Spirit of the age. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1849-1865, 1859-06-22
The Profession of Teaching.

The PROCESSION OF Teaching.
The most laborious, responsible rosnao
bic and yexatious position in which men and
women can be placed, is the vocation Of .
teacher Of youth. We, ofcourse, mean those
wlo conscientiously labor to do their dutv
and arc efficient instructors. There are =.
mong teachers, as in other vocations. MANY
unworthy, lazy, immoral and incompetent
persons; but those who are honest, capable
and efficient teachers, occupy a position as
elevated and are entitled to as high considera.
ton, respect and remuneration, all THINGS no
ing equal, as any other class of persons in
any secular vocation.
BY some strange freak in the conventional
rules Of society, lawyers, doctors, merchants
and some branches of mechanics, have been
judged as being entitled to a more ele.
waited post and to merit a larger compensa-
ton for labor, than the instructors of our
youth. This remark is a general one
There are individuals in the profession Of
teaching, who hold rank with the highest
but there are few indeed, even among our la
borious, competent professors, whose income
is at all commensurate with the value NJ
their services, or can compare with the LARGE
remuneration annually coming to those who
are not equal to them in ability or hard toll.
in other professions. Most men who follow
the profession of teaching alone, live and die
poor. Many of the best teachers are annual.
ly drawn to other pursuits for a living: and
hence the profession is so filled up with in.
competent persons, who have learned to live
at a cheaper rate and who can do better at it.
small as the pay is, than in any other voca.
ton.
These are notifying admissions and vet
every days observation confirm the truth OF
them. Now, is there no remedy for this p
1t is a serious evil and one which calls for a
remedy, but where are we to begin to inau.
gurate a plan or system by which it shall be
corrected? Needy as our own State is OF
competent instructors, the number who arc
annually going into other professions or leav.
ing the State to go to others where the bids
for good teachers are higher, ought to open
the eyes of the people to the Importance Of
adopting some plan by which a radical change
may be effected in this untoward state o.
things.
We have seldom felt so keenly the impor.
lance OF THESE SNIEEJsNkD4AS,
err day, on reading in one of our exchanges
the touching remark ofthe Rev. Baxter Clegg
said to have been made in reference to him
self, during the valedictory address which hi
made at the examination at DIN High School
closing his connection with that excellent in
stitution. Mr.. Clegg is a ripe scholar, anC
admitted on all hands, to stand at the head o
his profession as an instructor Of youth. Fo
upwards of twenty years he has devoted hi
time and talents to the promotion of educa
ton in Western Carolina, yet he now is com
PEELED to retire, and perhaps seek a living il
another State, having spent not only his in
come, but most of his patrimony in the nee
cessary support Of a large family.
Mr.. G.. is a rare teacher, and we trust 1T
n rare case, where one so well fitted for tn
vocation of an instructor, has Jared so badly
Other causes, perhaps unavoidable misfortun
may have caused in some measure his ill-su
cess but it is not to be blinked, that the ri
in North Carolina with regard to teachers
that they must literally ''eattheir bread by IL
sweat Of their brow" There are exception
but they are rare.
We believe this state of things demand
remedy. To effect a change, almost eve
thing depends upon the cxertions OF Il
teachers themselves. They should urge u
on the people, the necessity of erecting
higher standard Of literary and moral exc
lence in order to respectable position as
teacher, and then let the pay be brought
to that standard, and graduated according