The Teacher: Essays and Addresses on Education

								


   XVI. Why Go to College?                                         364

I
PROBLEMS OF SCHOOL AND COLLEGE

I
THE IDEAL TEACHER

In America, a land of idealism, the profession of teaching has become
one of the greatest of human employments. In 1903-04 half a million
teachers were in charge of sixteen million pupils. Stating the same
facts differently, we may say that a fifth of our entire population is
constantly at school; and that wherever one hundred and sixty men,
women, and children are gathered, a teacher is sure to be among them.
But figures fail to express the importance of the work. If each year an
equal number of persons should come in contact with as many lawyers, no
such social consequences would follow. The touch of the teacher, like
that of no other person, is formative. Our young people are for long
periods associated with those who are expected to fashion them into men
and women of an approved type. A charge so influential is committed to
nobody else in the community, not even to the ministers; for though
these have a more searching aim, they are directly occupied with it but
one day instead of six, but one hour instead of five. Accordingly, as
the tract of knowledge has widened, and the creative opportunities
involved in conducting a young person over it have correspondingly
become apparent, the profession of teaching has risen to a notable
height of dignity and attractiveness. It has moved from a subordinate to
a central place in social influence, and now undertakes much of the work
which formerly fell to the church. Each year divinity schools attract
fewer students, graduate and normal schools more. On school and college
instruction the community now bestows its choicest minds, its highest
hopes, and its largest sums. During the year 1903-04 the United States
spent for teaching not less than $350,000,000.
Such weighty work is ill adapted for amateurs. Those who take it up for
brief times and to make money usually find it unsatisfactory. Success is
rare, the hours are fixed and long, there is repetition and monotony,
and the teacher passes his days among inferiors. Nor are the pecuniary
gains considerable. There are few prizes, and neither in school nor in
college will a teacher's ordinary income carry him much above want.
College teaching is falling more and more into the hands of men of
independent means. The poor can hardly afford to engage in it. Private
schools, it is true, often show large incomes; but they are earned by
the proprietors, not the teachers. On the whole, teaching as a trade is
poor and disappointing business.
When, however, it is entered as a profession, as a serious and difficult
fine art, there are few employments more satisfying. All over the
country thousands of men and women are following it with a passionate
devotion which takes little account of the income received. A trade aims
primarily at personal gain; a profession at the exercise of powers