Tom Wilkins : a story of school management and supervision

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A Story of School Management and Supervision.

By J. T. GIBBS.

OKAWVILLE ILLINOIS J. T. GIBBS 1913

G 55 T

Copyright, 1913, By J. T. GIBBS.

To the vast army of worthy young people who are striving against adverse circumstances to acquire an education, and to their worthy friends, the big-hearted teachers, this volume is respectfully dedicated by

The Author.

Contents

Chapter.

Page.

I. Tom’s School Days and Development into a Pedagogue, 5

Chapter I

tom’s youth, school days and development

INTO A PEDAGOGUE.

In a quiet little village in one of the southern counties of the great State of Illinois, where the inhabitants came in contact with the great round bustling world very seldom, and where you would least expect to find anything out of the ordinary, lived a family of man and v ife and six healthy children. Their home was a log cabin, and was as humble as could be conceived. In the edge of a great forest which still held sway on one side of the village and came within its corporate limits, stood the little cabin in which, with the other members of the family, lived a small boy — the hero of this story, if indeed he may be called a hero y you must answer that after you have finished the perusal of these pages — at least the boy without whose

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existence these pages would never have been written.

He was not an extraordinarily bright boy, but possessed habits, or rather acquired them, of carefulness and earnestness in his work. His father was a mechanic and knew the value of training his boys to do something well. Therefore our hero early had tasks assigned him, and was held strictly accountable for their faithful performance. He was not permitted to go skating with the other boys of his age, for instance, until his kindling was in the wood-shed and enough wood split to fill the requirements for the day. In the summer time he was permitted to enjoy the pastimes of fishing, bathing, boating, etc., after his chores were properly performed.

Ye, whose minds are pedagogieally inclined, pause a moment and think whether this discipline was not the very best to bring out whatever there may have been good in that young and growing character. Think whether or not this discipline was the cause of the formation of habits of industry and carefulness that should be useful ever after.

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As before stated, the father was a mechanic, but nevertheless the family lived poorly enough, for the opening of our story was in that period of financial depression and uncertainty immediately following the great Civil War. It was “nip and tuck” to secure the necessities and a few of the comforts of life, while the luxuries were not to be thought of except as something inaccessible to their humble station.

It was in these circumstances that we find our hero, Tom Wilkins, an unassuming, only semiattractive boy about nine years old. It was as one of the plainest dressed boys in the school that he. was found daily in his seat and at work. Hard work it was for the frugal parents to furnish him the necessary books and supplies. But he toiled away and kept up with his classes, having become so accustomed to his patched trousers that they did not keep him from reciting his lessons as well as any in the class. While his condition was not much worse than . that of a great many others in the school, it was as bad as any, and there were a few of the sons and daughters of luxury in the same school who seemed to think that the sole object for which

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schools were established was that they might show their fine clothes, and in this they were often encouraged by their indulgent parents. For a time this worried Tom, but a lucky promotion from one class to another for meritorious work, and a kindly, sensible talk by the teacher on the merits of earnest work, and how industrious effort will win its way whether the worker wears fine clothes or not, caused him to get the germ of an idea into his head that maybe he could be of some usefulness, in spite of his humble situation.

Of course the teacher touched rather lightly upon the subject of fine clothes, and probably but few of the pupils besides Tom got the point.

The teacher herself was attired very plainly, and owing to circumstances which she had never been able to control, had always been so, even her ‘^Sunday BesF’ being quite plain in the eyes of the world.

It was this feeling of fellowship between her and Tom as much as anything else that caused her to allude to it at all, and the reason she did not impress the point more closely than she did, was, perhaps, because some of the best dressed

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children in the school were from infinential families, and if they should carry home a tale, as children will, and distort it somewhat, as children will, and make the parents believe that the teacher had set a special merit upon rags and kept their pupils from progressing just because they wore better clothes than the teacher did, she might be in danger of being called down by the aforesaid parents, as well as of losing her position, in which event her own clothing would necessarily become plainer and less plentiful besides. Oh, how often the dread of losing our positions causes us to do things we ought not to do, or not to do things that we know to be our duty!

Tom often felt depressed, however, but it always had the effect of causing him to resolve to do something and be something in this world, and to better his own condition if studious habits would help him any. And he was convinced that they would. What a victory it is for a boy to come to the thought that he can by his own individual efforts make his life easier and more useful !

We have now passed over a period of Tom’s

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life which was spent in the elementary branches of stndy, and find him a boy of fifteen, fairly proficient in the common branches, and anxious to see into some of the elementary sciences. His close proximity to the true field of scientific investigation — the wild and natural forest and the undulating meadow land — was of inestimable value to him. For when he had his first lessons in Natural History, he perceived that some one had only written down in a book what he, himself, had observed many a time in the ^woods.

During some of his leisure time he took occasion to look over a copy of a work on animals, and hunted out the treatises on those wdth which he was most familiar, and was much pleased and stimulated to find that his first impressions of Natural History were correct.

Tom had had a hard struggle, but now he had the satisfaction of knowing that he was one of the best pupils in the school. When, the next year, two of his school-mates entered college, they left the highest place to Tom. He had some feelings of regret at not being able to follow them, but he knew that was impossible, for the family, while in some better circumstances,

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were still poor, and could not spare the money necessary to go to college, where train-fare, books, board and better clothes would be expensive.

The teacher who had had charge of the village school for several years was a man of fairly good training, who had been educated in one of the eastern cities and brought with him some new ideas on teaching, and some of these impressed Tom, who had now arrived at the age of observation. One of these points was the close analysis of problems in Arithmetic. His everlasting “WhyT’ in every process became just a bit monotonous at times, and had bored many a pupil to the point of disgust, but now Tom saw that that was a good thing, and he began to see the work of a teacher in a different light.

He saw that a teacher might be of great help to a pupil by causing him to find out things for himself, and that that process would make the pupil really more able to help himself. One other good trait about this teacher was his utter disregard of the pupiPs station in life. The finest dressed pupil in the room was no more to him than the boy in rags, it was the intellectual

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ability and industry of the child that won honors. He had a way of stating this fact, too, that made Tom feel happy. He would often say:

“Now, boys, it does not matter in the least to me what your circumstances of life may be, whether yon be wealthy or poor, whether you be well dressed or ragged, you may learn and learn well if you apply yourselves to the task before you. You must remember that there is no royal road to knowledge, but all must pay the price of an education, and that price is hard work.’’

Facts which are strictly true and which added to Tom’s determination to do something and to be something in this world yet in spite of his humble birth.

This teacher, while he had high ideals of teaching, was still of the old school, and believed that to spare the rod is to spoil the child, and acting on that theory many a time and often did he administer to the lads of that school the necessary chastisement which must come when “forbearance ceases to be a virtue,” as he often stated just previous to wielding the birch over the unlucky shoulders of some urchin who had

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broken some minor rule of the school.

And, as will always be the case, certain of the urchins who had been chastised for things that justly called for punishment, and while still smarting under the lash, discovered that they could torment their teacher, and studied up a variety of mischievous little tricks, which, while they were not positive violations of any set rules, were still vexatious, and as a result of these little tricks, scarcely a day went by without one or more of the boys receiving a sound trouncing, which as time went on got to be very monotonous and ineffectual to a degree.

Tom often wondered if there were not some other way of keeping boys in line than by continually flogging them. And while he had, himself, not altogether escaped chastisement, still he had not suffered severely, he wondered if a great deal of it were not a waste of time and temper.

One other point Tom gained from this particular instructor, who, while he was one of the best that had ever taught in that community, was somewhat of a politician, as we have been told every teacher must be who holds any given po-

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sition for any considerable number of years, and often mixed with the promiscuous population and indulged in the sports and pastimes of many of those who seemed to have no other purpose in life than to get all the amusement possible out of existence. And, naturally, their style of amusement led them to social games, and the social glass followed, and our teacher who was a model in many respects, fell into temptation and often came to school blear-eyed, and with a strong scent of alcohol pervading his immediate atmosphere, as a result of the previous evening’s debauchery.

Tom was of an age now to notice these things, and unlike some boys of that critical period of life, instead of having a desire to do as his teacher did, he mentally condemned such practices, and resolved that if he ever taught school — and the thing was beginning to so far shape itself in his mind that it was no longer among the improbabilities — he would never permit his pupils to detect the scent of alcohol on his breath.

This teacher, being, as we have said, somewhat of a politician, and seeing that his style of

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government, while correct in theory and strict enough to produce good effects, was at the same time alienating the affections of a number of those who had smarted most under the lash in the earlier years of his rule, and they were now growing into manhood, and would soon be eligible to vote for school-directors, and would, in all probability, one of these days, elect a board that would replace him with another teacher, not because he was no longer efficient, but just because they held a sort of grudge against him for old memories’ sake, and would get even with him at the first opportunity.

When this condition dawned upon the unlucky pedagogue, he redoubled his attentions to the social table and the social glass in the hope of overcoming the influence of these boys, or of winning them over to his side in case a contest came which might involve his position, doing many times what his better judgement told him was wrong, and partaking of the vulgar jokes of those whom he designed to win. But true to the social rules of this life, when a good man espouses evil for the purpose of making it better, or more subservient to him, the reverse oc-

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curs, and the evil gets control of him and uses him for its purposes.

So a few more terms along this vacillating course, paying about as much attention to local politics as to his school, and the crash came, and a board was elected that was expected to leave him out in the cold, cold world. Ah, yes, but such had been his partisan services that one of the officers at the county seat called him to be his deputy, and from that he developed into a county politician and secured one of the offices for himself and, running the whole gamut of wickedness and debauchery, became popular for a time with certain classes of “politicians,” who in this particular county, as in many another, have more than their share of political influence. But even such influences lose their potency after a time, and our former respectable teacher flnds himself a political outcast. Oh, yes, but he can get a school, as one of his friends said to him soothingly when the convention turned him down. Such is too often the opinion, that when a man runs out of everything else, he can teach school! A fine commentary on you, my worthy pedagogical friend

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who really spend your time in improving your mind and your usefulness !

But let us not leave our unfortunate teacher without again referring to his school work. At a time when his political enemies were pressing him hardest, trying to elect a hoard that should displace him, he had a confidential talk with Tom, and advised him to take the County Superintendent’s examination, and secure a license to teach. He was sure that Tom could pass. He had a two-fold object in thus luring Tom on and he hoped that he would respect his wishes in the matter, and he really felt certain that Tom would pass, for he was easily the brightest pupil in the school, and the superintendent was a new incumbent and felt grateful to this particular community, for his majority had been larger here than in any other part of the county, and the superintendent was to a considerable extent indebted to this very teacher-politician for a good part of that majority. Besides, it would be quite an advertisement for the teacher to have one of his ‘^boys” pass the examination and receive a license to teach, having learned it all in that particular school presided over by

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that particular teacher. See?

The other object he had in view was to hind the influence of Tom’s father in the approaching school election. Did you ever know affairs to take such a turn as that in any other community? Yea, verily, if you have ever been on the “inside track.”

Tom told his father about his teacher’s advice, but as the family could not easily spare the money necessary to flt him out in a new suit of clothes and pay his transportation expenses and examination fee, the matter was dropped for that time.

In the mean time the spring approached, and, as Tom was now of a size to be of considerable use to his father, he was put to work, and be it said to his credit, made a good summer of it, and in the fall had enough pocket money to keep him through the winter. When the fall term of school opened Tom was ready with his books and one of the first to greet his new teacher.

In getting acquainted with his pupils this new teacher took an inventory of the various books used by the various pupils, and not having a

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classification record of any kind, had to plod along the best be could and trust to luck as much as to sense to locate tbe pupils properly. Have you ever done tbe same? All right, then, you know all about it.

When be came to Tom’s list, be noted : 1

Ray’s Higher Aritbmetie, 1 Tenny on Animals, 1 Physical Geography, 1 Steele’s Fourteen Weeks in Philosophy, 1 General History, 1 Brief History of the U. S., 1 Clark’s Normal Grammar, and the list caused him to open his eyes in delight for he had hoped he would have an advanced elass to teach in order that he might become more proficient in those branches himself. Of course the old maxim is true that by teaching others we also improve ourselves, and it is right that we should grow more proficient in a branch that we are teaching j but is it quite right for us to undertake to teach a branch of which we know but very little, in order to become proficient? Well you have your standard of the ethical side of this question and I have mine and I hope we are willing to let it go at that. I am, are You?

This teacher was willing to let it go at that, and would have gladly done so, had he not dis-

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covered that there was one book which he had neglected to take note of. And that was an Algebra, What a dark scowl covered those already dark features, for this new teacher had never looked inside of an Algebra. And there suddenly loomed up before him the possibility of not being able to handle the subject at all, and what humiliation for him in the eyes of the school and the community to be forced to admit that Tom Wilkins was somewhat proficient in a single branch that the teacher knew nothing of !

He was not long in making up his mind what to do, however, and quietly informed Tom that he was already so far advanced that it was next to a waste of time for him to go to that school, and if he were in Tom’s place he would try to go to some college or high school. A slick way out of it ! Give him credit for his sagacity.

It had the effect on Tom that it was intended to have, for while the teacher was not well up in Algebra, he was almost a Past-Master in the study of human nature. Tom lost control of himself temporarily and really believed that he was too smart to go to that school. When he went home he told his father about the occur-

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rence. The proposition to go away to school conld not be thought of. There was some more work to do and Tom conld help do it. This he did, and as he did everything else, did it well.

When the fall work was finished, Tom shouldered his ax and went to the woods, and helped get up enough wood to last the next summer, enjoying the diversion very much. A good number of hunters going by where Tom was at work, caused him to think some of trying his luck in pursuit of game. He procured a gun and the necessary accoutrements and started out for game. Luckily or unluckily for him the game seemed quite shy and his usual day’s killing scarcely paid for his ammunition, while he was putting in his full time and sole-leather, to boot. Being somewhat philosophically inclined, he soon figured that he was constantly playing a losing game.

The winter was far spent. Tom had often thought of his books, though he had studied but very little. But the thought of the approaching examination, and the knowledge that some of his young friends were going to try the terrible ordeal, caused him to debate with himself

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whether or not he should do the same. He decided that he would, and from that day on he worked busily, reviewing everything that he had ever studied and learning many things that he had never studied.

Examination day came at last. Tom was there ready for the work, with his mind carefully stored with everything that he thought the superintendent would ask about. For he had been warned that he would have to meet the superintendent on his own ground, and might expect to ‘‘run up against’ ' several things he had never heard of before. And he did ! And he failed. And that failure was the making of him for school work. For it caused him to set a resolution to have that certificate yet. And you know that when we really desire a thing in an educational line we are on a good road to secure it.

So Tom went to work again, not so much because he wanted to enter the profession as to demonstrate his ability to pass a successful examination. He worked day and night with an earnestness he had never before felt, and at the end of another month was ready for work again

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on those dreadful examination questions.

He had profited greatly by his former examination and guarded against such mistakes as were due to carelessness or overconfidence, concluding that it would be impossible to make his statements too plain, as the examiner must take the answers for what they said to him. It dawned upon him that although he knew a thing perfectly well, the examiner could not give him credit for it unless he told it in unmistakable language. This precaution was worth a great deal to him, for he went home from that examination feeling much better, but at the same time doubtful as to whether he had passed.

After a tedious wait of about two weeks Tom was gratified to receive his first certificate to teach school in the county of his birth. Happy, well yes. You know just how it was if you have ever been there j but if you have not you will be obliged to use your imagination to come to some realization of how he felt, and then yon will only partially know.

It is safe to say that this first certificate gave him more real pleasure that any that he ever received afterward, though he was destined to re-

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ceive several others and of higher grade than this one. It is just as Pope says, ‘‘tickled with a straw.’’ But as straws show which way the wind is blowing, so this straw shovred which way this youth was tending.

His parents were proud of him, his friends congratulated him, while some of his slightly jealous school friends called him “Professor,” thus early in life. Such a habit people have of bandying that worthy appellation which only a few may wear worthily ! These things bothered him little, however. His practical turn of mind soon put him to looking for a school.

He interviewed several directors of district schools, finally placing his application with a newly-elected board in a newly-organized district. He waited patiently, and now that he had gone so far in search of a school, he would often lie awake at night and dream himself successful, and even began to plan what he would do with his first month’s salary, which, if he received the amount he asked for, would be the biggest thing financially he had ever attained to. Ah, those waking dreams, how they do affect us !

After reviewing the penurious life he had

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lived, the prospect of drawing a stated sum and so large a one from the public treasury every month, and that during the winter months, during which time he had formerly earned nothing, was to him a bright prospect indeed. We wonder if all teachers have not had just about such dreams during the period from the time the first precious certificate arrived to the time of spending the salary.

One day Tom was met by a member of the aforesaid board of directors, who said to him :

‘‘Well, Tom, the board had a meeting, and agreed to hire you to teach our school next winter, to begin the first Monday in October and continue five months. We fixed your salary at thirty dollars a month, the amount you asked for.’’

“Thank you, very much,” said Tom, “I am sure I shall try my very best to teach you a good school. I shall be ready when the time arrives.”

“Oh, we don’t doubt,” said Mr. Director, “that you will do all right. You see ours is only a small school, and most anybody could teach it, but the law makes us hire some one who has a certificate ’ ’

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If Tom had been vain, this conversation would have had a tendency to relieve him of some of his vanity, but he said :

“While I am very glad to know that I have the school, just out of curiosity, I should like to know whether there were any other applications for that school.”

“Oh, yes, there were a number of applications.”

“Might I ask,” said Tom, “how it happened that I, who have never taught, was selected from the list and awarded the school?”

“Oh, well, yon see, your bid was the lowest, and the board thought that in justice to the taxpayers, they ought to let the job out to the lowest bidder. There was one application from a teacher who has taught five years and some of the board favored him, but his bid was for thirty-one dollars, and we gave the school to yon.”

What a fall was taken out of Tom’s vanity, if he had any, for he had rather thought that the director would say something about having known him a long time, and knowing him to be a diligent student and one who wanted to do what is right, had given him the school on his

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merits. But now the secret was out. He was hired simply because his bid was the lowest ! He found later in life that while this was a young school board, being the first in the new district, they had acted along the very lines that govern many an old board that has hired teachers for a quarter of a century.

This gave Tom something to think about for some time, and he did not like the thought the best in the world, either. But like many another teacher — yourself, perhaps, for instance — he finally allowed the thought to smother away, concluding that as he had contracted to teach the school he should be as good as his word. And besides, if he did not take this one, where would he secure one, and would he get any better salary!

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CHAPTER 11.

TEACHING HIS FIRST SCHOOL.

The first Monday in October came and Tom was ready to go to his work. *He had looked forward to the time with pleasant anticipations for many months, and pictured himself starting off sprightly in the balmy air of a bright October morning, with the last birds of the season chirruping merrily as he sped along the road that led down to District 6.

Alas ! how many of our hopes are in vain ! How often we picture coming events as we would have them, only to find them, when we do come to them, entirely different from what we had expected.

This was Tom’s fate. For this first Monday in October was a dull, cool, rainy, drizzling day, that would take the heart out of the bravest. Tom trudged along as merrily as possible, but the road was muddy and the nearly three miles to the school house seemed to him much farther. Several times he sat down to rest, not being ac-

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customed to that kind of physical exercise, but he would get up quickly and start on with the thought that they (his pupils) would all be there waiting for him, and he did not want to be late the first day.

Tom arrived at the school house in good time, found himself the only one present for it was yet a full half-hour until the time for beginning the exercises of the day. Placing the key withthe lock, he opened the door for the first time to take charge of a school as the master thereof. He threw open the shutters and proceeded to make a fire in a little coal stove that was to do duty for several years.