Teachers' Work
While researching the history of education in Malheur county for a chapter in "Early Life in the Owyhee" I came across the following section from the report of the Malheur county school superintendent B.L. Milligan contained in the 1901-1902 biennial report of the Oregon superintendent of public instruction.
THE PERMANENCY OF TEACHERS’ WORK
Is a subject to which the county has begun paying serious attention. Several of the more important schools are beginning to perceive that “permanence produces prosperity” is true of the school as it is of the individual: that frequent change in the personnel of the teaching force of the school is a serious bar to its progress and efficiency. Accordingly, the custom of retaining teachers who prove loyal to their vocation, and successful in their work, is growing. “The pen is mightier than the sword”—the pedagogue more potent than the police. At least, that is the theory of the matter, and is so commonly accepted that its correctness is never questioned. Since the schools, more than the army, are the bulwark of our liberties, we wonder why the schoolteacher is not put upon an equal footing (at the least) with the soldier. He is secure in his profession (of war) during life, or good behavior. It would seem that the teacher in his nobler profession (of peace), after a suitable probationary period, should be secured in the tenure of his office. Ah! beloved, we have inadvertently stumbled upon one of the weaknesses of our American system! We have no profession of teaching, as we have of war—more’s the pity! Let the government recognize the profession, remunerate its services, honor its sacrifices and nobilities; secure the teacher in the tenure of his position: and the evils of impermanency will disappear from the schools, and a lamentable weakness from the American system of common school education!
Milligan's pomposity notwithstanding, that final admonition still obtains, and the failure in many corners to value the profession of teaching is much the reason for the weak critical thinking and offensive rhetoric currently permeating our government and society.