Page:The school law of Michigan.djvu/64

CITIZENSHIP OF TEACHERS. Educational qualifications are not the only qualification of teachers. After July 4, 1895, no board of examiners can legally grant a certificate to any person who, having arrived at the age of twenty-one years, is not a citizen of the United States (Act 66, 1895). The law also directs the examining board to grant certificates to successful applicants who have attained the age of seventeen years (Act 34, 1893).

MORAL CHARACTER. The moral character of the applicant is another question which examining boards must carefully consider. Certificates may be withheld from persons who, though possessing all the educational qualifications, are unfit to teach in the public schools. The supreme court, in the case of Sturdevant vs. the Board of Examiners, refused to interfere with the decision of the examiners, and decided that the board was better able to determine the qualifications of applicants than the court. From another decision we quote, “A man who habitually violated his duty by profanity and Sabbath breaking, was of bad moral character” (45 Mich. 484).

RENEWALS OP CERTIFICATES.

The only Michigan law in existence authorizing boards of examiners to renew certificates, is the provision found in Act No. 34 of the law of 1893. It reads: “The board of examiners shall have the right, however, to renew without examination the certificates of persons who shall have previously obtained an average standing of at least 85 per cent, in all studies covered in two or more previous examinations, and who shall have been since that examination continuously and successfully teaching in the same county.” This seems so plain as to require no explanation, but numerous inquiries addressed to the department of public instruction suggest that it is not interpreted alike by teachers and examiners. We, therefore, in the absence of any court decisions, venture the follow-