70 On the Campus 



for you this morning memorable forever, the commence- 

 ment, the beginning of life beautiful forevermore. 



But now, having thus sketched the outcome of past 

 experience, let us turn for a little in the other direction, 

 and see how we can use the gifts we have thus acquired. 



This, at first blush, looks easy : we are teachers ; all we 

 have to do is to teach ; and what is more, if we teach in 

 public schools, as most of us expect to do, custom has pre- 

 scribed what we shall teach: reading, arithmetic, gram- 

 mar, history, geography, and such things. To this the 

 Iowa statutes have sagely added physiology and music; 

 and after 1915, agriculture, manual training, and domes- 

 tic science seem to be " indicated, " as the homeopathist 

 might say. 



This all looks simple enough ; but if the argument just 

 concluded has significance at all, it is plain that the 

 province of a teacher in our public schools is just as 

 much wider than any mere list of subjects, as his train- 

 ing here has transcended the mere exercises of the class 

 room. I may not attempt to discuss all that the situation 

 thus suggests. Three points only would I set in order, 

 as this morning we look out on the open fields of a teach- 

 er's opportunity, first, his work in the school room; 

 second, his work for people outside the school room ; and 

 third, his work for himself. 



In the first place, then, no service in the school room 

 can be considered adequate which has not constant re- 

 spect to the purpose which the commonwealth has in 

 view in paying for the service rendered. The Republic 

 looks out over the unbridled hosts of the democracy, mil- 



