2.Teaching Profession Commands A Body Of Specialized Knowledge

There was a time, not more than a few generations when it was thought that the teacher had only to know as much as he had to teach. To find out if this were the case, candidates were examined by school committees and temporary or limited certificates were issued. ago,Then, as more was required on the part of pupils than mere literacy, teachers were required to know more of subject matter. Every addition to the curriculum required more preparation for teachers. Nowhere was this more evident than in the field of natural sciences. This steadily increasing complexity of modem knowledge, particularly in the sciences, and in other areas possibly to a somewhat lesser degree, demands that teachers be those whose education shall not end with lege but shall continue throughout life. To keep abreast of new research and ever increasing scientific and cultural discoveries is a must for every teacher.In the broad fields of psychology the body of known fact and principles has grown tremendously. One of the results has been a far greater emphasis upon human relations. Although we know there is a need for specialists in many fields of education, such as reading, speech, hearing, and the like, the individual teacher must know much in many areas. We have but made a beginning in our knowledge of the functioning of the human mind and emotions in spite of all the contributions of research. But the fact is that we now have a body of knowledge, techniques, and understandings that constitute one of the marks of a profession.

3. Teaching Profession Requires Extended Preparation

The number of years required for the preparation of teachers has grown. It is now clear that there is a very pronounced trend for making the bachelor's degree the minimum standard for entering teaching service and toward requiring five years of college preparation for permanent certification or for keeping a certificate in effect. Like wise there is a very definite trend noted for requiring preparation of the same extent for elementary as for secondary teachers.

4.Teaching Profession Service Growth

Demands Continuous In-No profession can afford to have its members fail to continue their educational and technical growth after their admission to practice. An attorney who would fail to keep up with the increasing body of new legislation and the developing pattern of court decisions would find himself losing cases which he might otherwise win and guilty of giving his clients bad advice. The physician too who, after receiving his license to practice, fails to inform himself of the newer drugs and of better methods of diagnosis and treatment, inevitably stagnates and his position is thoroughly inexcusable.Teaching in this respect is surely no different from other professions. As has just been pointed out, we are learning more about the mind and its functioning, our understanding of the whole field of human relations is growing rapidly, and the body of knowledge in many specialized areas has increased almost beyond belief. It is difficult to realize, for example, that all children in the elementary and junior high school by 1960 will have been born since the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima and will most certainly be children of the atomic age. This fact alone places tremendous obligations upon the teaching profession. If they are to serve must constantly prepare themselves to live in the world as it is today and as it will surely be tomorrow.

Summer Sessions:

Primarily because of the long vacation which is peculiar to teaching, the summer session has been the 14 raditional device by which teachers seek to improve their professional status and to grow.

Graduate Work:

here again we find that higher certification requirements for positions of greater responsibility have been a motivating factor. Then, too, its is now common practice to tie up higher salaries with higher qualifications and higher degrees. Thus graduate work begins to pay and the ambitious teacher goes off to the graduate school, in summers, after school hours, or on leaves of absence.

Workshops:

While the so-called workshop may well be considered a type of graduate work in many larger school systems. Here teachers come together for shorter or longer periods to work co-operatively on their own problems, under the guidance of a director and with the co-operation of specialists.

Teachers' Meetings:

There have been many instances of inspiring, democratically planned and conducted meetings, meetings showing a purpose and spirit of helpfulness. Where these have been based on needs and teachers have been able to turn the results to better teaching, professional growth has resulted to a marked degree. There is little excuse for any other type of teacher's meetings.

Work of Professional Associations:

Many opportunities for growth in service are provided at the numerous local, state, and national meetings of these groups.

Reading:

Professional reading circles were important device for growth in service early in educational history. While the reading circle, as such, has pretty largely ceased to exist, voluntary professional reading of books and magazines will always continue to provide a means of increasing both knowledge and skill.

Travel:

Teachers who enjoy camping and who are willing to rough it a bit can spend many happy vacations in the field with their families and be better teachers for it. They are doing it by the hundreds and they are coming to know better this marvelous and beautiful country of ours as well as those of our neighbors to the north and to the south.