Last Friday I moved my daughter into the dorm. She has a week of freshmen activities to help her make friends and familiarize her with the campus before school starts on Monday. With classes coming soon, I was reminded of an email I received a while back from a student who was working on a research paper about teacher certification exams. In her online exploration, she ran across a blog post I wrote about Normal schools (Teaching the Teachers) and asked me for some of the sources I used for that post. As I searched for them, I ran across a site that focused on the requirements for teachers that went beyond their scores on certification exams.
Since teachers were in charge of molding young minds, many school boards placed extra, more personal and moral, requirements on the instructors they hired. And some, just tried to get as much for their money as possible. Here’s a photo of an actual teaching contract from 1905 that stipulates janitorial labor as part of the position with no extra pay. Also no holidays were allowed.
But that wasn’t all.
There were all of these stipulations as well:
1. Teachers are expected to live in the community in which they are employed and to take residence with local citizens for room and board. Nothing like a little privacy and a place of your own. Though the free meals would be nice.
2. Teachers will be required to spend weekends in the community unless permission is granted by the Chairman of the Board. Do you get the feeling this school board wanted to keep an eye on their teachers? No holidays, no weekend train trips to visit family in the next county without special permission.
3. It is understood that teachers will attend church each Sunday and take an active part, particularly in choir and Sunday School work. Now as a church goer myself, I’m all for encouraging church attendance, but the cynical side of me is wondering if this is stipulated just so they can force her to teach Sunday School classes in addition to her usual classroom duties.
4. Dancing, card playing and the theatre are works of the Devil that lead to gambling, immoral climate, and influence and will not be tolerated. Theatre is a work of the devil yet …
5. Community plays are given annually. Teachers are expected to participate. Umm, anyone but me see a slight consistency problem here?
6. When laundering petticoats and unmentionables it is best to dry them in a flour sack or pillow case. (So no one sees them hanging on the line to dry). I have to wonder how anything actually dries while inside a flower sack. And can you get a special dispensation if the family you are boarding with (see item 1) has their feminine underthings flapping on the line? Because, really, what hard-working mother would take the time to hide her unmentionables in flour sacks?
7. Any teacher who smokes cigarettes, uses liquor in any form, frequents a pool or public hall, or (for men) gets shaved in a barber shop, (or for women) bobbs (cuts) her hair, has dyed hair, wears short skirts (could not be any shorter than 2 inches above the ankles) and has undue use of cosmetics will not be tolerated under any circumstances. OK – this time I’m on the man’s side. You can’t get shaved in a barber shop??? Something tells me the local barber was not on the school board.
8. Teachers will not marry or keep company with a man friend during the week except as an escort to church services. But on the other hand …
9. Men teachers may take one evening each week for courting purposes or two evenings a week if they go to church regularly. Not only do they get paid more, but they’re allowed to date. Because men would never do anything impure while dating, but a woman . . . well, she can’t be trusted to remain pure. (Sticking my tongue out here.)
11. Loitering in ice cream parlors, drug stores, etc., is prohibited. Yes, because ice cream parlors are such dens of iniquity. Dens of calories, yes, but that’s not the same thing. Usually.
12. After 10 hours in school, the teacher should spend the remaining time reading the Bible or other good books. I’m all for Bible reading, but a good novel is a great way to unwind after a 10 hour day. Too bad my definition of “good books” probably doesn’t match what is intended here.
13. Women teachers who marry or engage in other unseemly conduct will be dismissed. Marriage is unseemly conduct??? Apparently only for a woman (see #9)
16. The teacher who performs his labors faithfully and without fault for five years will be given an increase of 25 cents a week in his pay providing the Board of Education approves. Wow! Makes me appreciate the value of a dollar. It takes 5 years of faithful service (and no marriage) to get $1 more a month.
- So, which of these stipulations would you have the hardest time swallowing?
Excuse me while I loiter in an ice cream shop with a gentleman not related to me, showing off my bobbed haircut. After 5 years of dedicated service, I’m spending my raise and living it up before the hatchet falls at the next school board meeting.
(Source: http://www.ameshistory.org/contract.htm)
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My son-in-law, daughter and daughter-in-law, all working in the school system would find this not only unbelievable but hilarious as well. I must share with them.
Please do, Gail. 🙂 The good-old-days weren’t always as good as we would like to imagine. Modern thinking has it’s own problems, but I’m so thankful we’ve made the progress we have.
Staying out of the ice cream parlor would be my downfall. And unfortunately my skirts are all about knee length so I’m sure I’d be considered scandalous!
Tsk, tsk, Cynthia. 😉
Yes, I love ice cream. That would be a toughie. I’d have to get a trusted friend to sneak some out for me when the school board wasn’t looking. 🙂
The women teachers had it kind of tough back then.It is different today thank goodness.Most of my husbands family aunts and uncles were teachers.They grew up in Climax,Kansas and went to a one room school.And some of them taught in the same school and had their youngest sister as a pupil.My husband is also a semi-retired teacher.
Hi, Diana! I love hearing about teachers who taught in those one-room schoolhouses. Such a unique experience. And teaching your younger sister? Well, that must have been awkward at times. I bet little sister didn’t enjoy being bossed around in the classroom.
# 11 caught my eye. Not being able to go into an ice cream parlor, what is this world coming to?
I think I’ll go drown my sorrows in a carton of Chocolate Almond Ice Cream or maybe Cherry Nut.
Amen, Janet! I’ll grab my Chocolate Chip and join you!
It would be hard to pick just one out of all these listed requirements for teachers in 1905, that I find to be more to my liking than the others. A person who wanted to be a teacher in this area and especially the ladies had to have a heart of gold and be truly dedicated to teaching the children because it definitely wasn’t for the money.
So true, Shirley. I’m thankful for the ones who put up with all the confining rules in order to shape the young minds of their communities.
I don’t think I could teach in that era. I have taught in several different schools but thankfully I could wear my slacks and stayed out of dresses. That would have been scandalous back then. I do hope the janitor duties were limited to cleaning the school room and stoking the fire in winter. Can’t imagine trying to repair things around the room. I guess I’m just not that handy with building tools.
I hear you, Connie! I love to play dress up on occasion, but everyday? Give me exercise pants and a t-shirt. Please!
As a retired teacher, I definitely got a kick out of this Karen. When I first started teaching, we had to wear dresses and heels. I was teaching primary students and liked to get down on the floor with them. So we all wore those long denim skirts or jumpers. We celebrated when we finally were allowed to wear “pant suits”!! I would have definitely had a problem with a lot of these rules. The long days would not have been a problem because I was usually there by 7 AM and often did leave til 5 or 6 PM. We also for many years had to eat with the kids, teach music, and our own PE. So that meant no lunch break and a rare potty break. No wonder my doctor told her many primary teachers came to her with bladder infections LOL:)
Teachers give so much of themselves to their students. Even to their own detriment sometimes. Thank you, Loraine, for all your years of dedicated service.
no dating and only reading bible after 10 hours of hard work is crazy
I agree, Sheila. Seems a bit overboard to me. Even for 1905.
Some of these were still in place when I started teaching in the 60’s! Hear men get paid more. The going to movies was still frowned upon and teaching when you had preschoolers at home was a no-hire situation. I taught in Christian schools so that may have been the difference.
The hardest was men get medical insurance as part of the package even though most of the women teachers were the sole providers for the family. Most of us had husbands in grad school.
Thank goodness the contract policies changed over the years since medical insurance was still needed with our family until I retired in the 2000’s.
Wow. I can’t believe the inequity of male teachers getting medical insurance but not the female teachers. I’ve never really considered myself a feminist, but I’m thankful people had the courage to stand up and fight for equal pay/benefits for equal work.
I laughed through the whole thing, Karen. Such restrictive expectations, but such were the requirements of the day. I remember when I was attending public school in the early 60’s, teachers could lose their jobs if they were seen in a bar (bad example). Women were not allowed to teach while they were pregnant (bad example)–something that changed when I was a high school teacher. In those days, girls wore dresses and guys wore casual pants and shirts with collars. A boy’s hair had to be short enough not to touch the collar of his shirt. As for the teachers, men wore suits and women wore dresses similar to what they wore to church.
I suspect women teachers of the era you wrote about were restricted in their dating and other activities in order to keep them single and on the job. Pretty tight rope and totally unfair. None of those who imposed such restrictions would have liked living under them. However, many of those rules were probably put in place to protect the children. Teachers were strangers brought into the community.
You’re right, Beth. As a protective parent, myself, I can understand the parents wanting to do all they can to protect their children. But dictating every move of a young woman’s life seems extreme. And you’re right – the parents wouldn’t want to live under the same conditions. Wouldn’t it have been fun to have a month where the tables were turned and the school board had to live under their own restrictions? (Minus the marriage ones, of course.) 😉
I would have been in trouble in my first teaching job. I taught in a neighboring town – drove 23 miles to my job. I loved getting to know about another community. And, of course, my students never caught me at the ice cream parlor. 😉
In fact, I’ll just take my butter pecan to go!
Ha! I love it, Melissa. 🙂 Way to find the loophole.
My Grandmother, and her twin sister were both school teachers, probably in the early 1900″s. It is hard to imagine what their lives were like then. They were born at the turn of the century I believe.
I am wanting some Mint Chocolate Chip myself. Would I be terrible if I wanted it on a cone! Oh my!
I bet they could tell some fascinating stories, Sandra. Watch out for those evil cones. They are shaped like the devil’s horns after all. 😉
So much fun reading these. It’s hard to believe we had any teachers at all considering all of the regulations.
I retired from teaching two years ago after subbing for four years, teaching preschool for eight, and ending with 5th grade for 23 years. Your post reminded me of the following: In my first year as a 5th grade teacher, we had two bus loads so 2nd loaders remained in the classroom until buses returned to take them home. I had games like puzzles and checkers for them to entertain themselves and tried to get started on paperwork while waiting. One day after about two months, one of my girls asked, “Mrs. Strohecker, are you a Christian?” I said I was and she immediately began jumping up and down and saying to the group of girls she was with, “I knew it! I knew it!”. Wondering what brought on this revelation I had to ask, “What made you think it?” Her reply – “Because you wear long skirts. My grandma says Christian ladies always wear long skirts.” It was the style then – so funny. Out of the mouths of babes!
Well, I just don’t know which of these would stick in my craw more. They all do…not that I want to hang out in a pool hall,or smoke, drink alcohol, etc, but it’s the principle of the thing. Nowadays if you’re caught teaching about Jesus or God to your class you’re in trouble. Times have certainly changed.
Thanks for the post, Karen. Very interesting.