Craftsmanship in Teaching | Page 5

of the
spirited discussion that one of the Sunday papers started some years since on the
world-old query, "Is marriage a failure?" And some of the articles were fully as sickening
in their harrowing details as were some of the whining matrimonial confessions of the
latter series. But the point that I wish to make is this: your true craftsman in education
never stops to ask himself such questions. There are some men to whom schoolcraft is a
mistress. They love it, and their devotion is no make-believe, fashioned out of sentiment,
and donned for the purpose of hiding inefficiency or native indolence. They love it as
some men love Art, and others Business, and others War. They do not stop to ask the
reason why, to count the cost, or to care a fig what people think. They are properly
jealous of their special knowledge, gained through years of special study; they are justly
jealous of their special skill gained through years of discipline and training. They resent
the interference of laymen in matters purely professional. They resent such interference
as would a reputable physician, a reputable lawyer, a reputable engineer. They resent
officious patronage and "fussy" meddling. They resent all these things manfully,
vigorously. But your true craftsman will not whine. If the conditions under which he
works do not suit him, he will fight for their betterment, but he will not whine.

IV
And yet this vow of fidelity and devotion to the spirit of schoolcraft would be an empty
form without the two complementary vows that give it worth and meaning. These are the
vow of poverty and the vow of service. It is through these that the true craft spirit must
find its most vigorous expression and its only justification. The very corner stone of
schoolcraft is service, and one fundamental lesson that the tyro in schoolcraft must learn,
especially in this materialistic age, is that the value of service is not to be measured in
dollars and cents. In this respect, teaching resembles art, music, literature, discovery,
invention, and pure science; for, if all the workers in all of these branches of human
activity got together and demanded of the world the real fruits of their self-sacrifice and
labor,--if they demanded all the riches and comforts and amenities of life that have
flowed directly or indirectly from their efforts,--there would be little left for the rest of
mankind. Each of these activities is represented by a craft spirit that recognizes this great
truth. The artist or the scientist who has an itching palm, who prostitutes his craft for the
sake of worldly gain, is quickly relegated to the oblivion that he deserves. He loses caste,
and the caste of craft is more precious to your true craftsman than all the gold of the
modern Midas.
You may think that this is all very well to talk about, but that it bears little agreement to
the real conditions. Let me tell you that you are mistaken. Go ask Röntgen why he did not
keep the X-rays a secret to be exploited for his own personal gain. Ask the shade of the
great Helmholtz why he did not patent the ophthalmoscope. Go to the University of
Wisconsin and ask Professor Babcock why he gave to the world without money and
without price the Babcock test--an invention which is estimated to mean more than one
million dollars every year to the farmers and dairymen of that state alone. Ask the men on
the geological survey who laid bare the great gold deposits of Alaska why they did not
leave a thankless and ill-paid service to acquire the wealth that lay at their feet. Because
commercialized ideals govern the world that we know, we think that all men's eyes are
jaundiced, and that all men's vision is circumscribed by the milled rim of the almighty
dollar. But we are sadly, miserably mistaken.
Do you think that these ideals of service from which every taint of self-seeking and
commercialism have been eliminated--do you think that these are mere figments of the
impractical imagination? Go ask Perry Holden out in Iowa. Go ask Luther Burbank out in
California. Go to any agricultural college in this broad land and ask the scientists who are
doing more than all other forces combined to increase the wealth of the people. Go to the
scientific departments at Washington where men of genius are toiling for a pittance. Ask
them how much of the wealth for which they are responsible they propose to put into
their own pockets. What will be their answer? They will tell you that all they ask is a
living wage, a chance to work, and the just recognition of their services by those who
know and appreciate and understand.
But let