Civic Helpfulness 93 



lead lives actively devoted to intelligent work for 

 others grow to have a certain look of serene and 

 high purpose which stamps them at once. This look 

 is generally seen, for instance, among the higher 

 types of women doctors, trained nurses, and of those 

 who devote their lives to work among the poor ; and 

 it is precisely this look which one so often sees on 

 the faces of those public-school teachers who have 

 grown to regard the welfare of their pupils as the 

 vital interest of their own lives. It is not merely the 

 regular day-work the school-teachers do, but the 

 amount of attention they pay outside their regular 

 classes; the influence they have in shaping the lives 

 of the boys, and perhaps even more of the girls, 

 brought in contact with them ; the care they take of 

 the younger, and the way they unconsciously hold 

 up ideals to the elder boys and girls, to whom they 

 often represent the most tangible embodiment of 

 what is best in American life. They are a great 

 force for producing good citizenship. Above all 

 things, they represent the most potent power in 

 Americanizing as well as in humanizing the children 

 of the newcomers of every grade who arrive here 

 from Europe. Where the immigrant parents are 

 able to make their way in the world, their children 

 have no more difficulty than the children of the na 

 tive-born in becoming part of .American life, in shar 

 ing all its privileges and in doing all its duties. But 



