Their terms of engagement and rate of
remuneration exhibit every possible variety. Their fitness to
undertake the work of teaching is not tested specifically, save in the
case of certain classes of teachers in public elementary schools, nor
is there any general agreement as to the proper nature and scope of
such a test, could one be devised. Usually, it is true, the
prospective employer demands evidence that the intending teacher has
some knowledge of the subject he is to teach. He may seek to satisfy
himself that the applicant has other desirable qualities, personal and
physical, which will fit him to take an active and useful part in
school work. These inquiries, however, will have little or no
reference to his skill in teaching, apart from what is called
discipline or form management.
The characteristics of a true profession are not easily defined, but
it may be assumed that they include the existence of a body of
scientific principles as the foundation of the work and the exercise
of some measure of control by the profession itself in regard to the
qualifications of those who seek to enter its ranks. Taken together,
these two characteristics may be said to mark off a true profession
from a business or trade. The skilled craftsman or artisan may belong
to a union which seeks to control the entrance to its ranks, but the
difference between the member of the Amalgamated Society of Engineers
and the member of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers is that the
former belongs to a body chiefly concerned with the application of
certain methods while the latter belongs to one which is concerned
with those methods, not only in their application but also in their
origin and development.
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