Columnist Ruthe Deskin: Teachers no longer trim wicks

Ruthe Deskin

Thursday, July 17, 2003 | 8:21 a.m.

With the major news stories concentrating on the tragic and dramatic, a bit of the light stuff might be an antidote for those who claim the media stresses the bad news and ignores the good.

A recent analysis of teachers' salaries and duties brought response from a Sun reader who sent me a copy of "Instructions for Teachers, 1872."

A teacher's life was a bit different in those days. A list of instructions:

1. Teachers will fill lamps, clean chimneys and trim wicks each day.

2. Each teacher will bring a scuttle of coal and a bucket of water for the day's use.

3. Make your pens carefully. You may whittle nibs for the individual tastes of children.

4. Men teachers may take an evening each week for courting purposes or two evenings a week if they go to church regularly.

5. After 10 hours in the school the teacher should spend the remaining time reading the Bible and other good books.

6. Women teachers who marry or engage in other unseemly conduct will be dismissed.

7. Every teacher who smokes, uses liquor in any form, frequents pool or public halls, or gets shaved in a barber shop will give good reasons to suspect his worth, intentions, integrity and honesty.

8. The teacher who performs his labors faithfully without fault for five years will be given an increase of 25 cents a week in his pay -- providing the Board of Education approves.

Source: Pershing County, Nevada Museum.

Back to the serious stuff -- the war in Iraq, for example.

Originally, Dov Zakheim, chief financial officer for the Pentagon, stated post-combat operations were expected to cost about $2.2 billion a month; that figure has now been adjusted to $3 billion. There are about 145,000 troops still in Iraq, with prospects of lowering that number rather bleak as opposition to the presence of American troops escalates.

Latest prognostications place the war and occupation of Iraq at around $100 billion through next year.

Officials are expected to announce the federal budget will exceed $400 billion for the fiscal year ending Sept. 30.

It's like pouring water down a dry well. Iraq is only a part of the problem. While it is only money, the cost in human lives and suffering cannot be ignored; yet there isn't anyone on the public scene who will stand up and say, "enough is enough."

Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld has said he doesn't think the word "quagmire" fits the situation. Perhaps he should consider "quicksand."

It takes more than brawn to play golf if you want to be a winner. So says Dr. Marilyn Hamlin, who claims to be a specialist in mental engagement.

Dr. Hamlin, who holds a Ph.D. in psychoanalysis, guarantees a better golf game by using your brain. She teaches clients to "manage their brains on the golf course to improve scores and enjoy playing the game."

No more clubs tossed into the lake or broken in half over a wayward shot. From golf to bowling, tennis, badminton -- where does it stop?

Dr. Hamlin may have the only business of its kind in Las Vegas or the world at 3650 N. Rancho Drive.

Which reminds me of the definition of a true friend -- one who will stick by you when you come unglued.