Women Workers in Seven Professions | Page 5

was often the last refuge of the destitute.
Even nowadays, it is taken too much for granted that some form of
teaching is the obvious opening for educated women, who aspire to
economic independence. But, thanks to various causes and
developments, it is now almost universally recognised that teaching is a
profession, and one which can be entered only by candidates, who are
properly equipped and trained. In a book such as this, it may then be
assumed that the elderly governess, driven to teach by poverty and lack
of friends, with no qualifications but gentility, good manners, good
principles, and a humble mind, is a figure which is mercifully
becoming less and less common. It is still necessary, however, to insist
on the fact that brains and education and training are not by themselves
sufficient to produce a successful teacher. Quite literally, teaching is a
"calling" as well as a profession: the true candidate must have a
vocation; she must mount her rostrum or enter her class-room with a
full conviction of the importance of her mission, and of her desire to
undertake it. This earnest purpose should not, however, destroy her
sense of humour and of proportion; it is possible to take oneself and
one's daily routine of work too seriously, a fault which does not tend to
impress their importance on a scoffing world. No girl should become a
teacher because she does not know how else to gain her living. The
profession is lamentably overstocked with mediocrities, lacking
enthusiasm and vigour, drifting more and more hopelessly from one
post to another. But there is plenty of room for keen and competent
women, eager to learn and to teach, and this is true of all branches of
the profession. No work can well be more thankless, more full of
drudgery and of disappointment than that of a teacher who has missed
her vocation. Few lives can be more full of happy work and wide
interests than those of teachers who rejoice in their calling.
Yet there is need to call attention to certain drawbacks which are
common to all branches of the profession. As a class, teachers are badly
paid, and many are overworked. The physical and mental strain is
inevitably severe: in many cases this is unnecessarily increased by
red-tape regulations that involve loss of time and temper and an amount
of clerical work, which serves no useful purpose. Teachers need to
concentrate their energies on essentials: of these the life intellectual is
the most important, and this, however elementary the standard of work

demanded in class. No one can teach freshly unless she is at the same
time learning, and widening her own mental horizon. Too many forms
to fill up, too many complicated registers to keep, too many meetings to
attend--these things stultify the mind and crush the spirit. They are not
a necessary accompaniment of State or municipal control, though
sometimes under present conditions it is hard to believe that they are
not the inevitable concomitants of official regulations. Anything which
tends to make teachers' lives more narrow, is opposed to the cause of
education. This truth should be instilled into all official bosoms.
Wherever the State or the local authority intervenes, wherever public
money has been granted, there regular inspection obviously becomes
inevitable, but the multiplication of inspectors, each representing a
different authority, is not necessary or sensible. At present, in all
grant-aided institutions, whatever their status, inspectors do not cease
from troubling, and teachers as well as administrative officers, though
weary, find no rest.[1] This is as detrimental to the pupil as to the
teacher, for it lowers the intellectual standard by substituting form for
matter and the letter for the spirit. Thus the inspector of an art-school
who enquires only about what are officially termed "student-hours,"
and not at all about the work therein accomplished, does not make for
artistic efficiency either in teacher or taught. Yet this instance is of very
recent occurrence, and there are countless parallel cases. No wonder the
Universities demand freedom from State control; no wonder Training
Colleges and subsidised secondary as well as elementary schools groan
under its tender mercies. The present forms taken by this control are
mostly obnoxious to all practical educationists. They arise from lack of
trust in the teaching profession on the part of administrators--a mistrust
which it is of primary importance to allay by increased efficiency,
independence, and organisation. Nationalisation of the schools is
necessary, if a real highway of education is to be established: it must be
obtained without irritating conditions which make freedom, experiment,
and progress too often impossible. The task before the teaching
profession is to retain full scope for initiative and experiment, whilst
working loyally under a public body. This should be specially the work
of