The life of a female teacher many years ago.

QUOTE from Will Durant: "Sixty years ago I knew everything; now I know nothing; education is a progressive discovery of our own ignorance."

This morning I LEARNED about the life of female teachers in Iowa County, Iowa, in the late 1800s and early 1900s. A guy named Owen Jones wrote a book entitled, "One-room School Houses: Iowa County, Iowa, 1844-1966." At one time Iowa County had over 100 country schools and seven town schools. Mr. Jones had some interesting stories to tell, especially about the the female teachers.

A teacher contract in 1872 called for a 25-cent-per-week pay increase after five years for teachers who performed without fault. They were required to set aside "a goodly sum" for retirement and could read the Bible or other good books only after working at least 10 hours a day.

In 1923 teachers received $75 a month for an eight-month contract, but they couldn't smoke, drink, or hang out at the ice cream store. Women couldn't marry and had to wear at least two petticoats at all times. Dresses could be no more than two inches above the ankle.

I've concluded that teaching school from 1962 to 1999 was much better than teaching school in 1872 in 1923. I am surprised at the dress code for females in 1923, I didn't think they had to dress that way in 1923. I wonder if  Mr. Jones got the year mixed up with 1872. As far as my teaching career we definitely could not have long hair or faciial hair in the early and middle sixties. By 1970 the Vietnam War and the protests changed that. Another conclusion I've reached is that teachers had no collective bargaining rights in those days.

HUMOR for today: Over my 36 years of teaching I was amazed at some of the people that were elected to our school board. Most were decent but there were some that did not belong on a school board. Mark Twain summed up my views on some of these undesirables.

Mark Twain said: "In the first place, God made idiots. That was for practice. Then he made school boards."