Rensselaer Republican, Volume 19, Number 17, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 December 1886 — The Teacher’s Vocation, [ARTICLE]

The Teacher’s Vocation,

When ■wo leave our child in the hands of the teacher we feel that all that it is possible for the school to accomplish for it depends on the last analysis of his personality ; on the purity of his character; on the power of his insight; on the extent and quality of his preparation for his calling and interest in it; on his perfect mastery over what he is and what he knows; on the depth and power of his human sympathy; in a word, on his fitness to bo a teacher. We ought to be able to take for granted that he does not pursue his calling as a mere Vulgar handicraft ; as a means to some end entirely foreign to it; as the stepping stone to something else, or as a convenient substitute fdf something else. The school is not a charitable foundation for the assistance of indigent talent that is preparing for other fields of usefulness; it is not a< matrimonial bazaar for marriageable young ladies; ifor yet an almshouse for the poor or an infirmary for the imbecile. If there ever is “a divine call” to do anything, there should be one to teach. Viewed in this light there is no vocation that is more elevating, more ennobling than that of a teacher. It offers as grand a field for the highest endeavor as any occupation on earth. It is by its very nature removed from all low modes of thought, ail vulgartemptations, and all sordid and unworthy aims. Of all public vocations none offers greater or purer rewards (provided they be not estimated in money or money’s worth) and none that is possessed of so large an influence over the future. Theodore Parker once said to a young man who was taking counsel of him: “In the future of America I think the teacher will have quite as large an opportunity for molding the people to noble ends as .the preacher.” And in fact there is no estimating the power placed in the hands of the teacher. The very greatness and nobility of his office ought to fill him with inspiration. —Cincinnati Enquirer. '