MARRIED WOMEN TEACHERS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXIV, 4 August 1931, Page 6

MARRIED WOMEN TEACHERS

POLICY OR EXPEDIENCY?

“VVc may take as an example of the danger of abandoning principle for expedient, the case of the married woman teacher,” says “National Education, the official organ of the Educational Institute. “Because many single women teachers are unemployed, as well as many qualified young men, it is considered by boards and others that employed married women teachers who have husbands able to support them should step aside, in order to make room for those unable to obtain appointments. Such a course would involve a retreat from a principle for which the institute lias fought for years past-—the principle that- merit, and merit only, should be the determining factor in the making of appointments. The accepted measurement of merit is the Grading List, positions on which are awarded upon the teacher’s work, and takes no account whatever of his or her private circumstances. Once the institute accepts the proposition that private circumstances must be taken into consideration, xvliat becomes of hard-won principle ! A xvedge will then hax'c been inserted in the grading system, and the opening will be gradually xvidened at every conceivable opportunity by boards and others interested in the recovery ol their lost poxvers of patronage. The younger members of the profession have not the faintest idea of xvhat patronage meant to their elders. Merit had no chance whatever. Promotion xvas gained by personal canvassing, kowtowing to board members, and committee men.”