One Thousand Ways to Make a Living; or, An Encyclopædia of Plans to Make Money

by Harold Morse Dunphy

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.