Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 65.djvu/455

Rh like all political offices not under civil service, it is exceedingly insecure. In the great cities positions are fairly permanent, but among the smaller towns every year brings its list of changes, and the teachers go bumping about from Podunkville to Daisy Hollow, often spending half a year's salary before they get a situation again, if in the annual shuffle they should succeed in getting any at all. If they do not procure a position the women teachers go home to their parents for a time, and then try it again next year; and the men, if they have any energy, go into other lines of business, leaving the inexperienced and unfit in the profession.

To sum up. Civic and economic considerations make it desirable that there should be a sufficient number of men teachers in the upper grammar and high school grades so that as many children as possible may come under the instruction of a man, for a time at least, before quitting school. Competent men can only be secured by an increase in salaries and a more secure tenure of office.