University Missourian. [volume] (Columbia, Mo.) 1908-1916, 1914-01-12
WHAT MAKES A TEACHER?
Dean Charters Refutes the Notion That Only
Phi Beta Kappas Can Hope to Succeed
as Instructors.
as Instructors.

father will spend hours with his boys
and girls wandering with them through
fields in search of rocks and flowers,
or exploring the mysteries of the shop
windows down town.
: If one were wagering on the prob
ability of his developing an interest in
young people, he could afford to give
odds in favor of his doing So The ma
/ jority of people are interested in them.
Everybody is more or less didactic.
We all like to teach a bit and preach
bit. And this is the germ of peda-
gOgical interest.
These, then. are the four essentials
in a good teacher-medium scholar
ship Tor better). at least mild fond
| ness for study, good ability in hand
ling adults and sympathy with, and
fondness for young people.
But many men with all these quail
fications will not enter the profession.
because salaries are so small.
Perhaps few words on this topic
will be of assistance to your readers.
Not everybody is anxious to become a
millionaire. A large number of men
do not care for business. What they
want is reasonably good salary so
that they can get an education. marry
and live in comfort. rear a family and
N old age have enough money to be
sure of simple comforts when their
period of activity is over.
1T is to this class of men that teach
ing should appeal and for the follow
ing reasons. Men graduated from the
school of education within the six
years of which | know personally,
men who possessed the qualifications
mentioned, or at least, the germs of
them and who have taken no gradu-
ate work, are receiving from $3.50 to
$500 year. with three months vaca-
tion in the summer These salaries
are going up all the time. To be sure
they are not munificent, but they are
such that in the towns in which they
are paid they enable the superintend-
ent to maintain as good standard of
living as any men of the same age
who did not inherit money.
These men have no worry about
falling off in business. They have no
fear of bankruptcy, because they know
exactly how much to count upon at
the beginning of the month.
Students who 90 on and take their
Doctors degrees are certain, unless
they are the most complete failures in
teaching. to receive life positions in
normal schools, large city high schools
or colleges and universities.
The life of professor in one of
these institutions is almost ideal for
people who have the four qualifica-
tons mentioned. The salary is assur-
ed. There is little or none of the hard |
compensation of business life. Leis-
ure for study is provided. And the in
~ N>'oi mas ioi otuuChlS tile
finest body of young people that can
be found anywhere in the world.
But the future? What of it? The
university professor at the age of 65 is
pensioned now. chiefly from private /
sources. The rank and file of public .
school teachers now have an opportu-
nifty for pensions in six states of the
union. Before freshmen and sopho-
mores, now in college. are ready for
retirement from teaching, ADEQUATE
pensions will in all probability be pro-
vided for them.
Provisioning is becoming an eco-
nomic necessity. Men must see that
their future is provided for, and public
servants must either be paid salaries
such that they can lay up an endow
ment sufficient to support them in old
age or the support must be provided /
by the state. The latter is the easier
plan. and. as have said. is now on it's |
way.
Taken altogether. there are a great |
many men whom l should not advise |
TO become teachers, but those who are
reasonably good students, who like !
books and people. and particularly
young people. and who prefer the GER
tainty of salary check to the vicissi- /
tudes of business, will make no mis- |