"Legion of Honor", others who had been awarded this distinction before they became Jesuits; there are among them men who had been able officers in the army or navy. Indeed, these men must see in the education of youth something more than an occupation for gaining a livelihood.
In this country the instability of teachers has more than once formed the subject of complaints. "In Maine,[1] some time ago, four years was found to be the average time of service. The report of 1892 on the high schools of Washington (D. C.) remarks that, with few exceptions, all professionally prepared teachers who had occupied their positions four years ago had resigned to enter more lucrative positions. Better opportunities are offered not only to male but to female teachers, who also give up their positions to enter upon married life. Even well-to-do American women, generally highly educated, well informed, and at the same time enterprising, prefer to spend a few years in teaching rather than await their future inactively. The official report condenses all this in the mournful remark: 'In the United States the profession of teaching seems to be a kind of waiting-room in which the young girl awaits a congenial, ulterior support, and the young man a more advantageous position.'"[2]
It is evident that teaching must suffer from such instability. No professional skill is possible in the majority of teachers; experience and steadfastness, two
- ↑ In Illinois and other states the same has been proved. Mr. McBurney wrote quite recently in the Ohio Teacher that the average life of the country teacher is not over three years. See The Review, St. Louis, October 2, 1902, p. 601.
- ↑ Report of the Com. of Education, 1892-93, vol. I, p. 545; see also pp. 565 and 586.
