One Thousand Ways to Make a Living; or, An Encyclopædia of Plans to Make Money
4. Positions in normal schools, colleges, and universities.
2045 words | Chapter 350
The greater part of the teaching in the elementary schools is in the
hands of women, and much of it should continue in their hands since they
are better suited than men to teach the lower grades. But children,
especially in the upper grades, should come in contact not only with
women, but with some men as well. More teaching in these grades,
therefore, will doubtless in the future be put into the hands of men.
In the rural schools, except where schools have been consolidated, a
teacher usually teaches all subjects in all eight grades, or in a number
of these grades. In city schools in the regular grade subjects, each
teacher generally handles one group of children, all of whom are in the
same grade. In the upper grades of the elementary schools in cities,
particularly in grades 7 and 8, each teacher generally teaches one
subject, and teaches that subject to different groups of children in
different grades. Under these conditions the teacher has opportunity to
specialize along the line of his choice. One may specialize in the
regular old line school subjects, such as history, reading, arithmetic,
writing, and geography, or in the newer subjects, such as music, art,
and agriculture. Art teaching offers an attractive field. So do
agriculture, woodwork, foundry, forging, sheet-metal work, concrete
construction, simple electrical construction and wiring, printing, shoe
repairing, and mechanical drawing. Except in the largest cities, the
teachers of industrial art subjects are usually called upon to teach two
or three such subjects. One’s preparation for the teaching of these
industrial art subjects should include first, a knowledge of the shop
side of these lines of work; second, some knowledge of the everyday
problems of industrial production, distribution, and consumption; and
third, some knowledge of the method of teaching.
PLAN No. 1102. MEN TEACHERS NEEDED
Men who have strong sympathies with children, who have seen life outside
of their own town, State, or country, who, like our soldiers returning
from the front, have faced death with as much bravery as they have faced
life, such men know what it means to overcome difficulties, and the
experience and ideals of such men are needed for the proper education of
our youth. The influence of such characters should be felt before the
close of the elementary school, which is the most important part of any
educational system, the foundation on which higher education is based,
and which, therefore, offers a field not unworthy the finest type of
soldier.
There is a growing demand for men teachers in the best high schools and
normal schools, and this demand is likely to increase as the result of
the war, which has shown more clearly the need of the influence of men
in our secondary schools and which has drawn many women into industrial
occupations that were formerly closed to them.
This demand for men teachers is especially noticeable in the special
subjects in high schools, and it is growing even in the regular
subjects. Even in English, which has been taught pretty largely in the
past by women, there is a growing feeling that more men should be
employed. Heretofore, men fitted by nature and training for teaching
English in the high schools have generally gone into journalism or
magazine writing.
In the teaching of mathematics in high schools, applications rather than
pure theory are being more and more emphasized. Here men generally have
a wider range of information and experience than women, so that the
teaching of mathematics in high schools should offer increasing
opportunities to returned service men.
The method of teaching history, too, is gradually changing, so that it
is more attractive to men than formerly. Particularly attractive should
it be to returned soldiers and sailors, who have had such an important
part in making history during recent months.
The teaching of modern languages is tending to open up somewhat to men.
There will be a growing demand for teachers of French and Spanish, and
this demand can not readily be filled satisfactorily for some time to
come. It should open up good opportunities, therefore, to returned
soldiers and sailors. French has been neglected in American secondary
schools, particularly in the central and far West. Spanish, until a very
few years ago, was almost unknown in high-school courses. Recently it
has been introduced rapidly. It is not certain, of course, yet that it
will continue to develop under normal conditions, but it is certain that
South American trade will grow faster after the war, and this fact
should encourage the spread of the study of Spanish.
In the past we have made the mistake of leaving the teaching of foreign
languages too much to teachers native to the countries whose language
they teach. In the future we shall be careful not to make the mistake
that we made in the teaching of German. We shall put the teaching of
foreign languages more largely into the hands of American-born teachers.
We can scarcely do better than to intrust such work to the care of
returned soldiers and sailors who equip themselves for this task.
There has long been a great demand for well-prepared men teachers in
sciences in the high schools. The chances for men in these subjects in
the future are likely to be better than they have been in the past. Many
men with scientific training will return from the war with disabilities
unfitting them for their former occupation, and to such the field of
science teaching may seem very promising. Opportunities will be
especially good for men who have been trained in scientific or technical
colleges, which include in their curricula the sciences usually taught
in high schools.
For more advanced high-school work in industrial arts in the large high
schools, men are needed who can teach one of the branches of industry
intensively, giving their whole time to such subjects as wood-working,
metal working, printing, or mechanical drawing. A man who is a
journeyman workman in any industry already has most of the training
necessary for this line of teaching. Men teachers are needed also to
teach some of the regular school subjects from the industrial point of
view. For instance, there is occasionally need for men to teach shop
mathematics or the sciences concerned in the industry, but they should
be familiar with shop work and shop problems in order to make their work
fit into the needs of the shop courses.
There are opportunities also in the field of teaching vocations.
Positions are rapidly opening up in public all-day, part-time, and
evening vocational schools; also in apprentice schools conducted by
business establishments.
Opportunities for teaching positions in this work range from permanent
employment on the staff of a school or college to temporary employment
in conducting evening courses for a number of weeks. Many institutions
of all grades conduct full-time day courses, and also conduct special,
part-time or evening courses, at certain times in the year. Thus
opportunities are open either for full-time or part-time employment. In
industrial cities where evening industrial and commercial courses are
conducted there is often an opportunity for a man to secure a position
as instructor. He can do this instructing and retain his day employment.
Usually there is more demand for agricultural training in the
agricultural and thinly settled States, and for trade and industrial
training in the cities of the industrial States, though both forms of
training are carried on to some degree in practically all the States. In
any part of the country a prospective trade instructor is more likely to
find opportunity in the larger cities.
PROMOTION
Teaching positions in colleges and universities pay more money, of
course, than those in high schools. It is equally true that instructors
in high schools are paid more money than those in elementary schools.
This difference in salary is largely because of the greater amount of
training required for the better paying positions.
In general, high-school teachers, for example, must have pursued an
educational course at least four years in advance of the grade of the
subject which they teach in the high school. This means graduation from
a college, or what is commonly called the A. B. degree. The standards in
most colleges have been raised so much the last few years that one must
have at least two years of education in the college subject which he
expects to teach, beyond the four years’ work of the college. This means
at least the master’s degree and, in many institutions, the doctor’s
degree.
Any young man ambitious to become a college instructor should recognize
that his chances of success in the work are very poor unless he is able
in some way to secure the proper preparation. In many cases this is done
by graduating from a normal school to teach in elementary schools.
Later, by saving his money, the teacher is able to complete an A. B.
degree, which makes him eligible for desirable teaching positions in
high schools.
A third step for the ambitious man is that the second return to a
college or university for the purpose of securing specialized training
which entitles him to the master’s or doctor’s degree. He is then
eligible for desirable college and university positions.
Any man interested in education as a profession should, therefore, take
stock of his native ability, his interest in the profession, his present
educational qualifications, the grade of position to which he aspires,
and the amount of sacrifice he is willing to make to meet its
requirements.
After a few years’ experience in actual teaching one may qualify for a
supervisory position or an administrative position. There are many
positions of this character. There are positions as supervisor of art,
music, drawing, physical training, manual training, agriculture, etc.,
in the grades and in the high schools. There are supervisors also of
certain grades, like supervisors in the primary grades, the intermediate
grades and the upper grades. Men can very well do this supervisory work
in the intermediate and especially in the upper grades. Sometimes one
supervises the teaching of all subjects in a group of buildings. On the
administrative side there are opportunities as principals of buildings.
Sometimes the work of the principal is wholly that of administration.
Sometimes it combines with the administrative work, the work of
supervising actual teaching. From principalships and supervising
positions one may pass on to the position of superintendent.
A young man of ability and ambition with the proper training can
reasonably hope to become principal of a large building, or
superintendent of a fairly good sized school system, if he is willing to
pay the price of hard work for 12 to 15 years.
Administrative positions on the strictly business side of schools, such
as superintendent of buildings, or of supplies, are open to men of
course, who have not had teaching experience at all. Generally, however,
these positions are filled by men who know something of the teaching
problem itself. More and more there is a tendency to bring the business
administration and education administration nearer together.
In the future, therefore, promotions even in the business field of
school work will doubtless take place more and more through the avenue
of the educational field. In both of these fields, the business and the
educational administration of school work, there is a distinct future
for fine vigorous men, who have the power of arranging their thoughts
and facts in an orderly way when they are taking up matters for
discussion with their associates.
The soldier who enters the field of education has a far wider horizon,
and therefore a better opportunity for promotion, than one equally well
equipped in other respects who has not borne arms.
ESSENTIALS OF THE IDEAL TEACHER
It is difficult to judge in advance one’s fitness for teaching. Probably
the biggest single element determining success is love for children or
for youth. If a man can play with them with pleasure, he has a pretty
strong evidence of an understanding of child nature that will be helpful
to him in teaching.
Prof. George Herbert Palmer, in his monograph “The Ideal Teacher,” says
that there are four essentials of the successful ideal teacher. These
may be briefly indicated as follows:
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