In most States teachers of agriculture must be graduates of a four-year course in an agricultural college or institution of similar grade, and in addition, must have had a practical farming experience.
In trade and commercial schools and departments the general tendency is to secure for practical or shop instructors men who actually know the occupations that they are to teach. In industrial day schools and in evening courses in these schools, there is generally required proof of a certain length of journeyman experience in the trade to be taught following an apprentice experience or its equivalent, and proof also of an elementary school education or its equivalent.
Teachers of technical or related subjects (shop mechanics, drawing, etc.), are usually required to have had several years of technical training and to have had some contact with industry.
Salaries
Financial returns from teaching are not large. But teaching usually pays at least a comfortable living from the very first. Many people enter the profession for this reason. It is said that the money returns from teaching are, on the average, less than in law, medicine, or business. Salaries of high-school teachers, however, are said to be on the average somewhat higher than those of ministers, doctors, and lawyers. In all lines of teaching the salary range is rather large. The number of years that it takes to reach the maximum salary varies greatly in the different States. In Indiana it is said that the maximum for men, excluding principals, is reached on the average in 6 years, whereas in Massachusetts the maximum salary for men, excluding principals, is not usually reached under 15 years. In Massachusetts the maximum salary received by teachers is about twice as great as the minimum salary.
The beginning wage for men teachers in rural schools ranges from $60 to $90 per month. The beginning wage of men teachers in the graded schools in cities is considerably more. The minimum salaries of all teachers, men and women included, in 85 of the largest cities in the United States, ranges from $405 to $1,080, whereas the maximum for such teachers in the same cities ranges from $630 to $1,820.
Teachers in industrial arts receive from $1,000 to $2,500 a year, while supervisors of such subjects receive from $1,600 to $3,000 a year.
Salaries paid State and local directors for administering vocational instruction range from $2,500 to $5,000.
Principals and superintendents of schools generally receive salaries ranging from $1,000 to $4,000, and in some of the larger cities salaries for superintendents have recently been materially increased. During the past three or four years some superintendents of our largest cities have been getting from $10,000 to $12,000.