Milford chronicle., 1952-04-04
Guidance Corner
BEING A Teacher

When in your Senior Year you
think about teaching as a career,
you may conclude that you already
know enough about the nature Of
teaching to make an intelligent
choice as to whether or not you
ought to be a teacher. Surely it
must be admitted that you know
more about teaching than you do
about the law, the ministry, or en-
gineering, for haven't you ObserV-
ed teachers at close hand nearly
every day for the past twelve
years? But in spite of this close
ness to the life of the teacher you
were never quite mature enough
and aware enough to be a care
full judge about what rewards go
hand in hand with the teachers
daily routine, or what went on be-
hind the scenes, or even what kind
of qualities are necessary for good
teaching. You measured teaching,
in short, from the pupils point of
view. Now let's look at it from the
teachers angle
Traits Necessary
If you look at it from this stand
point, you can check up on your
self much better to see whether
you have the makings-the tenn
permanent and the ability-Of a good
teacher. First, if you are a person
who likes to handles ideas, search
es constantly for new ideas, pitch
es into the give-and-take of ideas,
and particularly enjoys coming
upon new ideas through reading,
you can be said to have a trait very
necessary to good teaching. And if
you find yourself reading widely,
and then instantly seeking out
others to share with you what you
read. you are still more likely to
be good at teaching, and be happy
at it in the bargain.
If in addition you genuinely like
people and especially feel at home
talking in their presence. you have
a personality very much needed in
teaching youth. But you must be
more than one who just likes COM
pany; you must be adventurously
curious about why people act as
they do, tremendously concerned
about how human nature can be
changed so that you might hope to
encourage right conduct where
delinquency and weakness existed
before. You must therefore be a
kind of person who is patient and
willing to hear the worries, troubz
les, conflicts of a youth with a view
to guiding him. And it may mean
extra hours. For in these days
teaching is more than getting
across subject matter. Your pleas
ure comes in being able to help
young people develop and grow, in
broadening their horizon, and in en-
riching their lives. If this sounds
appealing, you ought to think
seriously of teaching as a life work
Are You A Leader!
But working with ideas and
changing character are not enough.
A mere love of books may cause
you to be awkward around people;
merely wanting to guide a person
may lead only to prying inside
people. You must be, in addition,
the kind of person pupils like to
/ be around. This means. as far as
teaching goes, that you must man
age a group of people in a situation
and get things done without antag-
Onizing them. Examine your own
personal relations to see whether
you ever accepted the chance to do
this sort of thing successfully in
high school or elsewhere. In other
words, are you somewhat of a lead
er? The best teacher, for instance,
is one who can control a group of
pupils in such a way that gradually
they learn to control themselves.
Would you like to try this kind of
human engineering called teach
ing for democracyR If so, you are
coming to the point where you have
the right to tell yourself that you
have what it takes to be teacher.
In general, if you become excited
over ideas, enjoy helping people
for their own sake, and are some
what of a leader you ought seri-
Ously to explore the further pOssi-
bilities Of becoming a teacher.
Plenty OF Openings
Incidentally, you may like to
know that by the time you graduate
from college and are ready to
teach, several million more young
sters will be in our nations
schools than are there now, requir-
ing over two hundred thousand ad-
ditiOnal teachers. Whatever the
condition of the other professions
in 1856, we can say with certainty
that in a few years there will be a
teacher shortage, and that as con-
sequence you will have no trouble
procuring a position.
"a Guidance Message to Seniors,
| \