A profession should furnish a reasonable prospect of a
career and a fair chance of gaining distinction. Such opportunities
have been far too few in teaching to attract able and ambitious young
men in adequate number. The remedy is to open every branch of
educational work and administration to those who have proved
themselves to be efficient teachers. The national welfare demands that
those who are to be charged with the task of training future citizens
should be drawn from the most able of our young people, to whom
teaching should offer a career not less attractive than other
callings. In particular the teacher should be regarded as a member of
a profession and trusted to carry out his duties in a responsible
manner. Excessive supervision and inspection will tend to discourage
and eventually destroy that quality of initiative which is
indispensable in all teaching. Freed from the monetary cares which now
oppress him, definitely established as a member of a profession having
some voice in its own concerns, encouraged to exercise his art under
conditions of the greatest possible freedom, and provided with
reasonable opportunity for advancement, the teacher will be able to
take up his work in a new spirit. We may then demand from new-comers a
sense of vocation and expect with some justification that teachers
will be able to avoid the professional groove which is hardly to be
escaped and which is quite inevitable if the conditions of one's work
preclude opportunity for maintaining freshness of mind and a variety
of personal interest.
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