educational

EDITED BY HENRY SUZZALLO

PROFESSOR OF THE PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION TEACHERS COLLEGE, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY

TRADES AND PROFESSIONS

BY

GEORGE HERBERT PALMER

PROFESSOR OF PHILOSOPHY EMERITUS IN HARVARD UNIVERSITY

HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY

BOSTON, NEW YORK AND CHICAGO

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CAMBRIDGE . MASSACHUSETTS V . S . A

CONTENTS

EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION v

TRADES AND PROFESSIONS .... 3

OUTLINE 35

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EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION

THE teachers of the public schools perform their work with high-minded intention. It matters little what motives led them, as youths of nine- teen or twenty, to enter the teaching service of the State; once enrolled, they go about their busi- ness with devotion. The need to earn a living, the pride of economic independence, or the de- sire to follow a socially respectable occupation, may have brought them to the door of the school- house, but once inside they are firmly gripped by the ideals of the teaching service. There is something in the contact with childhood, some- thing in the miracle of human growth, something in the transformation of the children of all the world into American citizens, which soon inter- ests the newest recruit at teaching, and enlists him for the full and willing sacrifice that the pub- lic school service demands. It is for this reason that one can say that the half-million teachers of the United States are its most devoted public v

EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION

servants. No other large group of public em- ployees can match the average of fine conscience with which they do their work.

Yet in spite of our ungrudging praise of the idealism of teachers, the public is not completely pleased with the schools and their products. Indeed, it must be said that the teachers them- selves are far from being satisfied with their own service. Everywhere there are evidences of new protests and aspirations in the teaching profes- sions. The teachers in the grades unite to gain a higher wage, to establish annuities for old age, or to add stability to tenure; they plead for the right to exercise initiative and discretion in the management of their own classrooms, and ask to be heard in the general councils of the school department. The supervisory officials, too, ask for an expert status that will allow them to meet with a freer will the difficulties of school organ- ization and administration; they survey the community in order to register accurately its needs and demands, and measure with scientifi- cally derived standards the worth of teaching. Somehow, in the face of all these disturbances, vi

EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION

agitations,, and gropings, professional high- mindedness and the eagerness to serve seem not of themselves adequate. Professional discussion reveals a thousand attempts to meet the diffi- culties of which the teachers and superintendents are now for the first time aware.

In such a situation, the need is for a body of guiding principles. We ought to know what society requires of the school. That is initial. We ought, too, to have a sympathetic apprecia- tion of boys and girls. Without personal con- sideration, no high work is done with humans. But we require finally a clear sense of the nature of our own workmanship, not merely as to its technique, but also as to its spirit. To compre- hend the spirit with which the work of teaching must be done is to pave the way for growing sanely. The clear analysis and definition of pro- fessional life which this volume presents will be of unending worth to those who would carry fundamental values and a far-reaching perspec- tive into their professional thought.

There are some particular things that are of special pertinence to our present educational vii

EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION

situation. At the very outset, we need, once and for all, to perceive the true relation between social service and monetary remuneration hi profes- sional work. In spite of an impression to the contrary, it is really quite difficult to unify the teachers hi a propaganda expressed hi money terms. The profession has many austere ideal- ists who hold that a profession of teaching ought not of itself to lay any stress on money pay. Being ascetics they are quiet about their views, and are discoverable only through the fact that they will not cooperate hi the fiscal program of reformers. These need to see their own half- truth beside the other; to see that, while money can be no major end of teaching, it is a necessity ennobled by its proper use as means. There is among us another group, those who have felt with overkeenness the pinch of cultural poverty caused by slender financial means, or who have felt their neighbors' low esteem for the teaching wage. These make paramount the professional policies that look to improvement hi the fiscal status of teachers, omitting or underemphasiz- ing issues that touch superior teaching service, viii

EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION

This group needs to understand that the con- certed attempt to federate groups of teachers with trade unions is merely an effort to depro- f essionalize teaching without rendering any sub- stantial assistance to labor.

It would also be a considerable gain if all edu- cational officials could really be convinced that there is a coincidence of interest among all hu- man factors working hi the school situation. What the public desires in the schools, the schoolmen really wish to give; what the teachers request to make classroom service congenial is really the best way to gain what the superintendents, in the last analysis, demand. A few cases will illustrate the thought. What the public calls the "lock-step" in the schools is exactly what the teacher dreads as destructive of his own initia- tive — the centralized, uniform, and rigid super- vision from above. The superintendent, in his haste to get the final product, teaching, fails to see that teachers, facing varying conditions, must use differing means. Again, is not the poverty, which teachers feel they can no longer endure, merely then- own recognition of the fact that they iz

EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION

cannot participate in human institutions with that degree of fullness and fineness required to develop the cultural richness of personality which parents wish in the teachers of their chil- dren? Could parents really see this coincidence of interest would they not be more deeply in- terested in the teacher's salary? Is not the super- intendent's craving for an expert status merely his aspiration to render that efficiency which the public is always demanding in its more criti- cal moments? The interests of every human unit in the teaching profession are, in the long run, coincident with those of every other. The well- being of the teaching profession as a whole is one with that of the public. Fortunate we shall be if this is clearly perceived, for then we shall have two roads to every journey's end, and many hands to carry the burdens.

Finally, it will be a great advantage to teachers if they will realize how impotent they are when working in isolation from all their profession knows and does from day to day. Tune was when teachers might gather together the best that their colleagues had done, and go to their classrooms

EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION

fairly certain that they were on the highway of progress. This can be true no more. We are far removed from the simple and undifferen- tiated tasks of the teacher in the one-room coun- try school. We have evolved great systems of education with expanded and complicated re- sponsibilities, which become specialized assign- ments to different groups of persons. Under existing conditions the need of correlation has outstripped the teacher's capacity for spontane- ous cooperation. Something far-reaching and deliberate must be employed to keep teachers working together in the fulfillment of the en- larged plan.

Many of the difficulties which now confront the teaching profession arise from the fact that the specialized functionaries of the schools have little appreciation of each other, and therefore offer little mutual support. The administrator, engrossed with the mechanisms for easy school management, loses his grip on teaching conditions and begins to obstruct the teaching function for which the schools were devised. The teacher, on his side, forgets the contribution of the super- xi

EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION

intendent, who has relieved him of the daily need to face public criticism and to work with a scant school tax. Thus the classroom instructor grows indifferent to the consequences of good and bad school legislation, organization, and administration; and loses his impulse to aid the executive leaders of the profession, who strive to improve the fundamental backgrounds of the teacher's work. Instances of similar professional isolation might be cited in large number. These suffice to illustrate the point at hand. We cannot be members of a single profession until we have common appreciations of educational problems and common modes of cooperating toward the solution of the same. Without unity of under- standing and action we are merely members of so many different groups of specialists who feel only a slender common concern with schools.

The educational profession as a whole must soon grasp the principle that cooperation is in- creasingly necessary as the tasks within schools become more specialized. Where men contribute only parts, there is the constant practical de- mand to provide a continuous process of assem-

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EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION

bling. It must be frankly admitted that the teaching profession is weakest to-day on the corporate side. Its units are devoted and unself- ish men and women. In spite of every wrong condition, they are fascinated by their work and would not be happy elsewhere. The joy of their social servantship is more to them than riches. They eagerly seek the enlargement of then: own powers. But an aggregation of fine-souled teach- ers does not make a profession, — at least not a profession adequate to meet current responsi- bilities. In a sense the most important and in- clusive truth presented in the masterly essay which follows is the one which insists that we shall find "that superiority to our own detached selves, which comes only through whole-hearted loyalty to a profession."^,

TRADES AND PROFESSIONS

TRADES AND PROFESSIONS1

WHAT is a profession, and how does it differ from a trade? We teachers pride ourselves on being professional people and altogether repudiate the notion that we are mere tradesmen. But do we quite understand what we mean by the distinc- tion? It is important we should. A clear under- standing of it will, I believe, deliver us from some of the petty hardships of our work or even cany us on through these to discover its exceeding glory.

The subject is one unfitted for oratory. Re- sounding sentences and uplifting appeals do not belong here. In this discussion we are to deal with delicate matters, difficult to trace, matters which oblige me to call on you for strenuous and con- tinuous attention and on myself for the plainest possible speech. Perhaps I shall most easily lead you to comprehend the subtle though weighty

1 An address delivered before the University of the State of New York at its fiftieth annual convocation in Albany, October 22, 1914.

TRADES AND PROFESSIONS

distinction if I bring you to it in much the same way in which I originally came upon it myself.

Years ago as a young man I spent a winter in Italy and fell seriously ill. An Italian physician was called. I became warmly attached to him, admired his skill, and at length was able to say to my nurse, "He has actually cured me. The next time he comes I am going to tell him so and ask for his bill." She drew back with horror, "Oh, you would not insult the kind gentleman." "Insult him? No, indeed," I said. "Only express my gratitude and discharge my obligation." "But," she persisted, "he is not a tradesman. He makes no charge. He does not work for money, and you must not let it appear as if he did." "Still," I argued, "he has his living to earn. Does he not accept fees from his patients? " "Certainly, certainly," she said, "and of course you will offer him something to show you are grateful, a gratuity. But he could not make out a bill." All this you will understand occurred a great many years ago.

It set me thinking. I wondered if there was any similar sensitiveness in other professions. Then 4

TRADES AND PROFESSIONS

I remembered how in ancient times when teach- ing first arose and bands of wandering scholars called "sophists" or "wise" men sought to en- lighten the Greek youth, particularly at Athens, they were denounced by Socrates, Plato, Xeno- phon, and other high-minded men on a charge not merely of misleading the young, but of being so depraved as to ask money for instruction. They actually took pay for teaching, as if truth were a possession of theirs which they could peddle out and on which they could set a market price. What impiety! said Socrates and Plato. Even in our time, I find traces of this horror of the professional man's seeking pay. It is bad form for a lawyer or a doctor to advertise. Ad- vertising generally raises one's income. But that is the reason why it lowers a man's professional standing. Professional men should not be look- ing after profits, announcing themselves traders. The wares of doctors and lawyers are not com- modities of the market. So, too, a while ago it was not uncommon for an author, if a sensitive soul, to decline payment for his books. The most popular poem in our language, Gray's "Elegy," 5

TRADES AND PROFESSIONS

was sent to the publisher, Dodsley, who eagerly accepted it and offered Gray a substantial sum. But Gray recoiled. Not at all. He had written it for no such purpose, and not a penny would he accept. Why, only within the last three years has there been payment of members of the English House of Commons. A long agitation and a radi- cal ministry were necessary to bring it about. In America to-day some of our most important public business is carried on by commissions of unpaid experts. Nor does the time-taking and responsible work of our boards of college trustees ever receive compensation.

We may say, then, that all down the ages, di- minishing, it is true, in degree, there has been a feeling that certain classes in the community should hold themselves aloof from pay. The trader seeks it, the professional man does not. I do not think this feeling regards money itself as foul, tainting the hand that touches it. The possession of it is generally counted honorable, even the open pursuit. He who enters business has no shame in announcing that he hopes to enrich himself; and if he acquires riches without trickery, he commands 6

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respect. It is true we often hear laboring-men clamor against those who possess money; but so far are the clamorers from objecting to money that they complain that they do not receive a sufficient share. Indeed, one who enters business with any other aim than that of making money is apt to be condemned. I have repeatedly heard it called unfair for a lady of means to become a mil- liner or to take orders for delicate embroidery. She is popularly thought to have no right in the ranks of trade unless she needs money. Against entering to obtain this there is no objection. On the other hand, though a professional man must not aim at money, he is expected to reach a cer- tain competence, and probably the incomes of the professional and commercial classes do not on the whole greatly differ. Where, then, lies the curious contrast between the two, and how can a moneyed line be traced along the gulf that parts them?

Reflecting on the puzzle, I come to this conclu- sion: the professional man expects to receive money, and ordinarily feels that he receives too little. Money, however, enters his life in a dif- 7

TRADES AND PROFESSIONS

ferent way and for a different end. He does not, for example, do "piece work," as we may say, so much for so much. How awkward it would be if he did! I summon a doctor to my bedside; and after he has worked over me a while he says, "My fee is two dollars. I believe I have given you about two dollars' worth of attention and will leave." Or the minister says, "My sal- ary is but eight hundred dollars. So I have written sermons of an eight hundred dollar qual- ity. Do not expect better ones till next year, when my salary rises." Or if you teachers come upon some exceptional pupil whose ambition out- runs his class, do you draw back and say, "I was paid only for ordinary pupils and cannot attend to your demands? For a dollar extra I would gladly push you onwards." If any of these three professionals should speak so, we should be sure they did not understand their calling. Yet exactly in this way the tradesman should speak. When I buy cloth of him and he finds he has given me two yards and a half instead of two yards, neither of us is shocked at his say- ing, "Well, I must charge you fifty cents more for

TRADES AND PROFESSIONS

that." He assesses his payment by the piece, as a proportional affair. That is not the case in the professions.

How, then, in them is money given or received at all, if it is not to be regarded as payment for goods rendered? It is seen that the professional man must live while doing work which is mani- festly of value to the public, and accordingly a stipend, fee, honorarium, or salary is provided to cover the expenses of that mode of life which is thought appropriate for him; the kind of life and the consequent scale of salary being de- signed to secure three essential elements in his work, namely, freedom, efficiency, and dignity. These elements, and not money, are what the professional man and his public regard. In com- parison with them money is only incidental and auxiliary. So long as he has a due degree of free- dom, is able to work with full efficiency, and can maintain the dignity which his calling demands, his mind is discharged from monetary considera- tions.

But because the public is niggardly, or perhaps unskilled in reckoning what these essentials of 9

TRADES AND PROFESSIONS

professional work require, the professional mind is in fact continually distracted with thoughts of money, and necessarily so; for while money is only a condition of matters more important than itself, it is a conditio sintfqua non. A teacher with no money in his pocket cannot be free. If he is not sure whether he can pay his board bill next week, he will be pinched by that anxiety in the classroom, and his work will suffer. He cannot teach well with a divided mind. Through a com- petent income his thoughts should be left free to fasten on his teaching rather than on his purse. Worry dulls; dulls one who for his pupils' sake should be kept abounding and free. To preserve his highest efficiency a teacher should be able from time to time to escape from work, move about in other fields, become a simple human being, and accept the fervent interests of all mankind as his own: that is, he needs occasional vacations and sabbatical years; needs books, recreation, society, all in the interest of highest efficiency. Whatever of these is poured into him will come out as enrichment for his pupils. Yet all these things require money.

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TRADES AND PROFESSIONS

A certain dignity, too, is proper for those who work in the public service, and toward this money helps. We sometimes imagine that to influence our pupils most we should put ourselves on their level and be hail-fellow-well-met with them. Certainly we should be affable, ever showing a friendly spirit and keeping access between them and us constantly open. But, after all, ennobling influence comes chiefly from above. We must look up to one who is to form our ideals, and no one of easy familiarity will ever be of the same consequence as one who commands our respect through being a little removed from us. Now there is danger that the dignity which belongs to our calling, that dignity by which we are to exalt our pupils, may be damaged if we come before them in seedy coats, battered hats, and evidently medi- tating how we are to obtain our living. That is not a dignified attitude. Rightly, therefore, do we who have knowledge and the young in our keeping demand a salary that will insure our freedom, efficiency, and dignity. And what I have said of "our" profession is, I believe, applicable, with fitting adjustments, to the other professions. ii

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All need money, often large sums, as what I may call a negative condition of their work. It is not their primary aim, but without it that aim can- not be reached.

As I look over the ranks of teachers I find that for the most part they are working on a scale of salary which is uneconomical for the community, because restrictive of then: freedom, efficiency, and dignity. A few years ago I visited nine of the Western colleges, took a small part in their in- struction, and so became tolerably acquainted with then: inner organization. In few of them was the salary of the full professor above two thousand dollars. In several that of the president was but twenty-five hundred dollars, and in one the presi- dent, receiving a salary of twenty-five hundred dollars, paid back to the trustees six hundred dollars for his house. On such incomes teachers cannot do their best work. We expect, properly expect, that our calling shall not expose us to poverty. A result much better than that we cannot anticipate. No one should devote him- self to teaching with any other thought than that his life will never rise considerably above the

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edge of want. But I think we may fairly claim, in the interest of the public as well as of ourselves, that our salaries shall not sink below that edge, and that there may even be a few prizes offered above it.

Fortunately the justice of this claim is now more generally felt, and college presidents are everywhere attempting to raise funds for the in- crease of salaries. These they now perceive to be more effective than buildings hi drawing students, fashioning them to manhood, and winning honor for the institution that trained them. Whether, therefore, we care for money or scorn it, we ought in the interest of education to use our utmost in- fluence toward raising the salaries of teachers. In some other professions I suspect similar condi- tions prevail.

Hitherto I have spoken only of the negative conditions of our work, the conditions of freedom, efficiency, and dignity, without which it becomes impossible. But let these all be present, positive interests attracting us to our work will still be needed. What, then, are these positive induce- ments to a professional life which distinguish it 13

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from the commercial? They are many, but let us confine our attention to-day to the three prin- cipal ones. I understand that we become profes- sional men, and especially teachers, — for I regard teaching as the greatest of the professions, — be- cause we wish to exercise our powers, with a view to benefiting the community, and in loyalty to a growing brotherhood. These three controlling purposes, however darkly expressed here, set a sharp contrast between the mental attitudes of the professional and the commercial man. The attainment of them is the one reward he seeks. All other payment is merely collateral. Let me say a few words hi regard to each.

Strictly speaking, every sound professional man, every sound teacher at least, is engaged in his work for the fun of the thing. I became a teacher because on the whole I liked this better than anything else. It suited me, and it has suited me better the longer I have taught. Sometimes I think I should hardly care to live if I were not a teacher. From my height of teaching I look down on other struggling mortals, busy with their in- ferior interests, and I do not think much of them.

TRADES AND PROFESSIONS

Many years ago I wrote that Harvard College pays me for doing what I would gladly pay it for allowing me to do. And this was only a vivacious statement of the general principle that the com- pensation of the professional man is measured by his inner outgo and not like the tradesman's by his external income. Conscious of our powers, we see in some profession an opportunity to exer- cise them, and to it we turn with an eagerness which gives zest to severe toil. So one becomes a painter because he wants to paint, a scientific man because he wants to know, a teacher be- cause he wants to practice his delicate art of impartation. Such are the fundamental desires of good professionalism. The notion of benefit- ing somebody comes afterwards. Primarily we are moved by the feeling in our bones that we were made to do just this thing. In all that is worthy, a belief in predestination attends the best results. " To this end was I born and for this cause came I into the world," said the greatest of teachers.

Some candid teacher may reply, "Yes, I recog- nize something of that sort in myself, but you ex- 15

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aggerate. Often it is not in me, sometimes I even feel bored. Again and again I wish I were out of teaching and in some other profession." I must sadly acknowledge that this is the way with us all. We fluctuate, and find our work first-rate only in those blessed seasons when the passion for it is upon us. But determination can lengthen these seasons and make them more secure. Al- most everything on which we put our mind, studying it long enough to explore its interior, will disclose its attractions. The trouble is the moment we begin to feel uncertain whether we care for our profession and detect in it that irksomeness which every noble work contains, we are apt to turn our attention away and seek relief elsewhere. But permanent relief can be had only by turning right toward our job, finding out all that it con- tains, discovering its fresh possibilities, seeing how many sides of us have not yet gone into it, and letting it draw on us for all it will. The teacher like everybody else, must learn to distinguish between his moods and his predominant aims, and hold himself believingly to the latter through all the vagaries of the former. Our times of suc- 16

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cess are alone trustworthy, revealing as they do our capacities and the joyous fitness which may be brought about between them and our work. Expression of ourselves cannot be had in an in- stant. It is an affair of time and growth, though a half-blind consciousness of the direction in which it may be found is what prompts the first step toward it.

But how different from this professional attitude is his who works for pay! With him the activity is merely instrumental, money the object. With the professional man money is instrumental, the employment of his powers the ami. Something disagreeable needs to be done. It is nothing I care to do. But doing it is less disagreeable than going longer without money. I accordingly undertake it, receive the specified payment, and am content. A large part of the work of the world is of this kind. The laborer goes to his factory, his gravel- pit, his shop, not ordinarily, I suppose, because he finds there the form of exercise, the type of interest, which engages him most. He must have a breakfast to-morrow. Very well, he will endure this toil in order to eat that breakfast. A pro-

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fession, on the other hand, if rightly entered, is no obnoxious but a glad affair, being the channel through which what is best in us is provided a natural outgo. The work itself is our reward, for each day in it we gain a little greater mastery of ourselves. All we need is to be supported while at work. Pay is desirable. So much, at least, as shall give fullest freedom, steady efficiency, and that honor which should ever accompany excel- lence. But money is not the main thing. What we are thinking of is the chance afforded to do what we are best fitted to do. £ Still, nothing in the world is good which is not socialized. No one can live for himself with per- manent satisfaction. If as a teacher I seek merely to exercise my own powers, heedless of my stu- dents, my powers will not be exercised. Regard for another is a factor in the regard for self. The two cannot be divorced. When we attempt it, each perishes.

So I was obliged to specify a second aim of the

professions as benefit to the community. Need,

want, suffering, are all around me, and, full of

pity, I dedicate myself to bringing about better

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conditions. All the professions have this redemp- tive character. The minister finds men belittled by sin, and persuasively proclaims the infinite mercy of God and his readiness to lead whoever trusts him into abounding life. The doctor is dis- tressed over our aching bodies, and would relieve them of their pains. The lawyer — the upright lawyer — perceives the tangle in which justice is apt to present itself, and sets himself to find the straight path and to protect those who walk in it. And we teachers, seeing the misery which attends a lack of knowledge, make it our business to war with ignorance and to furnish the aspiring young with that knowledge which opens to them happy and powerful lives. The scientific man and the artist are redeemers too, in their several modes. No less than we they would save mankind from a low order of living. This passion of redemption should fill us teachers and make us insist that whatever benefits we receive in our work shall never be sundered from those which we bestow. And since throughout the professions our own gams from practice go hand in hand with the gains of him whom we would redeem, we should 19

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be foolish to guard our giving, restricting it by fixed measure, so much for so much, as do trades- men. They part with precious goods and justly claim compensation for their loss. We have no other merchandise than ourselves. The more of this people will take, the better we like it. Let my students, then, use me to the full. I shall incur no loss. By their demands I get the very chance I want. When at the close of the prescribed hour my pupils crowd about my desk, asking for fur- ther explanation and disposed to develop the subject of my lecture, I am pleased. And if I see that these pupils are accepting my guidance, adopting the ideals which I have formed for my- self, and trying to adapt them to their less ma- ture lives, I feel myself rewarded. In our work altruistic and egoistic profits coincide.

There is always danger that the public mind will become confused on this point and assume without reflection that the methods applicable in the professional and commercial spheres are the same. Under the delusive call of the half-under- stood word "efficiency," a kind of epidemic swept over the educational world a few years ago. 20

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Teachers were ordered to fill out blanks reporting the detailed amounts of their work, with a view to adjusting salaries accordingly. In this reckon- ing quantity was to be every thing; quality did not count. How many hours did we teach? How much time was given to preparing a lecture? How much to administration? How much to reading written exercises? How much to meet- ings with students? Now it is evident that if we are engaged on "piece work" and are to be paid so much for so much, these inquiries are of first consequence. They are precisely those which every sensible merchant makes of his employees. But it is equally evident that any teacher willing or even able to answer such questions demonstrates his unfitness for his place. When preparing a lec- ture shall I keep my eye on the watch and pause when it shows the amount of time I am paid for? Or shall I, through my interest in the subject, press on exploring it, regardless of time spent. When a student brings me his perplexities shall I answer those only which can be included in the compensated quarter-hour? There is no surer way of degrading our profession than to put it

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under mercantile rules. A teacher should be chosen on grounds of scholarship, experience, and professional spirit, and then be trusted. Inspection and measurement check his inclina- tion to say to his pupils, "Here am I. Take me. For your sakes I am here. Take all of me you want."

But besides the desire of the professional man to exercise his powers and so to realize him- self in his work, besides his wish to seek out the needy and supply their wants from his own abun- dance, — besides the inevitable blending of these two aims, — I mentioned a third, but expressed it in rather enigmatic terms. I said that every professional man lived in loyalty to a growing brotherhood. This phase I must now explain.

It is significant that we do not say "a pro- fessional." Even the word "professor" takes on a special meaning and indicates a certain aca- demic rank. Our common term is "a member of a profession," plainly indicating that he who de- serves to be called such is no longer a merely in- dividual person. He has merged his individuality with that of others and now belongs to a troop,

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a company, a brotherhood who possess a com- mon stock of knowledge, common purposes, common standards, which are continually grow- ing and to which each member of the brother- hood is expected to conform and contribute. To the criticized maintenance and advancement of this brotherhood all else is subordinated. You, for example, are here to-day because as members of the teaching profession you know you cannot do your work well out of your own heads. To a large degree you are dependent on those who are teachers already. Knowledge of our beautiful art has been accumulating from generation to genera- tion and now furnishes the common stock from which we all draw. Accordingly we write books about teaching, establish educational journals, hold assemblies like this, and coming together report what each has discovered to increase the power of our common calling. Each speaks here not of "my" profession, but of "our" pro- fession, and labors to advance rather it than himself.

Notice, for example, how medicine has ad- vanced in our time. Each physician is alert for 23

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discovery. Continually engaged in research, he considers that whatever he learns does not be- long to him, but must be reported at once in the medical journals and be at the disposal of all. If a physician attempts to lock a discovery up to himself by patenting, we look askance at him, count him not quite professional, and declare that he does not understand the loyalty due to his colleagues. Just so is it with the minister, the artist, the scientific man, with all indeed who engage in professional work. Each draws from a common stock of accumulated knowledge and ideals, and feels an obligation to contribute to that common stock. Even the professional robber, whom we contrast with the amateur thief, gets his designation because we believe his evil in- genuity and daring are not all his own, but have been studied and formulated in a league of rascals.

This loyalty to a growing brotherhood, at least when its aims are worthy, exalts us and imparts to each a dignity which comes in no other way. There is a great saying of Goethe's, "Be a whole, or join a whole." The first half of it is a mere 24

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counsel of perfection which does not regard pos- sibilities. Few of us can be a whole. Can any one? We seem compelled to one-sidedness, obliged, in order to develop ourselves at all, to move strongly in certain directions though know- ing that we thus check other worthy aptitudes. It is, therefore, perpetually important to bear the second clause in mind, "Join a whole." Our blessed whole is the teaching profession. Joining that, my defects become comparatively unim- portant, being supplemented by the powers which you possess, which the other man possesses. Each of us may bring something from his own experi- ence and contribute it to the common stock of the teacher's art. In teaching there is no higher, no lower. It is all one. Everywhere the same ar- tistic conditions are to be met. And each of us, in proportion as we do our work wisely, is helping all others to do their work also.

And when the wholeness sought by an individ- ual is found in loyal identification of himself with the best tendencies of his profession, it is aston- ishing what dignity and power become his. The process is most easily traced in the case of the 25

TRADES AND PROFESSIONS

soldier. The loafer of the back street enlists, puts on the uniform, and goes forth a new man, compelling us to wonder how he can be so brave, so ready to risk his life for a cause. But do we not forget that it is not the individual man who is courageous? It is the member of a regiment, the wearer of a uniform, to whom the cause is precious. So it should be with us soldiers of knowledge. We are members of a growing brotherhood, and do not teach as solitary adventurers. We are not wise enough for that. It is through our profession that we are rendered stout, for from it we get and to it we give in indistinguishable degrees. Often we must say, "What is there that I have not received?" for through union with our fellow teachers we become powerful. Since, then, we cannot each be a whole, let us join a whole, and so attain that dignity, that superiority to our own detached selves, which comes only through whole-hearted loyalty to our profession.

Such, I conclude, are the fundamental differ- ences between the commercial life and the pro- fessional life. The man of commerce possesses something which it would pinch him to part with, 26

TRADES AND PROFESSIONS

or he is called on for work which is disagreeable to do. To make him a little better off than be- fore he claims compensation. The professional man, on the other hand, parts with nothing, he himself being his only merchandise, and the giv- ing of this rather increasing than diminishing his precious store. The work asked of him is that which he especially delights to do, all the more because it assists the needy and unites him with a body rich in tradition and progressive temper. It is easy to fall into error here and to imagine that the professional man is one who is busy with mental work, the non-professional with manual.

I But though the intellectual factor is usually larger in the professions, there are few of them | which do not Require much physical exertion and some a high degree of manual dexterity; while what is called manual labor continually suffers from a lack of the mental alertness which should be its regular attendant. No, the distinc- tion does not rest on a contrast in the kinds of work performed, but on a difference in the atti- tude of mind as regards compensation while per- forming that work. The kind of payment sought 27

TRADES AND PROFESSIONS

by the professional person is that which Tenny- son, in his little poem entitled "Wages," attrib- utes to the virtuous man everywhere: —

" Glory of warrior, glory of orator, glory of song, Paid with a voice flying by, to be lost on an endless sea — Glory of Virtue, to fight, to struggle, to right the wrong — Nay, but she aimed not at glory, no lover of glory she; Give her the glory of going on and still to be."

That is, the wages we clamor for, the glory of going on and still to be. And when, as so often happens, we must ask for an increase of salary, this is not meant to bring us more riches, fame, or even comfort. These were put aside when we became teachers. We want the means for bring- ing out our powers more fully, for rendering them more effective, and for enabling us to hold the dignified place in the community which our call- ing demands.

But there is one important part of my subject I have not touched yet. How many professions are there and what are their names? The great four which we ordinarily think of as types of all are preaching, teaching, medicine, and the law. Nowadays, too, we should probably include under 28

TRADES AND PROFESSIONS

medicine the admirable labors of the trained nurse, and perhaps be inclined to place as a kind of intermediary between the minister and the lawyer the philanthropist and publicist, as those who study the well-being of the community. But shall we not, then, be obliged to enlarge our list considerably, and include in it the entire field of science and art as peculiarly those in which the professional spirit is manifest? The painter who paints for the money his pictures will bring is no artist. He must paint for his own sake, because that is what he wants to do and with an under- standing of what has been done. Of course he must live, and he will be glad when one of his pic- tures brings him a large sum, for that will give him leisure to paint better still. Just so the scientific man joyfully explores unknown fields and makes a small contribution to his constantly growing science. If he ever comes to wealth, he will be equipped for pressing on farther. But, after all, he will feel, as Professor Agassiz once said, that he cannot afford the time to make money; he has more important business in hand than that. Such is the professional spirit in science and art, 29

raising the practitioner in these fields at least to the level of the doctor or minister.

But I suspect when we have made the number of professions so large, we shall begin to notice how within them a professional spirit appears in widely varying degrees. It seems more legitimate for the architect, the actor, or the novelist to look to his gains than it does for the poet or the doctor. Even the painter, bargaining over his picture, does not shock as does the minister who leaves a needy parish for a wealthy one. We warmly commend the professional man who is indifferent to monetary gam, considering only the enjoyment of his work, the benefit it brings to others, and his responsibility to his order. But we do not expect such indifference of all, ad- mitting that there are halfway houses between professionalism and commercialism, and that highly respectable trading-booths often stand on the same ground where artists dwell. Many men, and still more women, take up teaching for a brief season, not through any taste or fitness for it, but because they find in it the readiest means of support. They frequently work hard, 30

TRADES AND PROFESSIONS

are entirely frank in acknowledging their pur- pose, and should not be lightly condemned. Ne- cessity is laid pitiably upon them. Only let us not confuse them with what they are not. They are not representatives of our arduous profession. Excellence does not approach their classroom, and they are probably largely responsible for the low scale of salaries. As transient traders hi know- ledge, they compete with those who dedicate themselves professionally to teaching, and ap- pointing boards are not competent to distinguish those who want the salary from those who want the work.

On the other hand, we must have observed how many of those who are ostensibly merchants are moved by professional impulses. I know a man who has always kept a village store. Old now and somewhat infirm, he has been obliged to sell out his interest in the little establishment; but still he hobbles to the store every morning and goes through the familiar motions there. I do not think he makes money out of his atten- dance ; that is not what he wants. But he cannot be quite himself without shopkeeping. Americans 3*

TRADES AND PROFESSIONS

are said to be ever in pursuit of the dollar, and possibly this is true. But in an enormous number of cases it is the pursuit that is pursued and not the coin. In playing the game, playing it ingeni- ously, forcibly, honorably, beneficently, they find a fairer field for powers than in any other species of activity. Every one here knows happy merchants who have become accomplished gentlemen through their work, who have a high sense of public responsibility, study how to make their business help their city, and take the same pride in the quality of the goods they sell as you and I do in the way we conducted our last lesson. In spite of the newspapers, I find these men largely accepting' the third of our pro- fessional conditions and recognizing a growing brotherhood of trade. They believe hi right ways of conducting business, respect established stand- ards of trade, and will forfeit personal gain in order to conform to such standards. Between such tradesmen and members of a profession I cannot detect a difference.

On the whole, then, I am obliged to conclude that the kind of work we do does not make us 32

TRADES AND PROFESSIONS

professional men, but the spirit in which we do it. There is no fixed number of professions. One may be found anywhere, for professionalism is an attitude of mind. Wherever, outrunning the desire for personal profit, we find joy in work, eagerness for service, and a readiness for co- operative progress, there trade has been left behind and a profession entered.

We teachers should count ourselves more favor- ably circumstanced than most workers for ac- quiring this life-giving professional spirit. Wealth can hardly be said to be open to us, anything more than a bare living we renounce at the start. The difficulties of our marvelous art of thought- transference and the intimate relations we hold with a multitude of expanding and needy minds continually stimulate our interest and our altru- ism. So distinct, too, is our business, so sharply separating us from those for whom we work, and even from the rest of the community, that the sense of belonging to a consecrated brother- hood comes to us almost as a matter of course. Such an attitude of mind is no doubt more diffi- cult for those who work confusedly in the mis- 33

TRADES AND PROFESSIONS

cellaneous world. Yet may we not believe that our profession is prophetic and presents a type toward which all organized society moves? Surely when that Kingdom of Heaven for which we nightly pray is come, the mad scramble for per- sonal profit will cease to enslave us. Each man will contentedly accept his special task as that in which lies his best opportunity for personal expression. Every man, too, will be studying the needs of his neighbor as inseparable from his own, and will consequently cleave to that neigh- bor, sharing with him his inherited knowledge, his own experience, and his guiding ideals. In those happy days we shall esteem all men of good will as our professional brothers, regard- less of whether they are teachers, lawyers, scien- tists, or business men.

Believing as I do that teaching is a profession which thus illuminates all life, training us to sound method whatever we do, I warmly con- gratulate the members of this assembly on hav- ing found entrance to an occupation so glorious.

OUTLINE

1. The importance of the distinction between a pro- fession and a trade 3

2. Some examples of professional attitude ... 4

3. The feeling that certain classes should hold them- selves aloof from pay 6

4. The professional and the commercial attitudes toward pay 7

5. Professional remuneration is designed to secure three essential negative conditions of work . . 9

a. The lack of money deprives the mind of full freedom to teach 9

b. Inadequate remuneration interferes with the highest efficiency 10

c. Low pay damages the dignity which exalts . n

6. Teachers for the most part are working on a scale

of salary uneconomical for the community . .12

a. The salaries which teachers may fairly claim 12

b. The obligation to raise the salaries of teachers 13

7. The three positive inducements which distinguish professional from commercial life 13

a. The opportunity to exercise our dominant powers 14

(1) The enduring quality of joy in work . 15

(2) Activity is merely instrumental with the man who works for pay . . .17

35

OUTLINE

b. The chance to benefit somebody . . . . 18

(1) The redemptive character of all pro- fessions 18

(2) Altruistic and egoistic profits coin- cide in professional work . . . .19

(3) The fallacy in applying commercial measures to professional life ... 20

C. The power of professional membership . .22

(1) Each individual is merged in a loyal brotherhood 22

(2) Each draws from and contributes to a stock of common knowledge ... 23

(3) Each attains the dignity of being superior to his detached self . . .25

8. The distinction rests on a difference in the atti- tude of mind as regards compensation while per- forming work 26

9. The enlarging number of professions .... 28 10. The professional spirit appears in widely varying

degrees 30

i-i. Even commerce is moved by professional im- pulses 31

12. There is a profession wherever, outrunning the desire for personal profit, there is joy in work, eagerness for service, and a readiness for coopera- tive progress 32

13. The teaching profession presents a type toward which all organized society moves 33

"RIVERSIDE EDUCATIONAL MONOGRAPHS

GENERAL EDUCATIONAL THEORY

DETTBT'S MORAL PRINCIPLES IK EDUCATION 85

ELIOT'S EDUCATION FOR EFFICIENCY 80

ELIOT'S CONCRETE AND PRACTICAL IN MODERN EDUCATION 80

EMERSON'S EDUCATION 88

FISKE'S THE MEANING OF INFANCY M

HTDE'S THE TEACHER'S PHILOSOPHY 85

PALMEH'S THE IDEAL TEACHER 45

PALMER'S TRADES AND PROFESSIONS 35

FROSSER'S THE TEACHER AND OLD AGE 60

TERMAN'S THE TEACHER'S HEALTH 80

TiiOEXDiKE's INDIVIDUALITY 35

ADMINISTRATION AND SUPERVISION OF SCHOOLS

BBTTS'S NEW IDEALS IN RURAL SCHOOLS 60

BLOOMFIELD'S VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE OF YOUTH 60

CABOT'S VOLUNTEER HELP TO THE SCHOOLS 60

COLE'S INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS 30

CUBBERLEY'S CHANGING CONCEPTIONS OF EDUCATION SO

CUBBERLEY'S THE IMPROVEMENT OF RURAL SCHOOLS 80

LEWIS'S DEMOCRACY'S HIGH SCHOOL 60

PERRY'S STATUS OF THE TEACHER 80

SNEDDEN'S THE PROBLEM OF VOCATIONAL EDUCATION 30

TROWBRIDOE'S THE HOME SCHOOL 60

WEEK'S THE PEOPLE'S SCHOOL 60

METHODS OF TEACHING

BAILET'S ART EDUCATION 60

BETTS'S THE RECITATION 60

CAMPAONAC'S THE TEACHING OF COMPOSITION 80

COOLEY'S LANGUAGE TEACHING IN THE GRADES .85

DEWEY'S INTEREST AND EFFORT IN EDUCATION 60

EARHART'S TEACHING CHILDREN TO STUDY 60

EVANS'S THE TEACHING OF HIGH SCHOOL MATHEMATICS SB

FAIRCHILD'S THE TEACHING OF POETRY IN THE HIGH SCHOOL 60

FREEMAN'S THE TEACHING OF HANDWRITING 60

HALIBURTON AND SMITH'S TEACHING POETRY IN THE GRADES 60

HAKTWELL'S THE TEACHING OF HISTORY SB

HAYNKS'S ECONOMICS IN THE SECONDARY SCHOOL 60

HILL'S THE TEACHING OF CIVICS .60

KILPATRICK'S THE MONTESSORI SYSTEM EXAMINED 8B

PALMER'S ETHICAL AND MORAL INSTRUCTION IN THE SCHOOLS.. .85

^•PALMER'S SELF-CULTIVATION IN ENGLISH 80

SUZZALLO'S THE TEACHING OF PRIMARY ARITHMETIC 60

SozzALLO'g THE TEACHING OF SPELLING 60

1916

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