Are there really jobs open? Yes, Department of Labor statistics and U.S. Office of Education studies show a need for more than 100,000 new teachers every year for the next 10 years. These needs are figured on actual increases in the national birth rate since the War. Would there still be jobs by the Yes, and that holds true whether you plan to take 2-, 3-, or 4-year training courses. And that goes for men as well as women. (More and more States are coming to require 4 years of college training for teaching.) What kind of openings are there? For the next 7 years the demand will be for elementary school teachers. But as the tidal wave of swollen enrollments sweeps through the grades, our high schools by 1960 will be engulfed by approximately a 35 percent increase over that of 1950. Competition in the secondary school field will be keener because many of the teachers now being trained will have to head that way. The need for principals, supervisors, and administrators continues to grow. Competition is not acute for men in elementary education. Would they pay me a living salary? creases. Although working conditions and salary arrangements vary locally, more and more States now have minimum salary regulations which insure teachers of a living wage. Most systems provide for regular salary inThere is some jockeying in the employment of teachers as in other lines of work. Wealthier school districts are always alluring good teachers away into better paying positions. Remember that a demand market in education is a teacher's market. Currently, average salaries in the United States range from $1,100 to $3,600 per year for classroom teachers. What security do teachers have? Some States have permanent tenure laws which guarantee the teacher his or her job for life provided he does not give cause to be fired for insubordination, incompetence, or immorality. Even where there are no tenure laws, teachers are more and more being employed on indefinite tenure and less and less on 1-year contracts. It is true teachers do not belong to the Social Security group, but most States now have pension plans for teacher retirement. These conditions are constantly being improved. Most systems have sick leave pro Office of Education Aids THE OFFICE OF EDUCATION has issued a number of publications in past years useful in teaching conservation education. A few are out of print but available for reference at school, college, and public libraries. Order those available by purchase from the Superintendent of Documents, Washington 25, D. C. Those that are free, request from Office of Education. Conservation in the Education Program. Bulletin 1937 No. 4 (Out of print). educationally until young and old alike May all Americans, both in and out of Eave Juerith U. S. Commissioner of Education Conservation Excursions. Schools. Bulletin 1939 No. 14. Conservation Films in Ele- Farm Forestry. Vocational Division Bulletin No. 196. 15¢. Landscaping the Farmstead. Vocational Division Bulletin No. 189. 25¢. Some Selected References of Education, Elementary Education Division. 1. Philosophy and Goals. 2. Programs and Procedures. 3. Audio-Visual Aids. 4. Inexpensive Teaching Materials. 5. A Bibliography of Bibliographies. salutation wherever they go. They'll be accepted and offered a job. Could I lead a life of my own or would I constantly live in a fish bowl? You can lead your own life, but complete disregard for community standards. will most certainly bring forth a storm of protest. Generally a community expects high personal standards of living from its teachers, doctors, and lawyers. But since teachers are paid from public funds and not from fees paid by the individual served, most communities look to them for public example. Teachers who are masters of the art of getting along with others and helping them to get along with each other rarely have any occasion to feel hampered. When teachers are enthusiastic about their communities, you will usually find the townsfolk will like and respect them. Would I be worn out by extraclassroom jobs? The teacher's work is not bounded by four classroom walls. Most systems expect teachers to take part in a reasonable number of extraclassroom activities. These tasks help keep many teachers from becoming subject-matter blind. You may be asked to take on community jobs. Generally, there will not be outright insistence that teachers become Scout leaders or Sunday School teachers. Good teachers will continue to volunteer for these jobs and many others in the community because they want to identify themselves as bona fide members of their towns. They know that if they want to be accepted as understood by regular people. Teaching Conservation in on Conservation for Pupils regular people, they must work with and be Things To Be Conserved. A packet of conservation edu- Curriculum Content in One for the Girls Can I find myself a man? Although the question is timidly asked, it is the one question which every girl wants to ask. They can be told that now-and for the next 10 years, the answer is and will be "Yes, your chances are good if you're really as interested in marriage as your nonteaching sisters are. Actually the odds are in your favor." In the first place, there is much in a teacher's training-psychology and human relations which should make her automatically more desirable as a mate and prospective mother. Second, by experience she should be more patient and tolerant of children's ideas and ways of doing things. Third, her general knowledge and experience should make her a capable and contributing member of the social groups of a community. Fourth, more he-men are going into education. "Maybe those points are okay," some girls may say, "but why is it so many teachers don't get married?" We can agree that there was a time when getting married meant a teacher had to quit her work. That is not generally required now. "But some teachers are sort of cranky and old-maidish." I can't prove whether a teacher becomes old-maidish because she failed to get a man or failed to get a man because she was old-maidish. My guess is that unpleasant people will always have difficulty finding a mate. One for the Boys Could I be a teacher and still be a regular guy? I know why that question pops up. You are thinking back to some man teacher who was generally considered a "panty waist." We all shudder over those examples of old maids in trousers! But what are the facts? The number of outstanding young men going to State teachers colleges has increased. The day when the bookish lad who shunned athletics was the typical male student in teachers college is past. Certainly we don't look upon fathers as being unnecessary in the home when their sons are of lower school age. Quite the contrary, psychologists tell us that the right sort of male guidance and help is vitally essential to the well-balanced development of children. Recently an educator with a long record of successful teaching in all grade levels. from primary to postgraduate university told me that his most satisfying teaching years had been in intermediate grades. "I never felt so needed and helpful as I did with my third graders," he said. "I suspect I supplied them with many of the securities. their fathers did not have time to give them." In Conclusion In short, I would say to both young women and men, your success in teaching will depend pretty largely on your success in being a thoroughly regular sort of a person, one whom others like and respect. And both of these successes are very much up to you and your own efforts. Both of you should remember that parents spend much of their time with adults. Teachers should also. They should enter into the full life of their community-not as parasites but as contributors. If, in becoming a teacher, you should cease to be a person of charm, personality, vigor, and attractive appeal, (Continued on page 13) National officers of the fast-growing Future Homemakers of America visited with Federal Security Administrator Oscar R. Ewing when they attended the recent regional conference of their organization in Washington, D. C. Shown in the photograph with Administrator Ewing are, left to right, Maxine Green, national secretary, Frederick, Md.; Maryanne Neff, national vice president, Johnson City, N. Y.; Jean Low, retiring national vice president, Brookline, Mass.; and Catherine Neill, retiring national treasurer, Bernardsville, N. J. The Future Homemakers of America, sponsored by the Office of Education, Federal Security Agency, now enrolls more than 260,000 junior and senior high-school students in cities and rural areas who study homemaking. The organization supplements homemaking class work with an opportunity for girls assume leadership and develop initiative. In local chapters and through State associations they sponsor group projects which contribute to the solution of problems important to home life. to "I'd like to be there," said Vice President Alben W. Barkley to the national officers of the Future Farmers of America as they invited him to their 1949 National FFA Convention to be held at Kansas City, Mo., October 10 to 13. The Vice President received the FFA boys in his office, giving each of them a hearty handshake in the presence of A. W. Tenney, FFA Executive Secretary, extreme left, and Earl James McGrath, Commissioner of Education, extreme right. National officers of the Future Farmers of America shown in the photograph are, left to right, Alton Brazell, Lubbock, Tex., fourth vice president; Max Cobble, Midway, Tenn., student secretary; Bill Michael, Billings, Mont., third vice president; Paul Lindholm, Ortonville, Minn., first vice president; Ervin Martin, Salem, Ind., 1947-48 national FFA president; Doyle Conner, Starke, Fla., 1948-49 national president, shaking hands with Vice President Barkley; and Dale Hess, Fallston, Md., second vice president. The Race Between School Ch By Ray L. Hamon, Chief, School Housing Section, Division of School Administration Th 'HE NATION is facing a grave schoolhousing crisis. School enrollments have been increasing while we deferred new construction and wore out the old schoolhouses. The accompanying chart shows the race between school children and schoolhouses. with schoolhouses lagging far behind. We'll have to dig deeper and move faster if we are to provide adequate, safe, and suitable schoolhouses for America's children. Because of the great variation in construction costs since 1930, dollar volume of capital outlay has but little meaning until related to schoolhousing space provided by the investment. The accompanying table indicates the number of school children by years in relation to the number in attendance in 1930, and the dollar investment in schoolhouses related to equivalent space provided in 1930. The estimated numbers of school children are certainly valid up to 1955, because those children have already been born. Because of the accumulative effect of births on school attendance, it is estimated that school attendance will continue to increase until 1958 and then level off as shown by the chart. If school enrollments should decline after 1960, would a 10 billion dollar school construction program leave the Nation's schools overbuilt? The answer is "no," provided the schoolhouses have been properly planned and located. In the event that tion and long-range planning at the local, State, and Federal levels of government. Significant School Plant References During 1949 two very significant books have been published on this subject. It is urged that school officials and architects contemplating school building programs avail themselves of this literature. American Association of School Administrators. American School Buildings. 1201 Sixteenth Street NW., Washington, D. C., the Association. 525 p. 1949 Yearbook. $4. National Council on Schoolhouse Construction. Guide for Planning School Plants. The Council (W. D. McClurkin, Peabody College, Nashville, Tenn.), 1949 Edition. $1.25. For further pertinent literature relative to the planning of school facilities, attention. is called to the following bibliographies: American Educational Research Association. Review of Educational Research, "School Plant and Equipment," Vol. II, No. 5; Vol. V, No. 4; Vol. VIII, No. 4; Vol. XII, No. 2; Vol. XV, No. 1; and Vol. XVIII, No. 1, dated from 1932 to 1948. American Institute of Architects, Department of Education and Research. "Building Type Reference Guide No. 1, The Public School Building," reprinted from Bulletin of the A. I. A., March 1947. Indiana University, School of Education. Bibliography of School Buildings, Grounds, and Equipment, Parts I, II, III, IV, V, and VI, dated from 1928 to 1945. School Life (U. S. Office of Education), Also "School Plant Articles," April 1947. available in reprint. The American School and University, "School Plant Bibliography," 1947-48 Edition, p. 226-244. Also available in reprint. |