A third step for the ambitious man is that the second return to a college or university for the purpose of securing specialized training which entitles him to the master’s or doctor’s degree. He is then eligible for desirable college and university positions.
Any man interested in education as a profession should, therefore, take stock of his native ability, his interest in the profession, his present educational qualifications, the grade of position to which he aspires, and the amount of sacrifice he is willing to make to meet its requirements.
After a few years’ experience in actual teaching one may qualify for a supervisory position or an administrative position. There are many positions of this character. There are positions as supervisor of art, music, drawing, physical training, manual training, agriculture, etc., in the grades and in the high schools. There are supervisors also of certain grades, like supervisors in the primary grades, the intermediate grades and the upper grades. Men can very well do this supervisory work in the intermediate and especially in the upper grades. Sometimes one supervises the teaching of all subjects in a group of buildings. On the administrative side there are opportunities as principals of buildings. Sometimes the work of the principal is wholly that of administration. Sometimes it combines with the administrative work, the work of supervising actual teaching. From principalships and supervising positions one may pass on to the position of superintendent.
A young man of ability and ambition with the proper training can reasonably hope to become principal of a large building, or superintendent of a fairly good sized school system, if he is willing to pay the price of hard work for 12 to 15 years.
Administrative positions on the strictly business side of schools, such as superintendent of buildings, or of supplies, are open to men of course, who have not had teaching experience at all. Generally, however, these positions are filled by men who know something of the teaching problem itself. More and more there is a tendency to bring the business administration and education administration nearer together.
In the future, therefore, promotions even in the business field of school work will doubtless take place more and more through the avenue of the educational field. In both of these fields, the business and the educational administration of school work, there is a distinct future for fine vigorous men, who have the power of arranging their thoughts and facts in an orderly way when they are taking up matters for discussion with their associates.
The soldier who enters the field of education has a far wider horizon, and therefore a better opportunity for promotion, than one equally well equipped in other respects who has not borne arms.
Essentials of the Ideal Teacher
It is difficult to judge in advance one’s fitness for teaching. Probably the biggest single element determining success is love for children or for youth. If a man can play with them with pleasure, he has a pretty strong evidence of an understanding of child nature that will be helpful to him in teaching.
Prof. George Herbert Palmer, in his monograph “The Ideal Teacher,” says that there are four essentials of the successful ideal teacher. These may be briefly indicated as follows: