Who Will Teach Our Children?

Abstract

If a person does not like children, he should not be a teacher. The attitude of the teacher communicates itself to the children in the class. If the teacher is interested in what he or she is doing and is enthusiastic and dedicated, the children, in turn, will become infected by this interest and enthusiasm. He might be compared to a salesman who enjoys his work and has confidence in his company and its product; this salesman will do a better job selling to prospective customers than one who does not like his work, or the people with whom he must deal. If a teacher does not like teaching and dislikes children, or if he or she looks upon students as adversaries, good rapport is impossible between teacher and class. Under these conditions, learning takes place with great difficulty, if at all. There must be some means by which to determine whether the teacher is flexible or rigid, sympathetic and empathetic, or arrogant and intolerant. He must have a good sense of humor. Without this, a teacher cannot be successful in the classroom. Also, it is imperative that he be curious and inquisitive with regard to his subject matter and constantly seek to expand his command of it. In most American school systems, a teacher is hired on the basis of one interview. As will be evidenced, a decision based on one interview is pitifully outdated and ineffective. Surely, in hiring a teacher, one interview and the judgment of one person is not enough. When I applied for my present position, I was interviewed by the superintendent, an assistant superintendent, and the principal of the high school. (In addition, of course, they reviewed my college transcripts, my employment history, and my teaching license, and they contacted my personal references.) I was subsequently interviewed by two other school corporations. In one case, it was by the superintendent alone, who asked me to talk about myself, smiled, and said he would let me know, and in the other, by the director of teacher personnel who, after reading my application, asked how I got along with blacks, and then terminated the interview. It is obvious which was the better hiring process. In discussions with other teachers, the hiring processes of some nearby townships have surfaced. For instance, I have heard that in one nearby school system, a young pretty female applicant who is brazen enough to show a fair amount of thigh can strongly influence the middle-aged male interviewer. The man who told me this is a principal of an elementary school and is bitter about the quality of the teachers assigned to his school. There is a superintendent in another school corporation who prides himself on the low cost of education in his district. He hires only firstor second-year teachers with bachelors degrees, because of the lower salary bracket. Consequently, there is a high turnover in teacher personnel at the expense of good education. An assistant superintendent of secondary schools in another township has made a science of teacher selection. He not only supplements his own personal judgments with psychological tests, but he also engages the applicant in role playing, giving the applicant a hypothetical situation and asking him or her what should be done under the circumstances. He also asks the applicant to draw a picture of a person. From this Mr. Morris is a teacher at the North Central Hig School in Indianapolis, Indiana.