| LOUISA COUNTY, IOWA |  |
|
| LOUISA COUNTY, IOWA | |
Page 224
Transcribed by Lynn McCleary, November 24, 2019
For many years, school teachers were among those whose live were most strictly controlled by their employers. Following are excerpts from three teach contracts.
1. Teachers each day will fil lamps, clean chimneys.
2. Each Teacher will bring a bucket of water and a scuttle of coal for the day’s session.
3. Make your pens carefully. You may whittle nibs to the individual taste of the pupils.
4. Men teachers may take one evening each week for courting purposes, or two evenings a week if they go to church regularly.
5. After ten hours in school, the teacher may spend the remaining time reading the Bible or other good books.
6. Women teachers who marry or engage in unseemly conduct will be dismissed.
7. 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.
8. 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, intentions, integrity and honesty.
9. 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.
1. You will not marry during the term of your contract.
2. You are not to keep company with men,
3. You must be home between the hours of 8 p.m. and 6 a.m. unless attending a school function.
4. You may not loiter downtown in ice cream stores.
5. You may not travel beyond the city limits, unless you have the permission of the chairman of the board.
6. You may not ride in a carriage or automobile with any man unless he is your father or brother.
7. You may not smoke cigarettes
8. You may not dress in bright colors.
9. You may under no circumstance dye your hair.
10. Yu must wear at least two petticoats.
11. Your dresses must not be any shorter than two inches above the ankle.
12. To keep the school room neat and clean, you must sweep the floor at least once daily, scrub the floor at least once a week with hot, soapy water, clean the blackboards at least once a day, and start the fire at 7 a.m. so the room wil be warm by 8 a.m.
1. I promise to take a vital interest in all phases of Sunday-school work, donating of my time, service and money without stint for the uplift of the community.
2. I promise to abstain from all dancing, immodest dressing, and other conduct unbecoming a teacher and a lady.
3. I promise not to go out with any young men except insofar as it may be necessary to stimulate Sunday-school work.
4. I promise not to fall in love, to become engaged, or secretly married. I promise not to encourage or tolerate the least familiarity on the part of my by pupils.
5. I promise to sleep at least eight hours a night, to eat carefully, and to take every precaution to keep in the best of health and spirits in order that I may better be able to render efficient service to my pupils.
6. I promise to remember that I owe a duty to the townspeople who are paying my wages, that I owe respect to the school board and the superintendent that hired me, and that I shall consider myself at all times the willing servant to the school board and the townspeople and that I hall cooperate with the town, the pupils, and the schools.
Page 225
Picture: State of Iowa Teacher's Contract 1926
|
Picture: A later teacher's Contract
|