Give us understanding and the desire to discriminate, and we may say that the high school pupil has learned enough. This is power. It is power built upon a training that is not above the ordinary high school pupil nor beyond the secondary school teacher of English.

During this year, as during each of the other three, the pupil is made aware of the place in the chronology of American and English literature occupied by the author whose works he reads or studies. In the third and fourth years especially, he learns the tendencies that mark the periods in which the authors wrote; he knows how the particular piece of literature "reflects the spirit of the age" and what influence it had upon succeeding periods. In this manner, while no attempt is made to teach the history of literature, the pupil gains a unified impression of English and American writings, instead of a feeling that each story or essay or drama or poem stands alone and isolated from all the rest. Literature becomes a definite thing in the mind of the pupil so trained.

The reader will notice that more has been said about the pupil learning than about the teacher teaching. The success of such a course as has been shown here, depends ultimately, as does everything else in education, upon the individual dealing with the problem. Two things must be said about the teacher, upon whom will fall so large a share of the actual work of reorganization and reconstruction in this country. First, she must have a broader view of her profession, a wider knowledge of the literature she is reading or studying with her pupils, and a deeper understanding of it all than she has ever had in the past. She must get the Vision; she must see the Gleam. Once having seen it she must aid her pupils to get it, term in and term out, telling them in the words of the poet:

"After it, follow it,

Follow the Gleam."

Second, she must let the pupil do his own thinking. And after he has thought, she must respect the result, the conclusions, he has

reached. Despite the fact that teachers continually say, "Pupils! will not think," most pupils do think, but of course they do not think necessarily as we do. But it is to the credit of the pupil in the secondary school if he is independent in his thinking. It is to the discredit of most of us teachers that we do not respect his independent thinking from the very beginning of his course in literature, and thus encourage him to think more. Teachers do much to repress thought in their pupils because they discourage independent thinking in their attempt to make it all conform to theirs. Woe will be to us if we persist in doing this. So I have put stress on the pupil's learning rather than on the teacher's teaching, because the former process is so vitally important today and yet so strangely neglected. In justice to our pupils let them do the learning wherever it is possible in their study of literature. Encourage their individual thought; let them practice self-expression and so learn self-control in thought.

Someone has recently written in an educational journal to the effect that the test of the success of teaching literature in secondary schools is the avidity with which people seek the public library, both during their school course and after graduation. That may be true, but more important is it to know what they seek there. Presumably everything in a public library is good reading. Yet one would not avouch the sterling worth of all the books found therein. It is what they seek, not how much, that is the test to be applied. The power of understanding and discrimination which this course generates will make boys and girls not omnivorous readers only, but we hope it will make them perspicacious in their choice of books. There is every reason to believe that it will foster a love of books grounded upon their serviceableness toward making one capable of using his leisure worthily. There can be no greater pleasure, there can be no nobler pursuit in leisure moments than reading good literature. Reading stimulates thought, and to be thoughtful is destined to be one of the greatest things in the years that are to be.

Recruiting the Teaching Profession

HOMER H. SEERLEY, PRESIDENT STATE TEACHERS COLLEGE, CEDAR FALLS, Iowa.*

The Present Situation. It is conceded by every well-informed American citizen that the vocation of teacher has fallen into disrepute as a life work for either men or women of large promise. This is because its service is not so well esteemed by the public as other vocations are, and because the personal sacrifices required of its members are not relieved by such remuneration as guarantees financial independence. In addition, these untoward conditions are not met by such prospects of promotion in service as will satisfy reasonable ambition for power and place. It must be recognized, also, that the appeal to red-blooded men and women, such as are needed in teaching, must be met by actual conditions that show appreciation for initiative and for accepted capability such as meet the requirements of human aims and possibilities. Any less claim than this places the profession of teaching in a category all by itself as a type of missionary Christian-service that is not even paralleled by those workers who are missionaries in foreign lands or are active ministers in the churches as servants of the common good.

The Public Servant.-Any student of social problems in America is compelled to classify the American teacher as a public servant rather than a public leader, since his status is temporary as to tenure, uncertain as to annual income, and almost impossible as to retiring allowance. The worker of this class is assumed by the public to be continued regularly in employment as long as he meets the requirements of public esteem and popularity. He is assumed by school officials to be paid a monthly wage that fully compensates for his service, so that there remains no further obligation on the part of the people. He is likewise assumed to possess all the opportunities of civilization that others

*For forty consecutive years Dr. Seerley has been a regular subscriber to Education, being one of the charter members' when the magazine started in 1880.

enjoy in living a thrifty business life and can therefore accumulate enough property so that he can retire in old age without any dread of the future need when salary-receiving days have passed.

In these respects the teacher is equally as well off as is the public employe or official in other lines of public service, as all these classes of servants are occupying a middle ground in society, being dependent both upon the taxpayers and the capitalists above them and the laboring classes below them for support, sympathy, employment and appreciation. These special classes cannot be come producers under our American system of civilization, since, being employees, they are dependent upon the public for food, raiment, shelter and even prosperity to such an extent as is not experienced by either the capitalist or the laborer, a condition that is quite generally unrealized and therefore unappreciated by those who have absolute control of their own time and labor and have the power to decide their own destiny.

The Expense of Preparation.-The business of teaching is a highly specialized occupation. It demands in the first place unusual quality of intelligence, so as to be able to learn things of the highest grade of acquirement, so as to be able to be trained to deal successfully with human personalities, such as parents, pupils and officials, and so as to be able to prove ability to do things for humanity and for public welfare that can only be accomplished by those with unusual ability and unusual adaptability. These meritorious accomplishments are of a kind and character that their development and acquirement exact great expense as to time, as to money investment, and as to developing worthiness and capability that are enormous in quantity and quality, compared to the prospects, possibilities and guarantees. It is not necessary for the investigator to make computations to establish these facts, as they are too well known to all intelligent people to assume that contradiction is tenable. The evidence is so strong as to be so well known to American publicists as to compel them to acknowledge that one of the wonders of the age is the American miracle of being able to conduct and maintain the public school system on the high grade that exists amid the com

mercial and attractive possibilities of a wonderfully productive period of American history. There are other professions that the public demands preparation for a career in, of a kind that exceeds those now expected of the public school teacher. These are medicine, law and engineering; yet in most all respects they are independent vocations and their representatives are not subject to the whims and the changeableness of public opinion. Such occupations guarantee to the worker a permanent home, a professional growth, and an increasing income commensurate with the degree of success, efficiency and serviceableness attained-results that are obtained by reasonable economy, fair expectancy and righteous recognition of merit and prominence.

The Dilemma Existing.-For the first time in fifty years, the American public is unusually interested in the problem of teachersupply and teacher-training. This is not because of the actual merits of teaching as a social necessity, but because of the apparent lack of an assured supply of enough qualified teachers to conduct the schools that are supposed to be necessary for the proper instruction of this generation of children. For the first time the problem of having schools at all is known to the common men on the street as well as it is to the public officials that have been honored by being appointed to look after the public welfare. For the first time in the history of this Republic the problem of money-saving and money-making is recognized as secondary to that of conducting and maintaining good schools. For the first time, salaries are offered and emoluments are proposed and conditions are promised that are so unprecedented and unusual that the few competent men and women, who can not do anything else than teach, are pinching themselves to try to decide whether they can consciously ascertain whether they are sane or insane, living or dead, in heaven or on earth. Under these circumstances, these public workers have so many attractive suitors that they are almost incompetent to decide which one to accept, while they are assured such glorious and unknown conditions and prospects that they even doubt the sincerity of those who seek their services. Amid this conflict of emotions, reliability as to contracts is im