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THE TEACHER

ESSAYS AND ADDRESSES ON EDUCATION


BY GEORGE HERBERT PALMER AND ALICE FREEMAN PALMER


  BOSTON AND NEW YORK
  HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
  The Riverside Press Cambridge
  1908

  COPYRIGHT, 1908, BY GEORGE HERBERT PALMER
  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
  _Published November 1908_

  SECOND IMPRESSION




PREFACE


The papers of this volume fall into three groups, two of the three being
written by myself. From my writings on education I have selected only
those which may have some claim to permanent interest, and all but two
have been tested by previous publication. Those of the first group deal
with questions about which we teachers, eager about our immeasurable art
beyond most professional persons, never cease to wonder and debate: What
is teaching? How far may it influence character? Can it be practiced on
persons too busy or too poor to come to our class-rooms? To subjects of
what scope should it be applied? And how shall we content ourselves with
its necessary limitations? Under these diverse headings a kind of
philosophy of education is outlined. The last two papers, having been
given as lectures and stenographically reported, I have left in their
original colloquial form. A group of papers on Harvard follows, preceded
by an explanatory note, and the volume closes with a few papers by Mrs.
Palmer. She and I often talked of preparing together a book on
education. Now, alone, I gather up these fragments.




CONTENTS


                                                                  PAGE
          I. PROBLEMS OF SCHOOL AND COLLEGE
     I. The Ideal Teacher                                            3
    II. Ethical Instruction in the Schools                          31
   III. Moral Instruction in the Schools                            49
    IV. Self-Cultivation in English                                 72
     V. Doubts About University Extension                          105
    VI. Specialization                                             123
   VII. The Glory of the Imperfect                                 143

          II. HARVARD PAPERS
  VIII. The New Education                                          173
    IX. Erroneous Limitations of the Elective System               200
     X. Necessary Limitations of the Elective System               239
    XI. College Expenses                                           272
   XII. A Teacher of the Olden Time                                283

          III. PAPERS BY ALICE FREEMAN PALMER
  XIII. Three Types of Women's Colleges                            313
   XIV. Women's Education in the Nineteenth Century                337
    XV. Women's Education at the World's Fair                      351
   XVI. Why Go to College?                                         364




I

PROBLEMS OF SCHOOL AND COLLEGE




I

THE IDEAL TEACHER


In America, a land of idealism, the profession of teaching has become
one of the greatest of human employments. In 1903-04 half a million
teachers were in charge of sixteen million pupils. Stating the same
facts differently, we may say that a fifth of our entire population is
constantly at school; and that wherever one hundred and sixty men,
women, and children are gathered, a teacher is sure to be among them.

But figures fail to express the importance of the work. If each year an
equal number of persons should come in contact with as many lawyers, no
such social consequences would follow. The touch of the teacher, like
that of no other person, is formative. Our young people are for long
periods associated with those who are expected to fashion them into men
and women of an approved type. A charge so influential is committed to
nobody else in the community, not even to the ministers; for though
these have a more searching aim, they are directly occupied with it but
one day instead of six, but one hour instead of five. Accordingly, as
the tract of knowledge has widened, and the creative opportunities
involved in conducting a young person over it have correspondingly
become apparent, the profession of teaching has risen to a notable
height of dignity and attractiveness. It has moved from a subordinate to
a central place in social influence, and now undertakes much of the work
which formerly fell to the church. Each year divinity schools attract
fewer students, graduate and normal schools more. On school and college
instruction the community now bestows its choicest minds, its highest
hopes, and its largest sums. During the year 1903-04 the United States
spent for teaching not less than $350,000,000.

Such weighty work is ill adapted for amateurs. Those who take it up for
brief times and to make money usually find it unsatisfactory. Success is
rare, the hours are fixed and long, there is repetition and monotony,
and the teacher passes his days among inferiors. Nor are the pecuniary
gains considerable. There are few prizes, and neither in school nor in
college will a teacher's ordinary income carry him much above want.
College teaching is falling more and more into the hands of men of
independent means. The poor can hardly afford to engage in it. Private
