imperfectly

cause.

performed, the results are what they are is sufficient proof of the quality of the material." (1)

(c) Salaries and Social Status.

If, however, America has some reason to be proud of her teachers, she has cause to be ashamed of the salaries paid to them. The stipends of male teachers are generally not much better than those of English curates, and frequently they are worse. Of Maine, where the salaries of women are lower than in any other State, the Superintendent says: "The female teacher in Maine cannot earn her living by teaching." (2)

The State Board of Maryland refer to counties "where teachers' salaries are so low that somebody must inevitably be cheated-the teacher if he is competent, and the public if he is not." (3)

The following table shows the salaries of teachers per month in the most important States:

(4)

2 Maine Report, 1872, p. 33.

3 Maryland Report, 1873, p. 10.

4 See Commissioner's Report, 1872, p. 609. Ibid, 1873, p. 511.

These figures will enable the reader to make his own calculations.

In Massachusetts, the average annual salary of masters is about 850 dollars; of mistresses, about 290 dollars. District of Columbia, masters, 916 dollars; mistresses, 625 dollars. California, masters, 530 dollars; mistresses, 400 dollars. New York, both sexes, 430 dollars. As the old custom of boarding around is now almost out of use, these figures represent the actual compensation which teachers receive. No one will be surprised that, under such a scale of remuneration, teachers are driven into other employments. In the great State of New York the average pay of teachers, male and female, is not more than £80 per annum.

It is encouraging to find, however, that salaries are going up. Many of the Superintendents of the best States refer to this fact with gratification. In Connecticut teachers' wages doubled between 1863 and 1870. The statement issued by the National Bureau says: "For some years there has been a steady increase in salaries.” (1)

1 Statement of Bureau, p. 19.

But if the teachers of the United States receive a very inadequate recompense for their services, they have some consolations which are denied to the masters of public elementary schools in England. They do not stand on the social level of the servants' hall. They are not expected to join with the occupation of teaching, that of beadle, parish clerk, verger, or sexton. If they are often compelled to resort to hard and sometimes menial work to eke out their scanty means of subsistence, the fact does not entail upon them the social ostracism which attends the schoolmaster's calling in this country. The Bishop of Manchester says: "As to the character and repute of the teacher's profession in America, it certainly stands very high. I do not suppose that there are any teachers of common schools or of high schools in America who mix as freely in the highest class of society as do the masters of the great public schools among ourselves; but that is chiefly owing to the slenderness of their income not enabling them to afford to do so; and, on the other hand, the teacher of the humblest district school occupies a far higher social position than the teacher of an elementary school in England." Again: "All hangs upon the teacher's personal character and qualifications; as far as his profession is concerned he is on a level with anybody. I was occasionally invited to visit teachers at their homes. They appeared to me to live in a sort of cheerful and refined frugality; able to exercise a hearty but inexpensive hospitality; often relieving the monotony of daily toil by the cultivation of some recreative, but not uncongenial, study or accomplishment—a social position not altogether dissimilar to that so happily enjoyed by many an Englishmen clergyman." (1)

In America the schoolmaster is a civil officer, and his profession is attended by the highest honour and respect. In

1 Fraser's Report, p. 84.

England he has long been a Church official of the lower grade. As the parochial system never aimed at raising the children very high, it was the reverse of necessary that the schoolmaster should be a man of cultivation and refinement, and he has not been encouraged to seek superfluous learning or to aim at social distinction. The teachers of America and England have one bond of fellowship-they have been equally badly paid.