complaints were more common than shop talk. Snatches of Teachers' Room conversation suggested that a few might have lost their enthusiasm for the job, but Teachers' Room conversation proved nothing. The real test of a teacher was her conduct in class, and Chris had never seen most of her colleagues at work in their classrooms. One lunchtime, the conversation drifted onto the dangerous subject of troublesome students. One teacher, new to the school, remarked, "I think you have to be patient with children." And another, a veteran, replied from the side of her mouth, "
Some
you don't have to bother with." Chris wondered if she shouldn't stick up for the new teacher, but Chris held her tongue. "If I worry about what everyone else is doing around here, I'll go out of my mind," she told herself as she headed back for the lonely but safe and sealed-off domain of her own classroom.
Teaching is an anomalous profession. Unlike doctors or lawyers, teachers do not share rules and obligations that they set for themselves. They are hirelings of communities, which have frequently conceived of them as servants and have not always treated them well.
Take, for instance, the plight of the female teacher in not very distant times. As the number of public schools burgeoned in the late nineteenth century, teaching became overwhelmingly a female occupation. The dream of universal education required lots of teachers, and women could be hired much more cheaply than men. Nature, educationists reasoned, fitted women nicely to the role of surrogate mothers. If they became actual mothers, they weren't allowed to continue teaching in many districts. That fact alone guaranteed that many teachers would soon quit. Those who stayed on were apt to be subjected to extreme isolation. The classic sociological study of teachingâwritten by one Willard Waller and published in 1932âcontains the terms of a contract that female teachers in "a certain southern community" had to sign in the early 1930s. The contract obligated the teacher to engage in "all phases of Sunday-school work," to get at least eight hours of sleep while maintaining a healthy diet, and to consider herself "at all times the willing servant of the school board and the townspeople." She had to promise not to go out dancing, not to "dress immodestly," not to be in the company of "any young man" outside Sunday school, and not to "encourage or tolerate the least familiarity from her male pupils." The contract also contained this provision:
I promise not to fall in love, to become engaged or secretly married.
Even for its time, that contract was extraordinary, but it was not atypical in spirit. In general, America has invested an enormous amount of faith in the idea of education, but not much in teachers. Today, teachers get four years of college and better occupational training than they did in the first half of the century (which is to say that they get
some
training). Tenure has alleviated one major source of insecurityâand has also removed one major tool of quality control; in many places it is virtually impossible to fire a teacher who hasn't committed a criminal offense. And nowadays teachers are allowed to fall in love. Their social status has not improved immensely, though. Male teachers and perhaps increasingly female ones, who now have other options, are still regarded by many people as belonging to what Waller in the 1930s called the "failure belt." People teach, this theory goes, because they can't do anything else. There is a modern stereotypeâit has not been quantified, but every teacher knows about itâthat depicts teachers as numbskulls who work short hours, get long vacations, do lousy jobs, and then walk picket lines, whining about how badly they are treated.
Teachers' salaries have increased some in the 1980s, but _ generally remain low. Al got paid $37,597 a year. Chris had reached the top of the local salary scale and was being paid $25,532 this year. Pay
Some
you don't have to bother with." Chris wondered if she shouldn't stick up for the new teacher, but Chris held her tongue. "If I worry about what everyone else is doing around here, I'll go out of my mind," she told herself as she headed back for the lonely but safe and sealed-off domain of her own classroom.
Teaching is an anomalous profession. Unlike doctors or lawyers, teachers do not share rules and obligations that they set for themselves. They are hirelings of communities, which have frequently conceived of them as servants and have not always treated them well.
Take, for instance, the plight of the female teacher in not very distant times. As the number of public schools burgeoned in the late nineteenth century, teaching became overwhelmingly a female occupation. The dream of universal education required lots of teachers, and women could be hired much more cheaply than men. Nature, educationists reasoned, fitted women nicely to the role of surrogate mothers. If they became actual mothers, they weren't allowed to continue teaching in many districts. That fact alone guaranteed that many teachers would soon quit. Those who stayed on were apt to be subjected to extreme isolation. The classic sociological study of teachingâwritten by one Willard Waller and published in 1932âcontains the terms of a contract that female teachers in "a certain southern community" had to sign in the early 1930s. The contract obligated the teacher to engage in "all phases of Sunday-school work," to get at least eight hours of sleep while maintaining a healthy diet, and to consider herself "at all times the willing servant of the school board and the townspeople." She had to promise not to go out dancing, not to "dress immodestly," not to be in the company of "any young man" outside Sunday school, and not to "encourage or tolerate the least familiarity from her male pupils." The contract also contained this provision:
I promise not to fall in love, to become engaged or secretly married.
Even for its time, that contract was extraordinary, but it was not atypical in spirit. In general, America has invested an enormous amount of faith in the idea of education, but not much in teachers. Today, teachers get four years of college and better occupational training than they did in the first half of the century (which is to say that they get
some
training). Tenure has alleviated one major source of insecurityâand has also removed one major tool of quality control; in many places it is virtually impossible to fire a teacher who hasn't committed a criminal offense. And nowadays teachers are allowed to fall in love. Their social status has not improved immensely, though. Male teachers and perhaps increasingly female ones, who now have other options, are still regarded by many people as belonging to what Waller in the 1930s called the "failure belt." People teach, this theory goes, because they can't do anything else. There is a modern stereotypeâit has not been quantified, but every teacher knows about itâthat depicts teachers as numbskulls who work short hours, get long vacations, do lousy jobs, and then walk picket lines, whining about how badly they are treated.
Teachers' salaries have increased some in the 1980s, but _ generally remain low. Al got paid $37,597 a year. Chris had reached the top of the local salary scale and was being paid $25,532 this year. Pay
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