Ways to improve the professional status of teachers

Abstract

Throughout the discussions of the several meetings today, we have all been made increasingly aware of the necessity for raising the professional status of teachers. One may reasonably conclude from the discussions, both by speakers on the platform and by members of the audiences, that movement is on foot. If we can decide on whose foot this movement rests, we may be able to point the way to some rather definite methods by which the professional status of teachers may be raised. It will be my purpose to indicate that the major responsibility in this movement rests with the teachers themselves and with the institutions that prepare teachers. First of all, however, it should be stated that marked improvement in the professionalization of teaching has occurred already. Higher standards of preparation, closer relationship between preparation and the kind of work that teachers are required to do, and a marked sensitiveness to the need for a code of ethics in the field of teaching are indications of the improvements we have already made. Although it is quite common to point out the great disparity between the ethics of the teacher and the ethics of the doctor, it should be kept in mind that in some states it is still possible for persons of no particular qualifications to secure a state license to practice medicine, and it would not be a difficult task to point to most glaring violations of medical ethics among persons who bear the title doctor. Just as it is a responsibility of a reputable, well-trained medical man to protect the public from those who would make a quackery of medicine and the alleviation of human suffering, it is a responsibility of those teachers who are well prepared to protect the ignorant from the teacher quack. The immediate next steps in improving the teacher's professional status I shall enumerate and discuss briefly under these headings: selection, preparation, certification, placement, in-service growth, and the improvement of relations with those with whom the teacher works.