622 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



kindergarten, or to some form of work connected witli tlie lower 

 grades of schools." 



"But," said the teacher, "I do not feel ready for those other 

 lines of work. My teaching has always been in high schools, and 

 this is what I can do best." 



"We do not doubt," was the reply, "that you can do better 

 teaching in high schools than most of those who apply. Never- 

 theless, we have to cater to the demand." 



" But there are a great many normal-school graduates in the 

 high schools, to my certain knowledge." 



" Oh, yes; the normal-school graduates who are in that work 

 do not lose their positions. But women's colleges are in the mind 

 of the public now, and an application for a high-school teacher 

 usually specifies that one of their graduates is wanted." 



Without pausing to suggest that the conceded fact that the 

 normal -school graduates retain their high-&chool positions argued 

 something regarding their ability to fill them, the teacher con- 

 tinued : " I should think the training and experience that I have 

 had ought certainly to count for as much as the college course." 



" Yes. It is really worth much more ; but it is the name that 

 is chiefly desired. School men are not satisfied with knowing 

 that a teacher has had a collegiate training. They want the full 

 college degree. The other day we recommended a young lady 



who has just graduated from College, ranking second in her 



class. The superintendent, after making a note of the fact, re- 

 marked, * How finely that will sound in my report to the school 

 board and in the advertisements of the school ! ' " 



We are conscious of no acerbity or envious cravings on ac- 

 count of the academic degrees and honors of the universities. 

 We appreciate that a real value attaches to such marks of recog- 

 nized attainment when honestly bestowed, and held with no exag- 

 gerated sense of their importance. So also the titles of nobility, 

 heraldic insignia, and military decorations of the Old World are 

 of value, unless they have become divorced from the sentiments 

 which gave them birth. 



But, as self-respecting Americans, we do not wish to feel our- 

 selves dependent upon such factitious means for success in life. 

 Nor do we feel so. We call to mind that the greatest American 

 of this half century was "graduated" from school life after a few 

 months' study in a backwoods school. When he came to the 

 highest position of responsibility ever held by a citizen of the 

 United States, it was said by a distinguished college president, 

 " Lincoln may have good sense, but he will need some one to write 

 his messages for him." Yet the two great classic prose utterances 

 of the war period are Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation and 

 his Gettysburg address. 



