Every teacher has to follow rules...although these rules were
much different when Almanzo and Laura went to school.
Rules for Teachers
(1872)
- Teachers each day will fill
lamps, clean chimneys.
- Each teacher will bring a
bucket of water and a scuttle of coal for the day's session.
- Make your pens carefully. You
may whittle nibs to the individual taste of the pupils.
- Men teachers may take one
evening each week for courting purposes, or two evenings a week if they go
to church regularly.
- After ten hours in school, the
teachers may spend the remaining time reading the Bible or other good
books.
- Women teachers who marry or
engage in unseemly conduct will be dismissed.
- Every teacher should lay aside
from each pay a goodly sum of his earnings for his benefit during his
declining years so that he will not become a burden on society.
- Any teacher who smokes, uses
liquor in any form, frequents pool or public halls, or gets shaved in a
barber shop will give good reason to suspect his worth, intention,
integrity and honesty.
- The teacher who performs his
labor faithfully and without fault for five years will be given an
increase of twenty-five cents per week in his pay, providing the Board of
Education approves.