CHAPTER VIII

THE TEACHER PROBLEM

ONE of the chief problems in our educational world has to do with the teacher. We may have competent school boards, wisely articulated curricula, home coöperation, willing pupils yet the school will suffer fundamentally if the teachers are inefficient. An individual pupil may get a good education outside of school in spite of his teachers, but the schooling of the mass will depend on the quality of the teaching; the stream will not rise above its source. point, moreover, is of special importance to us in America. In spite of the improvement in the training of teachers during the past twenty years, we still underestimate the necessary qualifications; we are busy discussing the needs of the pupil in a way that seems to take the teacher for granted.

This

Professor G. H. Palmer, in his famous little essay, "The Ideal Teacher," says that a teacher should have “an aptitude for vicariousness, an

already accumulated wealth [of knowledge], an ability to invigorate life through knowledge, and a readiness to be forgotten." It is not to be expected, of course, that we should find all of these excellences, perfectly developed, in any one teacher. The question is, do we find them as frequently as we may reasonably expect? Probably we do, if we consider the conditions under which teachers work.* Since these conditions are not immutable, however, we may reasonably expect more competent teachers if we are willing to change the conditions. Partly because of conditions, partly because of misconceptions of teaching (which naturally have reacted on the conditions), American teachers, we have seen in Chapter V, have several conspicuous defects. How may these defects be remedied? Is it important to do so?

The complacent acquiescence of the parent is a curious absurdity. He admits that the most important thing in the life of the community is education; he realizes that reform and progress depend not so much on what he is as on what his child becomes; he agrees that a large part of the public revenue should be appropriated for education; and yet he does not seem *See Chapter V, pp. 78-85.

to see at all clearly the obvious conclusion: that our teachers must be the best men and women in the community. He frequently takes an interest in schools, especially in the buildings, in questions of sanitation, of athletics, and of studies; but only rarely does he realize that in education, as in warfare, "the man behind the gun" is the chief consideration. The point is not ignored, but relatively it is much neglected.

Obviously the problem is important. The question of how the defects may be remedied may best be taken up as we discuss the various parts of the problem in detail.

A first step, if we are to attract the best men and women of the community, is to provide higher pay for teachers of exceptional ability. It is true that the majority of men and women in the teaching profession do not desire great riches; it is equally true that, if it were possible for a teacher to make a great deal of money, the profession would be crowded with just the wrong sort of persons. A good teacher, like a good doctor, must think chiefly of giving, not receiving; what receiving there is must be chiefly a chance to give more.

Here, however, comes, with twofold impor

tance, the point that a comfortable salary should be a possibility. If a man is forced to live a life, not of reasonable economy, but of narrow economy, he feels the constant daily pressure in such a way that there is a strong chance of his becoming a drudge. Every dollar counts: he thinks twice before he buys a book or makes a journey or allows himself any special comforts. If he is married, with several children, every cent counts: the wife must wear herself out doing the work of two or three women; food and clothing must be reduced to the lowest terms, sometimes to insufficiency; the husband's spare time must be spent, not in recreation or study, but in chores and in exhausting tutoring. All this he does not greatly heed, perhaps, if he is a dedicated spirit; but the parent whose child is in his care ought to heed it. For the gradual, wearing, narrowing influence of such a life-except in the sense that a certain amount of adversity chastens cannot produce a teacher of wide interests and expansive nature, a teacher who can stimulate and lead as well as correct the activities of vigorous children.

The second reason is not less important. If a man looks ahead before taking the plunge, he

may well hesitate at the thought of the possibilities or impossibilities-in the teaching profession. If he is an ambitious man, he certainly hesitates. It is not merely that he wishes the material comforts, the security in old age, and the chance for his family to live without hard labor, which a high salary would insure; he sees that the financial straits of a low salary would condemn him to a life in which he could not realize the best that is in him. He may be potentially what we call a "dedicated spirit" and yet hesitate for this very reason, that he would not be able to dedicate himself wholly to his work since he would have to dedicate a large part of his time to making both ends meet. Moreover, there is a good deal of twaddle talked about dedication. A man usually does what he wants to if he can so contrive: he is a banker, or a lawyer, or a minister, or a teacher because he wants to be one, not because of noble resignation. Any worthy calling, naturally, as life itself, requires resignation and dedication, but is not in itself completely a resignation so much as a fulfilment of desire at its best. In addition, if we consider the facts as they exist at present, the truly dedicated spirit is so rare that our great army of teachers must be made up for the