History Speaks: Rules for Teachers from the Past

Over this past summer, during the revision the new webpage, I stumbled upon the 'Rules for Teachers' that I am going to share with you below.  I loved reading them!  They were compelling, but I didn't know quite what to do with them. 

Until I attended a transportation meeting at Amity High School with all of our Orange bus drivers.  Before the meeting began, Mr. Chris Winkle and I started a conversation that wandered into his telling me his mother had been a teacher at Mary L. Tracy until 1923 when she had married his father and been forced to quit teaching.  I instantly recalled 'the rules' I had found.  Both sets of rules below, 1872's and 1915's, dismissed women who married from the profession. 

Being a teacher myself, my heart broke a little to hear Mr. Winkle say his mother was forced to give up this most rewarding profession when she chose to be a wife and mother.  But, on second thought, I reasoned, at least she could take her time when getting an ice cream downtown!

The Academy, built 1812, is the present day site

of the Orange Historical Society

1915 Rules for Teachers

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 circumstances dye your hair.
10. You must wear at least two petticoats.
11. Your dresses must not be any shorter than two inches below the knee.
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 will be warm by 8 a.m.

Rules for Teachers 1872

1. Teachers each day will fill 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 per week if they go to church regularly.
5. After ten hours in school, the teachers may spend the remaining time reading the Bible or other good books.
6. Women teachers who marry 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, intention, 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.