BoletiÌn mercantil de Puerto Rico. (San Juan, P.R.) 18??-1918, 1902-06-27
SArl JUAN, JUNE d
On the Imagined ldleness
of Teachers.


again becomes frequent on the north
bound steamer lists, the anual fallacy
recurs that the teacher is favored above
other persons in the ratio OF her
working to her playing time. The pat
ent fact that for three full months he is
master of her own time produces some
thing very like envy in those who have
bare fortnight of vacation somewhat
remotely in prospect and leads to
general comparison of their lot with her.
The sentiments Of the old graduate
about his sons preceptors would find
expression in some such fashion as this
20, beati scholastici! You have put
black care from the crupper for twelve
weeks, I may do so for as many days; !;
you have enjoyed considerable recesses
where have had scant holidays; you
occupy your venerable cathedras at
most three hours day, l my disesteem-
ed ofice-chair eight hours; your pay
comes in as regularly as the coupon
comes off a Government bond, l fire.
quently garner an entry to profit and
loss" So reasons the hardworking al
umnus, and, without the Horatian re-
miniscence, the man in the street.
To this discussion the medical facul-
ty could contribute fact which further
obscures the matter-the fact that
probably no other profession produces
so many cases of nervous exhaustion.
1t is in fact, favorite paradox with
many physicians who are too amiable
to introduce the theory of "sojering,"
that people who seemingly work for only
about q quarter of the time required by
the other learned professions, show a
constant tendency to break-downs with
every symptom of overwork. No one
who has followed the history of any
college faculty for a term of years will
doubt a fact of which the explanation
is not quite obvious.
1t would be superfuous to demon
strate the fallacy Of measuring teachers
work by the number of hours she passes
in the classroom. Nor need we recall
that even routine courses require con-
siderable pre- paration that the summer
vacation is, for many teachers, quite
as much a period of study as of re
cuperation; that instructors have multi
farious administrative duties, aside from
their work of instruction-all these tru-
isms would hardly convince skep ptical
a1umnus that his teacher classmate
works as hard as banker, lawyer, or
physician 1t is not for these reasons
alone that the nominal working time
of teacher is kept as low as two or
three hours day, but rather in view
of the intense concentration of effort
which successful teaching requires and
of the wearing nature of her indefinite
obligation of service.
The work of faithful instructor is
never completely done The feeling of
of6ce-the hutter which Charles Lamb
SO engagingly described as he marked
it in his India House associates is not
for the instructor. When technically |
free, she is at the call of one or the
other of her superiors, likely to be
consulted by some ambitious or des-
pairing student-always, in short po-
tentialy on duty And this indefinite
service, which in the case of the doctor
or the clergyman at least leads out into
the open air and healthful conditions,
carries her back to her profession in
its more irksome aspect; there is no
deliverance from the body of her tu-
tordom. Snch conditions admit of
no honorable evasion. and call for an
unusual equanimity and facility i'll
handling details-a facility which is
usually forcing to the unbusinesslike
character of the class as whole.
These constitute the real and inevitable
hardships of the profession
Furthermore, the vital force that
goes into teaching is much underesti-
mated. 1t is very personal service.
One has to be in sense both the
teacher and the taught, instilling into
her two score of barbarians something
like intellectual curiosity, and then
that curiosity with mate
rial to work upon Very few pub
lie speakers or advocates have the task
Of informing and arousing unwilling
audiences. This issthe teachers most
duty, and her daily appearance
before her first, second and third "divi-
sion" is often fairly comparable with
Beechers confronting of the Manchester
proc Confederate mob; for the indiher- !
snce against which she strives is often
more distressing than an overt hostility. s
If one should reckon up the number of
hours day during which the preacher
lctually exhorts, the surgeon operates. I
he journalist writes for the press, the I
eachefs would appear by no means an 7
der IN a comparison which is the only