Keuka College - Kiondaga Yearbook (Keuka Park, NY)

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30 THE COLLEGE RECORD. public schools, not so much on account of the salaries or of the work in itself, but because the institution has come to have a hold on them that they are unwilling to break. The fact that the school demands and needs more makes the teachers and officers willing to give more. We come to love those that we minister to. For these reasons the pri- vate schools seem to be in a position to receive more from their teachers than can the public schools. These facts in- dicate that the private school is more stable in its character also. A private school which was a good school a year ago is more apt to be still a good school. For the same reason a private school which has fallen into bad condition should be looked upon with suspicion until radical changes have been observed which can change the evil conditions for wholesome ones. The matter of keeping records is another in which there seems to be some difference between the two schools. From the replies to the questions sent out on this point, and from experience in collecting evidence of the preparatory work of students the writer is inclined to believe that private schools generally keep a better system of records than pub- lic schools. In New York State there has been too strong tendency to depend entirely on the Regents examinations for records of the pupil's standing. These register the results of the work, but ca n hardly be considered a satisfac- tory record of it. The constant shifting of principals in the public schools tends to looseness and variability in the matter of records. In the schools reported for this article every private school makes permanent record of standings every term, while only about half of the public schools re- ported do SO. Also the number of private schools which make entries in the records at shorter intervals, as by months or weeks, is larger than the number of public - hools whi li do this. This is important, as the record of work not passed in state examinations often becomes of great importance to the student. Prom the institutions considered came some interesting fig- ures in regard to the relation in size between the entering and the graduating classes, and the proportion of graduates in

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THE COLLEGE RECORD. 29 An inquiry as to the salaries of teachers and as to the proportion of men to women teachers showed that there is considerable difference in the latter respect, but not very much in the former. Reports covering the schools referred to in the preceding paragraph showed 33 men and 87 wo- men in the public schools, while there are 82 men and 42 women in the private schools. Although the number of schools considered is small, it is not probable that the pro- portion would be greatly changed if the number were ex- tended. Nearly all the schools considered were co-educa- tional, but the fact that two or three were not would affect conclusions drawn from the above figures. There can be no doubt, however, that the proportion of women to men teachers is much greater in the public schools than in the private schools. The average salary for women in the public schools con- sidered was $709, and for men, $1276. In private schools the salaries were, for women $875, and for men, $1386. This difference is probably not large enough to affect to any great extent the quality of teachers employed. About one- fourth of the men reported for the public schools were principals, whose salary is large in proportion to that of the other teachers, while the private school principals num- ber only about one-seventh of the teachers reported. Tak- ing this into consideration, the salaries for men teachers in private schools seem to be be considerably larger than for men in public schools. In the matter of teachers the private schools are believed to have an advantage in a point which is not generally con- sidered. The private school, being more like a home, hav- ing generally a more definite personality, and depending more on its own efforts for attendance and consequent pros- perity, takes hold of the imagination and sympathies of those that work for it much more strongly than can the public school, except in very rare instances. The private school to those that have long served it becomes more like a living thing than an institution. It comes to be loved. In this respect it approaches the college, and commands the devotion of all its members. Teachers stay longer than in

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THE COLLEGE RECORD. 31 higher institutions. In the public schools the graduating class was 28 per cent, of the entering class, while in the private schools the percentage was 77. From the public schools 47 per cent, of the graduates entered higher institutions, while from the private schools 73 per cent, entered. The points which have been considered in the foregoing have seemed to be tolerably clear. There are many lesser differences between the two schools, but the writer is not dis- posed to enter upon their discussion. Since the province of this article was simply a comparison of the two systems, not an attempt to establish the superiority of either, the writer is inclined to draw no conclusions in closing. It is his belief that each institution should strive to develop those elements of peculiar strength that are inherent in it; that it should acknowledge its peculiar weaknesses, and try to reduce them ; that it should frankly recognize the pe- culiar advantages of the other class of schools, even while urging its own claims for students. Attempt has been made to show some of the limitations and some of the advantages of each system, and if injustice has been done to either the fault is of the head, not of the heart.