The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1875-06-05

! On through time, these banks thou still
shalt lave.
When l reach that goal where all must
come at last,
As lifes last lingering sun shall cease to
CLEAN,
With these loved ones remembered of the
past,
Oh let me peacefully rest by Octoraro' S
winding stream.
Red Turkey, Nay "a, 1915. S.
PROFESSIONAL TEACHING.
AN ESSAY READ BEFORE THE wICKERsHAM
INSTITUTE, AT ITS RECENT MEETING.
At the December meeting of the Wicker
sham Institute, an essay was read in which
the author saw fit to attack, rather severely,
a class of teachers to which it is safe to say
a large majority of the teachers of the State
belong. Those who do not enter the schools
with any design of spending their lives in
it, but only as temporary resort until some
better position can be secured. l do not
object to the Chesapeake essayist especially,
as he only gave a repetition of a charge that
l have heard in Associations" "1nsti-
tutes," and educational papers ever since |
first heard of such things. The substance
of the complaint is this "The profession
is degraded by those who do not enter it
for life, and no one using it merely as a
temporary resort can be honest, as they can
not labor as efficiently as the life-teacher.
Worst of all, such persons degrade the life
teacher by accepting such pay as the life
teacher cannot live upon" 1 wish to ex-
anime those complaints in detail.
will remark at the outset that teachers
professional and nom professional, usually
have to take the wages they can get. We
call America free country and one of its
peculiarities is the right of its people to fol-
low any business they choose, limited only
by their capacity and the public support
This demand that teacher shall enter the
school room for life or not at all, strikes at
one of the dearest rights of American cti-
zenship. The farmer, the mechanic, the
| lawyer, the minister, even, can change his
| business, and no one, not even his profess
sional brethren, will charge him with dis
honesty or with invading the rights of 9th
ers We claim for teachers the same right
eyes" exclaims some one, "but the
teachers ranks are crowded with young
men preparing for professions, or trying to
make teaching stepping stone to some
thing better" Grant this to be true, and
does not the public owe debt of gratitude
to Just such men-men who fill up the
ranks that could not be recruited from
those who are willing to accept the muniti-
cent compensation of the "profession " for
| life?
The highest salary paid in this county
under the present elaborate grading system
is $500, the average $500. Rates at which
none but imbeciles, or persons lacking all
elements of ambition or force of character,
will consent to labor for life. Most men,
| good for any thing, however little they may
care for wealth, are ambitious of securing
the means of supporting family in COM
fort. At present prices this is something
the life-teacher can never hope to do, un-
less he has some means outside of his sal
| airy.
The man who folds his arms and resigns
himself to teach for life is an imbecile.
! No wonder there are so few of them, for it
takes some ambition to pass an examina-
ton in Reading, Writing, Arithmetic, Geo
graphy, Grammar, Physiology, and Geome-
try.
| Raise the standard of qualifications, :"
say some people, and you will crowd the
non professionals out of the ranks. You
have raised it so high already that only
scholarship can hope to reach it." Raise it
as high as you please, and the ambitious,
earnest men and women who are aiming at
the highest positions society can give them
will still leave the easy, ploddings 5000 a
year for life, teacher in the rear
eyes," says some one, "but you ought
to teach for the love of it." All very we'll;
if the teacher can love his profession,
shall not object. Why don't men raise
corn, or potatoes, or practice law, or preach,
or print newspapers for the love of ito If
teacher can love his profession, very good;
as long as the immense salary of the pro-
fession forbids his loving any one else
The story of the Yankee who got mar
ried under the impression that he could live
on love is in place here. After trying it
two weeks he says he came to the conclu-
sion that there is much more reality in
baked beans. The same is true of teach
ing; love is all very well in it's place. but it
is poor compensation for life labor. When
love will pay tailor or dresser maker bills,
or satisfy the demands of the butcher or
shop keeper it will become a legitimate
object of labor. Until that happy day the
salaries of other professions are much to be
preferred-have much greater purchasing
capacity.
"But," insists the objector, cit is not
the highest mission in life to make money"
This, no one admits more readily than l.
On the other hand the world S martyr epoch
is past. "Fox's Book of Martyrs - is full.
While it may not be the highest aim of life
to amass wealth, it is the universal aim of
intelligent humanity to earn living, and
it is but poor one the teacher gets. When
all the professions are little else than reck-
less scramble for money, why any one who
leaves teaching for something better should
be charged with dishonesty and degrading
the profession is more than can under
stand.
Take the ministry, if you please, crowded
as it is with incapables, men who could
never succeed as teachers or even as farm
ers or mechanics, and no matter how ignor-