Show HOW ABOUT SHORTAGE OF SCHOOL TEACHERS an open letter to the people of southern utah by H C lewis superintendent in of iron county school district refers to the shortage of school teachers in iron county and the small enrollment in the normal schools in iron and washington counties and appeals to parents to give deep thought to what this means for their children he says inexperienced teachers are being employed now and a greater shortage of teachers Is threatened tor next year he asks what steps are you taking to meet this crisis how many of your brightest young men and women who have finished or nearly finished their high school training are you sending to normal school to prepare for teaching I 1 know that the salary inducements have been insufficient to draw them into the profession or to keep them in very long but you are not going to let the question of salary stand between your child and the right kind of schooling you are going to continue to ask for good teachers and will be willing to pay enough to get them it they are to be bad at all it seems plain to me however that the only way we can be sura of getting them Is to develop them from our own communities we must keep our normal classes filled with our brightest young people and encourage them in every way to prepare themselves for this work further along mr lewis says referring to our splendid normal schools what then Is the reason why more of our young people are hot taking advantage of this exceptional opportunity Is it because they are getting no encouragement at home are you among those who say 1 I don t want my boys or my girls to bo teachers because they can make more money at other kinds of work now do you really think it Is consistent tor us to look to other parts of the state and to other states to keep us supplied with trained teachers unless we contribute our full share to the army of teachers of the state looking at the situation fairly and squarely does it not occur to you that it Is about time we were organizing in every community in some way to keep our normal schools filled with prospective teachers the news Is fully in accord with the matter beet forth in mr lewis letter we have no doubt that the main reason why our normal schools are so poorly attended Is the ques alon of teachers salaries the teachers are greatly underpaid considering si what Is expected of them and no class of workers deserve bet ter pay providing always they are efficient teachers salaries should be raised and we believe this will be done at a not very tar distant date because the matter Is being so forcibly drawn to the attention of those higher up the normal schools should be fully attended and we feel that no bright young man or woman who aspires to become a teacher should hesitate to enter the normal school because the salaries paid teachers have not kept pace with the high cost of living or with those paid some other class of workers in the meantime we endorse the suggestion of mr lewis that every community take the matter up tor it Is of vital importance to them |