TEACHERS ON STRIKE.
LIVELY SCENES. JUVENILE RIOTERS. Lively scones marked the first day of tho teachers' strike.'iu ■ Herefordshire, when seventy schools were closed owing to. the resignations of 'the.-staffs.'.. At other' schools which were kept, open the oluldreh resented the appearance- of the. new teachers. The teachers declared that tho average pay pf 'teachers in Herefordshire was much lower than the average for , tho 'whole country, though tho education rate was tho, low-' est, and they asked for the adoption of a scale of salaries: .They suggested that the salaries of headmasters should rise by £5 yearly from £120 to £150 in schools with 8.0 pupils .or less; from' £140 to £180 in schools', with .between 80 and 120 pupils j and from £160 to £220 in schools with over 120 scholars; also that there should bo a scale for headmistresses' and assistants. -The .Education Committee'refused to formulates scheme, and reserved the right to fix salaries in'every caso according to the applicant's qualifications..-. Glass-Room Pandemonium. - At-nine o'clock, when the school at Ross—the, largest in the countyshould have opened,'the boys paraded the. town singing songs and cheering. Towards ten o'clock they were induced to enter the school, and immediately there was pandemonium. Inkpots were thrown about and desks' overturned. Finally the boys broke out of the building and,marched again through the I-' town. The demonstration proceeded with the apparent approval'of tho towna- . folk. . ■■■••'-■ A new tqaoh'er arrived at -Ledbury to ... take the place of the headmistress, who "~ had gone out ou strike. She had received . from a representative of tho Education Committee a bunch of a hundred keys, and managed to find the key which opened tho.sobool door, but she oould not find the correct keys to open all the cupboards, desks, and other .doors. No register oould be called, and practically, no school work was done. At'the end of. the morning session the girls broke into on unruly mob. They dressed •;up and wrote notices : "We are going to have our teachers .back." To a piano accompaniment desks were overturned. The floor was .bespattered with ink. .';'■; The teacher was followed out of the school by a crowd of children shouting, "Blackleg 1" ■ At 1.30. when the scholars were due back at school; -about 200 of ■ the bigger girls held .a meeting in the playground and decided to strike. When the new mistress appeared : she -was greeted with hooting. Children'guarded both' back and frontdoors to prevent her from entering the school.- On the -walls and doors they wrote, "We want.our teachers: back again, and we mean, to have'them." •' ' ■ ' Some fights occurred: between striking and non-striking children, and parents arrived to separate the combatants. Some of the non-strikers, entered . the school through a window. The.strikers followed and threw their hats and coats out of the window.|.More piano-playing and throwing, of bodks and inkpots followed, and ono of the girls' rang the large school bell from the top window. Cheers were given for the teachers on strike. . At. three 'o'clock the teacher abandoned her. effort to create' order, and left the'school./ The children declare that. j;hey„ will, not go back until their old teacliars';are,<jr(ilnstatedp: n " A; Mr.: W. C' -Smith 'Was-for 'over thirty years teacher at a -large boys' school.at.Bromyard;.and had taught tho fathers kof some or. his. present pupils; He :, was, 'a - comparatively -' well-paid■ teacher, but in. sympathy with his colleagues, ho resigned,- and a'successor was-.appointed. In anticipation of trouble the school managers attended to shepherd the boys into school, and asergcant.of police was called into service'to restrain those who showed,a disposition to wander away. To this comedy a touoh of farco was added by £he casual appearance of a marl with'a gun. Verbal persuasion sufficed, and the gun was not employed. ' At a ; place called Ashperton the school opened with.a new staff. ; It is a'large . one, with an attendance of 120 pupils. Here the persuasions of trie'new headmasters ,and tho authorities, fell: on deaf ears.. The pupils, with cheers for their old headmaster, refused to enter. -After'a hard struggle, fourteen infants wore netted, and the rest straggled away.- ..-•-'•■ '':'■' ' Clerical Strike-Breakers. Efforts were made to .keep some schools .open with the services of supplementary, teachers—teachers of the lowest grade. At one fairly large school at Ivin;»tpn classes of restless scholars' were tyke'n by a supplementary teacher and a girl pupil aged thirteen: Elsewhere the clergy stepped into the breach. At Breadwardino and at Dilwyn the vicars of the parishes acted as strike-breakers. The sympathy of the parents was wholly on tho side of the leachers. A meeting, in support of jihem was held tit Breadwardino, and a number of farmers and others walked four or fivo miles up a steep road to the only available hall. -■ • < T]ie.managers of the schools in some places were indignant because tho cdvt- , tation authority appointed new teachers af Whom they disapproved, or even ap- ; pointed' teachers 'without consulting them., The. managers of one school had had submitted to them by tho education committee the names of two applicants, one of whom had been a market gardener for the past dozen years. ■:' Nobody could fail- to recognise' Hhe •pirit' of tho strikers. Men whose in- , comes were less than £100 refused posts in other parts of the country which would bring them promotion in their profession and perhaps £50 as additional salary, • Some, of. the strikers had laboured in their, villages for fifteen or twenty years. In many' cases tho (chools were taught by man and wifo working and they spoke almost with tears of tho wrench, that a parting from their homos would-moan to them.
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Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 2013, 21 March 1914, Page 7
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929TEACHERS ON STRIKE. Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 2013, 21 March 1914, Page 7
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