^mfiw&^MVfi&^^yM* . i ;/ ' ' ^ v 
 
 . .,'-■/' 
 
 j .cnnn? 
 
 S Better ' ! en- bin 
 
 
 v '/ 
 
 11sv/^/3y^^^^ 
 
 
THE 
 
 ART OF SECURING BETTER 
 
 TEACHING POSITIONS 
 
 A HANDBOOK FOR TEACHERS 
 
 BY 
 
 ELBRIDGE B. LINCOLN 
 
 Formerly Secretary of The Eastern Teachers' Agency 
 
 THE PROGRESS CLUB 
 
 50 BROMFIELD STREET 
 
 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 
 

 Copyright, 1910 
 Elbridge B. Lincoln 
 
 Thomas Todd Co. 
 
 printers 
 
 14 Beacon Street 
 
 Boston 
 
 12681 &€ 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 I. The Teaching Outlook 5 
 
 II. The Successful Teacher 17 
 
 III. The Equipment of a Successful Teacher . . 24 
 
 IV. How to Make Effective Personal or Written 
 
 Applications 34 
 
 V. How to Secure a School without the Help of 
 
 an Agency .46 
 
 VI. How Teachers' Agencies Help Their Members . 53 
 
 VII. How to Get Best Results from Membership in 
 
 a Teachers' Agency 59 
 
 VIII. The Private School Proposition . . . . 69 
 
 IX. The Young College Graduate's Own Chapter . 74 
 
 X. How to Avoid and How to Adjust Commission 
 
 Complications . . . . . . .77 
 
 XI. When Should Teachers Change Their Positions ? 87 
 
CHAPTER I 
 
 THE TEACHING OUTLOOK 
 
 One morning the postman delivered the following 
 letter: 
 
 Gentlemen : 
 
 I have been a professor of experience for 
 twelve years. Will you kindly tell me what is 
 the opportunity for professing in Porto Rico? 
 
 Little did I suppose when I opened this letter that it 
 would ever be made the text of a book for teachers; 
 but the thoughts which prompted the writing of the 
 letter, viz., what is the opportunity for teaching, what 
 chances are there for me, how can I succeed in secur- 
 ing a good position, are, indeed, in every teacher's 
 mind, although they may not be expressed so uniquely. 
 Whether the professor later embarked for the island, 
 there to "profess" in the noble art of bootblacking 
 or in the more humble duties of the schoolroom, as 
 the case may be, and whether he there accumulated 
 wealth and fame are matters which are shrouded in 
 as much mystery as is the solution of the problem 
 presented in the closing paragraph of Mr. Stockton's 
 famous novel. 1 
 
 I do not claim to know much about school condi- 
 tions in Porto Rico, but I have given considerable 
 
 a "The Lady or the Tiger." Frank R. Stockton. Charles 
 Scribner's Sons. 
 
6 SECURING BETTER TEACHING POSITIONS 
 
 study to those prevailing in the United States, espe- 
 cially in New England, and it is with the thought 
 of helping teachers to secure positions in this more 
 limited field that I have undertaken the preparation 
 of this little volume, hoping that something of value 
 will be found in it both to the new teacher and to 
 those already holding positions but desiring better 
 ones. 
 
 Now no profession in the world is more noble 
 than that of teaching, none requires more earnest 
 thought and training, and yet it is too often made 
 merely an avocation, a stepping-stone, a means of 
 earning money for the study of law or medicine, or, 
 in the case of women teachers, a pleasant occupation 
 until they get married. This does not mean that it 
 is not perfectly right for a woman to become a teacher, 
 even though she expects to remain in the schoolroom 
 only a few years ; but in all fairness to her pupils she 
 should as thoroughly prepare herself as though she 
 were planning to make teaching her life work. Nor 
 does the fact that a man expects later to enter another 
 profession necessarily prevent him from making a 
 good teacher; and certainly the experience gained in 
 the schoolroom often proves of inestimable value in 
 after life. But the fact still remains that one has no 
 right to teach who does not feel the sacredness of the 
 trust enough to make as adequate preparation as his 
 or her time and means will allow. 
 
 The first thing to be considered in entering the 
 profession of teaching is one's fitness for the work. 
 In these days of scientific investigation of social prob- 
 
SECURING BETTER TEACHING POSITIONS 7 
 
 lems it is becoming more generally recognized that 
 failure is less often caused by lack of ability than by 
 engaging in an occupation for which one is not fitted. 
 Want of appreciation of what a particular business 
 or profession demands from those who enter it is 
 responsible for a deal of regret and discontent. 
 
 It is undoubtedly true that in the life of every one,, 
 up to a certain point, chance seems to rule. But there 
 comes a time when we begin to think for ourselves; 
 and if this awakening is not delayed too long, it is 
 possible to shape the after life in accordance with 
 a fixed plan. 1 
 
 We are living in an age of progress. A few 
 years ago only the city man had his telephone; now 
 the country farmer has not only his 'phone but his 
 auto, and next year he will have his aeroplane. The 
 thrifty housewife no longer plies the broom, but 
 pumps out the dust with a "vacuum cleaner"; and 
 in all lines of business new methods are being inau- 
 gurated. Nor is the change confined to mercantile 
 lines; in medicine and in surgery many cherished 
 theories have been overturned. 
 
 So in the teaching field we find a marked change 
 in conditions. Formerly in our country districts each 
 little hamlet had its own school, where the teacher, 
 receiving from four to six dollars a week, taught five 
 
 *A very suggestive and inspiring book on the subject of 
 choosing one's life work has recently been published and should 
 be on every teacher's desk. Not only will it help her to improve 
 her own plan of life, but it will be of infinite help in assist- 
 ing her to guide her pupils into the occupations for which Nature 
 fitted them. "Choosing a Vocation," by Frank Parsons. $1.00. 
 Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston. 
 
8 
 
 SECURING BETTER TEACHING POSITIONS 
 
 or six pupils. Today, instead of maintaining innumer- 
 able petty schools, the pupils are transported to one 
 central school, which makes it possible to pay the 
 teacher more salary and consequently to get one 
 better fitted for the work. Then, too, the employing 
 of superintendents who are trained educators and to 
 whom is given the selection of teachers tends to raise 
 the standard of requirements, as insistence is more 
 and more being placed upon special training. Nothing 
 indicates this change more than the statistics of the 
 departments of education of the several states. Take, 
 for example, Massachusetts. 
 
 In 1888 the number of teachers required in the 
 public schools of that state was 8,559, of which num- 
 ber only 2,677, or 3 1 P er cent, were normal grad- 
 uates. In 1898 the number of teachers required was 
 11,678, of which 4,428, or about 38 per cent, were 
 normal graduates. In 1908 the number required was 
 14,781, but of these 7,448, or over one-half, were 
 normal graduates. 
 
 The same conditions prevail in Rhode Island. A letter 
 just received from the Commissioner of Education of 
 that state gives the following figures : 
 
 Year 
 
 Total number 
 teachers 
 
 College training 
 
 Normal or 
 special training 
 
 1894 
 1899 
 1904 
 1909 
 
 i»554 
 i»9i3 
 2,055 
 2,294 
 
 95 
 217 
 246 
 326 
 
 558 
 905 
 
 I.I37 
 1,373 
 
SECURING BETTER TEACHING POSITIONS 9 
 
 This value of special training for grade work is 
 brought out most strongly in a communication from 
 the Commissioner of Connecticut, who says : 
 
 "Some towns refuse to consider teachers unless 
 they are normal graduates. I do not know of any 
 towns that accept unconditionally college graduates 
 for the schools below the high school. My opinion 
 is that training is more and more becoming a condi- 
 tion of employment. College graduates without train- 
 ing are no better than high school graduates without 
 training." 
 
 These facts indicate the condition which is becoming 
 more and more general, viz., that special preparation 
 is as necessary for a teacher as for a physician or 
 surgeon, and while it will undoubtedly always be true 
 that school positions can be secured without the teach- 
 er's having special training, and even in some cases 
 where she is not as well posted as some of her older 
 pupils, yet to neglect to provide herself with this 
 special training is deliberately to close the door of 
 opportunity to the best places. The fact that one's 
 grandmother was a successful teacher without ever 
 seeing a normal school does not prove that her de- 
 scendants are likely to attain success with only a high 
 school training, for much is required of a teacher 
 today which was never thought of in her time. 
 
 After due consideration has been given to the 
 subject of choosing a vocation, and the young high 
 school graduate has decided that she is by nature 
 fitted for the profession of teaching, that it is the one 
 thing above all others which she prefers to do, not 
 
10 SECURING BETTER TEACHING POSITIONS 
 
 because she thinks the hours are easy, a steady income 
 assured, the actual working year short and the vaca- 
 tion season long, but because she really loves the work 
 and means to give it her best efforts and highest ideals, 
 two important questions present themselves: how best 
 to fit herself properly for her work, and how to secure 
 a good school. Both questions call for careful con- 
 sideration on the part of any one thinking of becom- 
 ing a teacher. Nor are they separate and distinct 
 questions, for they are closely allied one to the other, 
 the matter of training determining in great measure 
 the kind of school for which one will afterwards be 
 eligible. 
 
 In his report, the Commissioner of Education of 
 the United States points out the fact of the constantly 
 decreasing number of men teachers in our schools. 
 In 1880, in the schools of this country, 42.8 per cent 
 of the teachers were men. In 1890 this was reduced 
 to 34.5 per cent, in 1900 to 29.9 per cent; while the 
 1909 report states that of 495,463 teachers only 
 104,495, or 2I - 1 P er cent, were men. This means 
 that, taken as a whole, there are less than half as many 
 men teachers today as there were thirty years ago. 
 But if we take some of the individual states we shall 
 find the ratio of men to women still smaller. New 
 Hampshire reports 95 per cent of her teaching force 
 to be women. There is, therefore, no question of the 
 fact that in the teaching profession women are in 
 the great majority; and since in our good land it is 
 the majority which rules, "vox populi, vox Dei," we 
 shall in the following chapters use the feminine per- 
 
SECURING BETTER TEACHING POSITIONS II 
 
 sonal pronouns, with the understanding that, accord- 
 ing to the orthography of a certain college graduate, 
 they will also include the "masculine sect." 
 
 It is pleasing to note that the salaries of teachers 
 are increasing. In Massachusetts the average salary in 
 1888 was $119.34 for men and $44.88 for women. 
 In 1898 this had increased to $137.41 for men and 
 $51.44 for women. In 1908 the average salary for 
 men was $155.95, while the salary for women teachers 
 had increased to $59.58; and taking the country as a 
 whole, the increase during this period has been from 
 $42.43 to $62.35 for men, and from $34.27 to $51.61 
 for women. A table, compiled from the 1909 report 
 of the Commissioner of Education of the United 
 States, giving the number of men and women teachers 
 and the average salaries in the different states, will 
 be found on following pages. 
 
 Another cause of congratulation is the broadening 
 of the teaching field, and the indications are that 
 during the next decade it will be still further extended. 
 
 The growth of Correspondence Schools, the methods 
 of which have been demonstrated as pedagogically 
 sound when rightly conducted, not only offers an 
 opportunity to earnest men and women to supplement 
 lack of training without the necessity of giving up 
 positions to attend school, but also offers employment 
 outside of their school duties to a limited number of 
 teachers, to whom is intrusted the task of correcting 
 the papers which the students send in. 
 
 The kindergarten movement, another phase of 
 what our forefathers would call our "new-fangled" 
 
12 
 
 SECURING BETTER TEACHING POSITIONS 
 
 State 
 
 Number 
 of male 
 teachers 
 
 Number 
 of female 
 teachers 
 
 Average 
 monthly sal- 
 ary of male 
 
 teachers 
 
 Average 
 monthly sal- 
 ary of female 
 
 teachers 
 
 Alabama .... 
 
 2,740 
 
 5. 0I 7 
 
 #44-65 
 
 #38.49 
 
 Arizona .... 
 
 109 
 
 536 
 
 99-5° 
 
 75.06 
 
 Arkansas . . . 
 
 3>963 
 
 4.334 
 
 53-oo 
 
 41.OO 
 
 California . . . 
 
 1.376 
 
 8,846 
 
 114.48 
 
 77.02 
 
 Colorado .... 
 
 796 
 
 4.495 
 
 80.65 
 
 60.03 
 
 Connecticut . . 
 
 3 2 9 
 
 4,696 
 
 115.07 
 
 50.50 
 
 Delaware . . . 
 
 156 
 
 741 
 
 72.82 
 
 34.70 
 
 Dist. of Columbia 
 
 196 
 
 1.387 
 
 92.27 
 
 92.27 
 
 Florida .... 
 
 835 
 
 2,762 
 
 58.95 
 
 40.35 
 
 Georgia .... 
 
 2,860 
 
 8,036 
 
 • • 
 
 • • 
 
 Idaho. 
 
 47i 
 
 1,581 
 
 85-59 
 
 60.89 
 
 Illinois .... 
 
 5»4i 1 
 
 23,113 
 
 82.12 
 
 60.76 
 
 Indiana .... 
 
 6,147 
 
 10,524 
 
 62.60 
 
 55.80 
 
 Iowa 
 
 3.009 
 
 24,941 
 
 66.01 
 
 44.20 
 
 Kansas .... 
 
 2,465 
 
 10,520 
 
 55-Q2 
 
 45-17 
 
 Kentucky . . . 
 
 3.6i9 
 
 6,190 
 
 • • 
 
 
 Louisiana . . . 
 
 1,521 
 
 5.445 
 
 66.13 
 
 45.81 
 
 Maine 
 
 700 
 
 6,179 
 
 39-84 
 
 30.68 
 
 Maryland . . . 
 
 880 
 
 4.477 
 
 • • 
 
 • • 
 
 Massachusetts . 
 
 1,281 
 
 13,497 
 
 155-95 
 
 59.58 
 
SECURING BETTER TEACHING POSITIONS 
 
 13 
 
 State 
 
 Number 
 of male 
 teachers 
 
 Number 
 of female 
 teachers 
 
 Average 
 monthly sal- 
 ary of male 
 
 teachers 
 
 Average 
 monthly sal- 
 ary of female 
 
 teachers 
 
 Michigan .... 
 
 2,433 
 
 14,974 
 
 £7I-52 
 
 £48.58 
 
 Minnesota . . . 
 
 i>577 
 
 12,853 
 
 74-30 
 
 45-23 
 
 Mississippi . . . 
 
 3,i48 
 
 6,298 
 
 • • 
 
 • • 
 
 Missouri .... 
 
 4,840 
 
 13,158 
 
 57.78 
 
 51-45 
 
 Montana .... 
 
 221 
 
 1,086 
 
 99.OO 
 
 60.OO 
 
 Nebraska . . . 
 
 1,242 
 
 9,"3 
 
 69.51 
 
 49-33 
 
 Nevada .... 
 
 43 
 
 371 
 
 122.02 
 
 77.00 
 
 New Hampshire 
 
 2 55 
 
 2,744 
 
 4I.83 
 
 36.OI 
 
 New Jersey . . 
 
 1,106 
 
 9,173 
 
 • • 
 
 • • 
 
 New Mexico . . 
 
 422 
 
 643 
 
 52-05 
 
 51.58 
 
 New York . . . 
 
 4,996 
 
 37,592 
 
 • • 
 
 • • 
 
 North Carolina . 
 
 3,U9 
 
 7,43! 
 
 • • 
 
 - • 
 
 North Dakota . 
 
 1,166 
 
 5,198 
 
 53-92 
 
 45.68 
 
 Ohio 
 
 8,267 
 
 18,688 
 
 67.00 
 
 52.50 
 
 Oklahoma . . . 
 
 1,237 
 
 7,499 
 
 57-83 
 
 49.22 
 
 Oregon .... 
 
 783 
 
 3,46o 
 
 65.64 
 
 50.16 
 
 Pennsylvania . . 
 
 7,488 
 
 26,525 
 
 61.23 
 
 46.85 
 
 Rhode Island . . 
 
 195 
 
 2,119 
 
 126.09 
 
 59-54 
 
 South Carolina . 
 
 2,562 
 
 3,874 
 
 • • 
 
 • • 
 
 South Dakota . 
 
 950 
 
 4,605 
 
 67.71 
 
 47.27 
 
14 
 
 SECURING BETTER TEACHING POSITIONS 
 
 State 
 
 Number 
 of male 
 teachers 
 
 Number 
 of female 
 teachers 
 
 Average 
 monthly sal- 
 ary of male 
 
 teachers 
 
 Average 
 monthly sal- 
 ary of female 
 
 teachers 
 
 Tennessee . . . 
 
 Texas 
 
 Utah 
 
 Vermont .... 
 Virginia .... 
 Washington . . 
 West Virginia . 
 Wisconsin . . . 
 Wyoming . . . 
 
 3,682 
 6,054 
 
 544 
 354 
 1,863 
 1,382 
 3,836 
 i,75i 
 ii5 
 
 6,323 
 12,956 
 1,562 
 3,56l 
 7,965 
 5,142 
 
 4,446 
 
 12,908 
 
 784 
 
 #59.60 
 
 77-3 2 
 
 43-40 
 45.70 
 75-65 
 
 95-33 
 85.26 
 
 *5M5 
 53.60 
 32.02 
 34-96 
 58.99 
 
 50.23 
 53-o5 
 
 education, offers opportunity for a good many teach- 
 ers, but not so many as one might at first suppose, 
 for there are a great many towns which do not have 
 this grade at all. Probably no line of teaching is 
 more attractive to a young woman who loves chil- 
 dren, but hates to discipline, than the kindergarten 
 grade. Little children are always attractive and are 
 easier to handle than when they grow older. But 
 too often the graduate from a kindergarten training 
 school, being unable to secure a kindergarten school, 
 finds she has not the right training for a position as 
 a first grade teacher; so that about the only thing 
 she can do is to go into an ungraded school and get 
 some experience, after which she may develop into 
 a good first or second grade teacher. 
 
SECURING BETTER TEACHING POSITIONS 1 5 
 
 But the establishment of what are called voca- 
 tional schools will be the feature in our educational 
 system which will receive most attention during the 
 next few years. When our high schools and acad- 
 emies were established in the early days of our 
 country, they were designed to prepare boys for 
 college, usually with the expectation that most of 
 them would ultimately study for the ministry ; and 
 it was long before educators began to recognize the 
 fact that a college education is not the Ultima Thule, 
 and that the province of our schools should be to 
 prepare pupils for better self-support and citizenship 
 rather than to force them to acquire a knowledge of 
 the classics. But the tide has turned. Starting with 
 the large high schools, commercial courses designed 
 for those students who were not planning to go to 
 college were introduced. These fitted for mercantile 
 lines, the study of bookkeeping, stenography, and 
 commercial geography taking the place of Latin and 
 Greek. Then the smaller high schools took up the 
 movement, which has kept on growing until today 
 there is a splendid field for teachers of commercial 
 subjects. 
 
 From the establishment of these commercial 
 courses, designed to fit young men and women for 
 employment in offices, the next logical step is to 
 establish schools to fit them for other means of live- 
 lihood. Already there are some seventeen such schools 
 in Massachusetts, some of them day schools, but the 
 majority evening schools. Pupils enter these after 
 leaving the grammar schools. The teachers in these 
 
l6 SECURING BETTER TEACHING POSITIONS 
 
 trade schools, besides giving instruction in the Eng- 
 lish branches, give special training in technical sub- 
 jects, such training consisting of practical demon- 
 stration and bench practice, together with sufficient 
 theory to enable the pupils to become good artisans 
 or mechanics. This field is new. The other states 
 have not begun to enter it yet, but sooner or later 
 they will have to come to it. Here, then, is a new 
 opportunity for teachers, for the vocational schools 
 call for men who can do things and can tell others 
 how to do them. But such men are hard to find, for 
 as they are teachers they should be men of sterling 
 character, with a good command of the English 
 language, with patience and tact to instruct, as well 
 as skill in working with their hands. The fact that 
 such men are scarce means that the salaries will range 
 about $200 a year more than is paid men in regular 
 high school work; just the same as today commercial 
 teachers command higher salaries than regular high 
 school teachers. 
 
 No special mention need be made of teachers of 
 music, drawing, cooking, physical culture, manual 
 training, etc., except to point out the fact that inas- 
 much as one teacher of any of these special subjects 
 can supervise a good many rooms, it follows that 
 the openings in these lines can never be as numerous 
 as those in regular grade work. 
 
 Thus in making a resume of the teaching field we 
 find these significant facts: the number of teachers 
 is increasing, the percentage of men teachers is de- 
 creasing, the average salaries are increasing, and new 
 and promising fields of work are about to open up. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 THE SUCCESSFUL TEACHER 
 
 What is a successful teacher? If this question 
 is asked a clergyman, he will tell you one thing; if 
 asked a teachers' agency manager, he will give a 
 different answer ; but the difference will be due entirely 
 to the two viewpoints of those interrogated. Both 
 definitions will be right. Just now it is the business 
 side of a teacher's career that we are considering, 
 so it is of this only that we shall speak. 
 
 A successful teacher is one who has advanced 
 steadily from less to more responsible positions in a 
 limited number of years until she has reached the 
 maximum salary for teachers of that grade with similar 
 training and teaching experience. This is, of course, 
 a purely mercenary definition, and leaves out of sight 
 the ethical phase of success in teaching, viz., the value 
 of the teacher's influence for good, the awakening of 
 ambition in the minds of her pupils, and the inculca- 
 tion of higher standards in the community. So great, 
 however, is the value of work along these lines that 
 no teacher, however seemingly unsuccessful from a 
 business standpoint, who has done this in even a small 
 degree should count her work a failure. 
 
 But whether viewed from the ethical or business 
 standpoint, success is dependent on the same funda- 
 mental principles. In all walks of life love is the 
 
 17 
 
l8 SECURING BETTER TEACHING POSITIONS 
 
 strongest incentive force in successful men and women. 
 It may be the love of gain, of power, of overcoming 
 obstacles, of accumulating wealth for those dear to 
 them, or of making the world better because they 
 have lived in it. 
 
 So with the teacher. She must love her work. 
 More than this, she should enjoy it. A moment's 
 thought will show that it is possible to love an occu- 
 pation because of what it brings, while all the time 
 we dislike the constraints which this same occupation 
 entails. It makes little difference to one who employs 
 an artisan whether he enjoys his work or not. It 
 makes a world of difference to the scholars, however, 
 whether their teacher, despite her high ideals and 
 broader love for her work, enjoys the details of school 
 administration. I would not emphasize this so strongly 
 were there not other callings fully as lucrative as 
 teaching to which a young woman with high ideals 
 may devote her life. 
 
 In our definition of a successful teacher we spoke 
 of her as "reaching the maximum salary in a limited 
 number of years." This may seem like putting undue 
 restriction on the definition of success until one real- 
 izes how much harder it is to adapt oneself to new 
 conditions as one grows older. So that it is extremely 
 unwise for any teacher after graduating from normal 
 school or college to remain long in a small or out-of- 
 the-way school. It is not so much a matter of salary, 
 for such schools sometimes pay good salaries, but 
 because methods of discipline in small schools vary 
 greatly from those in large schools ; so much so, in 
 
SECURING BETTER TEACHING POSITIONS 19 
 
 fact, that a teacher in changing from one of these 
 small schools to a larger one often fails simply because 
 she does not realize in season that the new situation 
 calls for different methods. In her small school she 
 knew each pupil intimately; in the large school she 
 may be brought in contact with a hundred or more 
 different pupils, only a few of whom come directly 
 under her supervision except at recitation periods. 
 Then, again, the fact that she is willing to stay in the 
 small school, even though the net salary may be more 
 than she would get in the city school, is likely to be 
 construed by a superintendent as evidence of lack of 
 ambition. 
 
 It is well, therefore, for every teacher to realize 
 that in approximately five years after graduating from 
 normal school, or eight or ten years after graduating 
 from college, she will be as good a teacher as she is 
 likely ever to be, and consequently that she should 
 then be earning a good salary if she ever expects to 
 have it. 
 
 Perhaps the best way of explaining what I mean 
 is to outline the first few years of the teaching career 
 of what might be considered an average teacher. 
 
 MEN TEACHERS 
 
 NORMAL GRADUATES 
 
 First Year Principal of small grammar school or 
 
 submaster in larger grammar school. 
 Salary $600 to $900. 
 
 Second to Third Increase in salary or better school. 
 Years 
 
20 
 
 SECURING BETTER TEACHING POSITIONS 
 
 Fourth to Tenth Same kind of position. Salary $800 to 
 
 Years $1,500. 
 
 First Year 
 
 Second to Third 
 Years 
 
 Fourth to Sixth 
 Years 
 
 Seventh to Tenth 
 Years 
 
 COLLEGE GRADUATES 
 
 Principal of small high school or assist- 
 ant in larger high school. Salary $600 
 to $1,000. 
 
 Increase in salary or better school. 
 
 Better position either as submaster or 
 principal. Salary $1,000 to $1,500. 
 
 Principalship at salary of from $1,200 
 upward. 
 
 WOMEN TEACHERS 
 
 COLLEGE GRADUATES IN HIGH SCHOOL WORK 
 
 First Year Assistant in small high school. Many 
 
 subjects to teach. Salary $400 to $500. 
 
 Second Year Increase in salary or better position. 
 
 Salary $500 to $600. 
 
 Third to Fifth Larger school. One or two subjects. 
 
 Years Salary $500 to $700. 
 
 Sixth to Tenth Increase in salary or better school. 
 
 Years Salary from $800 to $1,200, according 
 
 to ability. 
 
 NORMAL OR TRAINING SCHOOL GRADUATES 
 
 First Year School of one, two, or three grades. 
 
 Salary $400 to $450. 
 
 Second Year Increased salary or better school. 
 
 Third to Fourth One grade. Salary $500 to $600. 
 
 Years 
 
SECURING BETTER TEACHING POSITIONS 21 
 
 Fifth to Seventh One grade. Salary $550 to $700 or more, 
 Years according to ability. 
 
 TEACHERS WITH ONLY HIGH SCHOOL TRAINING 
 
 First Year Country or district school. From three 
 
 to eight or ten grades to teach. Weekly 
 wages $6 to $8. 
 
 Second to Third Same kind of school, with better wages. 
 Years 
 
 Fourth to Fifth Better or larger school of the same kind, 
 
 Years wages $10 to $12 a week; or graded 
 
 school, salary $400 to $500. 
 
 Fifth to Seventh Better graded school at better salary if 
 Years exceptional ability is shown. 
 
 As these outlines are intended merely to be sug- 
 gestive, there will be found many cases where teachers 
 will be earning good salaries much sooner than is 
 indicated on the above schedule; and there will be 
 other cases where the reverse will be true. Also the 
 fact that salaries in general are increasing means that 
 the figures given will necessarily need revision in a 
 few years; but they are sufficiently accurate at the 
 present time to enable any one to see what the possi- 
 bilities are in the way of promotion. Whether a 
 teacher ultimately reaches the maximum salary is, how- 
 ever, dependent upon her natural ability and earning 
 capacity. 
 
 Having denned and explained what a successful 
 teacher is from a business standpoint, it may be help- 
 ful to enumerate from this same standpoint some very 
 common causes of failure to make good in one's first 
 
22 SECURING BETTER TEACHING POSITIONS 
 
 school. Of course nothing need be said when the 
 failure is due to lack of proper training; but even 
 with adequate training a teacher sometimes fails be- 
 cause she is unable to understand the feelings of the 
 community and to adapt herself to a sphere of life 
 differing from that in which she was brought up. 
 Conditions in country society are often very different 
 from those prevailing in the city; and a girl, coming 
 to a country school and failing to get into the spirit 
 of the place, may unconsciously do many things to 
 engender ill will or jealousy. But when once she has 
 obtained the good will of the little community in which 
 she teaches, she will find the people as worthy of 
 respect as any in her native city. 
 
 But lack of ability to discipline is the most potent 
 cause of failure. Modes of discipline differ from 
 those in vogue when our grandmothers taught school. 
 More and more school boards are forbidding corporal 
 punishment, which makes it harder for the teacher in 
 many cases to obtain order. When this power to con- 
 trol without the use of the rod is gained, however, it 
 proves that the teacher is an excellent disciplinarian. 
 But can this power be acquired, and if so, how ? I do 
 not wish to pose as an authority on the subject of 
 discipline, nor is this book intended to do more than 
 help teachers in securing positions ; but superintend- 
 ents lay so much stress on the teacher's disciplinary 
 power that I would like to state a few of the causes 
 which, in my judgment, lead to poor discipline, because 
 a little attention on the part of the teacher could easily 
 remove them. The first cause is lack of ventilation in 
 
SECURING BETTER TEACHING POSITIONS 23 
 
 schoolrooms. No one can do his best work in a room 
 where the air is bad. Time and again, however, I 
 have visited schools where after coming in from the 
 purer air of the street I could hardly breathe because 
 of the closeness of the room. The teacher, however, 
 intent on her work, seemed oblivious to the condition 
 of the atmosphere, and wondered why the little ones 
 were restless. Another cause of restlessness, and 
 hence of poor discipline, is the fact that children can- 
 not stand being kept in one position for any length 
 of time; their muscles get cramped and they feel 
 uncomfortable all over. Let a teacher from time 
 to time open the windows and give the class a few 
 simple physical exercises and discipline will run much 
 smoother. A third cause of uneasiness is often not 
 as apparent, but it is none the less real, namely, the 
 fact that little ones coming to school from a distance, 
 or from poor homes, get hungry. Now when even 
 teachers at conventions find difficulty in listening to 
 the speakers when they feel half starved, how can 
 one expect good order and attention from a child 
 who is faint or hungry? How this matter can be 
 remedied, whether by encouraging the bringing of 
 luncheons by the pupils or the furnishing of same 
 by the teacher, is a matter for the teacher to decide; 
 but if hunger is a cause of undermining discipline, 
 the up-to-date teacher must find some way to remove 
 it. 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 THE EQUIPMENT OF A SUCCESSFUL TEACHER 
 
 Any woman expecting to teach should realize 
 that the moment she applies for a school she becomes 
 as it were a merchant. It is true that what she has 
 to sell: training, experience, personality, etc., are in- 
 tangible things, but they are none the less real; and 
 as the successful merchant must study his market, 
 choose and arrange his goods to suit the tastes of his 
 customers, so the teacher must use judgment in refer- 
 ence to the kind of training, experience, and person- 
 ality which she acquires if she would attain the highest 
 measure of success. 
 
 In entering any line of business one of the first 
 things is to ascertain the condition of the market. 
 Take a simple illustration from the poultry business. 
 In New York State the preference is for white-shelled 
 eggs, while Bostonians prefer an egg with a brown 
 shell. Therefore the shrewd poultryman would set 
 aside his own personal preferences in catering to his 
 trade and select those breeds which produce eggs 
 popular in his locality. So a young woman, before 
 preparing herself to teach, should ascertain if possible 
 the kind of training which will give her the greatest 
 chance of winning out in the competition she is bound 
 to meet as soon as she enters the field as a candidate 
 for a school. 
 
 24 
 
SECURING BETTER TEACHING POSITIONS 
 
 25 
 
 In a previous chapter we have shown the increas- 
 ing demand for normal and college trained men and 
 women in the public schools, so we are right in assum- 
 ing that it will be more and more difficult as time 
 goes on for even a good teacher without normal 
 training to secure the best positions. Already school 
 boards, through efforts brought to bear by the super- 
 intendents, are refusing to elect to grade positions 
 new teachers who are not normal or college grad- 
 uates. Furthermore, there seems to be a growing 
 tendency among superintendents to look for normal 
 graduates who have also had college training. 
 
 Right here may be as good a place as any to 
 suggest the possible lines of study which it would be 
 well for one to consider who is planning to become 
 a teacher. 
 
 College or University- 
 Course. 
 
 College course followed 
 by one year supplementary 
 work at Normal School. 
 
 Full Normal Course. 
 
 Course at Training 
 School. 
 
 Course at Business 
 College. 
 
 Fits especially for High School 
 work. 
 
 Gives a college degree and normal 
 certificate, and fits for either 
 High School or Grade work. 
 
 Fits for Grade work only. 
 
 Fits for Grade work, but is not 
 considered as good preparation 
 as a normal course. 
 
 Fits for teaching Commercial 
 Subjects, but should be preceded 
 by successful teaching experience, 
 or by a college, normal, or train- 
 ing school course; preferably by 
 both experience and college train- 
 ing. 
 
26 SECURING BETTER TEACHING POSITIONS 
 
 After a woman has begun to teach it is harder 
 and harder for her to go back to normal school, but 
 there are courses which can be taken during the 
 summer at many of the normal schools and colleges. 
 Besides this, certain correspondence schools offer 
 courses which will be found very helpful, although 
 such courses cannot be considered equivalent to resi- 
 dent study at a normal school. 1 
 
 At first it may seem that as long as a teacher has 
 the training it makes no difference how she acquires 
 it. For example, suppose a student enters one of our 
 universities, spends four years as a special student, 
 and makes such progress that at the end of this time 
 she acquires even more knowledge than the regular 
 students ; if she lacks her college degree she will 
 always be handicapped in getting new positions. 
 Thus a teacher should see to it that her education 
 is not only thorough, but that it does not lack "talk- 
 ing points." Even the school at which one fits for 
 college often has an important bearing on the matter. 
 
 But even though a teacher has the best training 
 in the world, but has not a pleasing personality, it 
 will always be hard for her to secure new positions; 
 while, on the other hand, if she has a good person- 
 ality and makes a good appearance she may be 
 selected in preference to other candidates with better 
 training and more experience. This does not mean 
 that a superintendent selects a teacher merely because 
 of his own preference, but because he realizes what 
 a power for good is a pleasing personality. Children 
 
 1 The Home Correspondence School, Springfield, Mass. 
 
SECURING BETTER TEACHING POSITIONS 27 
 
 instinctively know whether a teacher is a sham, or is 
 at heart in sympathy with them. 
 
 A pleasing personality is somewhat like a problem 
 in mathematics which can be solved in several differ- 
 ent ways and the same answer obtained. That is, 
 personal beauty, a pleasing voice, intellectual attain- 
 ments, may each tend to make a personality that is 
 pleasing; but when one studies deeper into the matter 
 one discovers that the keynote of a personality of 
 this kind is adaptability. And if this is true, then 
 any one can attain a personality that is pleasing, 
 although to some it will come much easier than to 
 others, just as some persons can learn mathematics 
 more readily than can others. Any one, however, 
 under the instruction of a good teacher, can learn 
 mathematics, because he will be made to appreciate 
 the relation which numbers, letters, or lines, as the 
 case may be, bear to one another. As soon as this 
 relationship is understood, the subject comes out of 
 the fog and is seen in its true perspective. To illus- 
 trate. A freshman in Wellesley once came to me at 
 the close of a term for tutoring in solid geometry. 
 She had finished the term's work and was to be 
 examined after the vacation. At our first lesson T 
 tried to discover where her difficulties lay, so that, 
 starting from something she knew thoroughly, we 
 could build up a structure that would stand the test. 
 After quizzing her for some time imagine my sur- 
 prise to discover that her failure to understand the 
 subject was all caused by her lack of training .in 
 drawing. To her cubes, cones, cylinders, etc., when 
 
28 SECURING BETTER TEACHING POSITIONS 
 
 drawn on paper, did not seem to stand out as solid 
 things, but appeared merely as so many lines cross- 
 ing each other. Everything appeared flat. Not until 
 I had given her a lesson on perspective did she learn 
 to see these drawings as solid figures. But once 
 having grasped the idea she had little difficulty in 
 understanding the subject. 
 
 So in the matter of acquiring a pleasing person- 
 ality. It is all in the trick of grasping the true 
 relationship of things. Some persons may do this 
 more readily than others, may do it instinctively, just 
 as some persons naturally take to mathematics ; but 
 once a person can see things from the standpoint of 
 some particular person he can, if he chooses, acquire 
 a personality which will be pleasing to that person. 
 And if he can do this in one case, he can do it in 
 others ; for all he has to do is to extend his field of 
 vision and see things from the standpoints of many 
 other persons and adapt himself accordingly. No 
 teacher who is earnest and uses her God-given powers 
 of common sense and good judgment need lack in 
 attaining a pleasing personality. There is positively 
 no question about this. Of course it requires thought, 
 patience, and will power; but any one lacking any 
 of these qualities is certainly not fitted by tempera- 
 ment for the profession of teaching. We are separate 
 and distinct individuals, and as such we naturally 
 differ one from the other. To improve our person- 
 ality does not mean to change our individuality, but 
 merely to modify the expression of this individuality 
 so that it will not jar upon the individuality of others. 
 
SECURING BETTER TEACHING POSITIONS 29 
 
 To do this we not only must feel a kindly consider- 
 ation for others, but its expression must take a form 
 which cannot be misunderstood. The act and the 
 thought which prompts the act must be in harmony, 
 Take a simple example : Two persons attempt to enter- 
 tain a gathering of friends by playing a selection 
 upon the cornet. One is without training, the other 
 is a skilled musician. The instrument is in each case 
 the same, but what a difference in the tone and how 
 different the effect on the listeners ! Where is the 
 trouble? Not with the instrument; surely not with 
 the purpose of the players. So in the attainment of 
 a pleasing personality; not only should one have kind 
 intentions, earnestness, and enthusiasm, but one should 
 learn to express these in a way that will be pleasing. 
 Fortunate indeed is the teacher who has a friend 
 willing to help her along this line. 
 
 Closely allied to personality is the matter of dress. 
 Sometimes, indeed, it carries more weight even than 
 training and experience. It is such a power for good 
 or harm in determining the decision of superintend- 
 ents that no teacher can afford to neglect this part 
 of her equipment. All that is needed is a little time, 
 thought, and attention to details and artistic effects. 
 Why any one should wear an unbecoming hat, tie, or 
 garment when the same money would purchase an 
 attractive article is a question which has only one 
 answer. Improvement in dress means a gain in power, 
 for, as one writer has aptly expressed it, " Next to the 
 hope of heaven is the feeling that one is well dressed." 
 There are today teachers who would be earning from 
 
30 SECURING BETTER TEACHING POSITIONS 
 
 $50 to $400 a year more if they would give this 
 matter the attention it deserves. Many times I have 
 seen an untidy dress or a pair of soiled or ripped 
 gloves prejudice a candidate in the mind of the inter- 
 viewing superintendent. Some persons, too, have 
 slight physical defects which certain styles of dress 
 intensify, while others conceal or modify. A striking 
 illustration of this occurred in the case of a bright 
 young college graduate who was trying for her first 
 school. This young lady was afflicted with a slight 
 nervous tremor. It did not, however, prevent her 
 from taking her college course and graduating with 
 honors. She realized, however, that it handicapped 
 her in applying for schools, yet she wished to teach 
 and decided to try for positions. I recall well the 
 morning she had her first interview with a superin- 
 tendent at our office, for at the close of the interview 
 he called me aside and suggested that I advise her in 
 the future to remove her hat when she met superin- 
 tendents. It seems that she wore a hat trimmed with 
 cherries, and the slight tremor caused these ornaments 
 to vibrate upon their elastic stems with a rhythmic 
 motion which resulted in so hypnotizing the superin- 
 tendent that he could not remove his gaze from the 
 hat, nor could he fix his attention on what she was 
 saying, so persistently did the little round balls bob 
 themselves into his consciousness. 
 
 In the equipment of a teacher we have thus far 
 spoken of training, personality, and appearance, but 
 have said nothing about experience, nor shall we need 
 to say much about this, for it is something which 
 
SECURING BETTER TEACHING POSITIONS 3 1 
 
 time and opportunity will give. It remains, however, 
 for the teacher to obtain a school where her experience 
 will prove most valuable to her as a stepping-stone 
 to better positions. This matter of location is very- 
 important, but quite often it is made subservient to 
 the question of salary. It is the position and not the 
 weekly wage that should be the main object, for the 
 wage will ultimately take care of itself. Obviously, 
 when a teacher spends several years in a school small 
 in numbers, not under good supervision, and in such 
 an out of the way place that she cannot easily be 
 visited, she cannot expect her work and ability to 
 bring her as many opportunities as if she taught in a 
 school under trained supervisors and easy of access 
 to visiting superintendents. More and more superin- 
 tendents demand to see teachers at their work, but it 
 is extremely hard to get a superintendent to visit a 
 teacher located in some remote town when there are 
 other candidates in schools easily accessible. 
 
 Another important item in the equipment of a 
 teacher is confidence in her own ability. Too often 
 a candidate for a position feels afraid of her rivals. 
 There is really no need to fear any superintendent, 
 and as for rivals, it is quite likely they feel equally 
 afraid. To think of your own inefficiency is all wrong. 
 Convince yourself that you are equal to the situation ; 
 say to yourself, "I can and I will succeed." Other 
 people accept us largely on our own valuation. Set 
 this valuation high and then live up to it. Nothing 
 succeeds like success, and a part of success is to feel 
 that you will succeed. A great deal is made now of 
 
32 SECURING BETTER TEACHING POSITIONS 
 
 the power of auto-suggestion, and no one needs this 
 more than the woman who is candidating for a school. 
 If you do not believe this is true, try it, and you will 
 see how much stronger an impression you will make 
 when you go to an interview if you are convinced 
 that you are the one and the only one for the position. 
 
 And last, but not by any means least, a teacher 
 needs health. She needs it even more than she needs 
 knowledge. I mean by this that no matter how well 
 trained a teacher may be, if she lacks health she is 
 inferior to a healthy teacher with less training. For 
 this reason she should be careful to take sufficient 
 exercise and recreation, and above all she should shun 
 Worry, which, like that old enemy to success, Pro- 
 crastination, has wrecked so many bright prospects. 
 Tennis, golf, tramping, skating, and social entertain- 
 ment will sweep with the magic of the old woman's 
 broom the "cobwebs" from the brain, and make life 
 once more worth the living. 
 
 Before closing this chapter I want earnestly to 
 warn teachers against resigning before they secure 
 other positions, as to do so almost always has the 
 effect of impairing the value of their equipment. Just 
 as soon as one resigns one's position it becomes much 
 harder to get another. This is true in all lines of 
 business. The moment a person is unemployed, expla- 
 nations have to be made. Superintendents want to 
 know why a teacher gave up her school, and if this 
 was done before she received her reelection there is 
 always the possibility of doubt arising as to whether 
 she would have been reelected had she remained. But 
 
SECURING BETTER TEACHING POSITIONS 33 
 
 if, on the other hand, she receives her reappointment, 
 it is prima facie evidence that she gave satisfaction. 
 Besides this, the fact that a teacher is without a posi- 
 tion creates a feeling of insecurity which has the effect 
 of diminishing her own confidence. But if she does 
 not resign until she gets a better position she will not 
 be forced to take a school no better than the one in 
 which she is then teaching, nor be placed in a situation 
 where the superintendent can expect to get her at the 
 minimum price because she is out of work. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 HOW TO MAKE SUCCESSFUL PERSONAL OR WRITTEN 
 APPLICATIONS 
 
 "Ask and it shall be given you." No truer words 
 were ever spoken. Except in rare instances, in order 
 to secure a school an application must be made to the 
 proper school authorities. Whether this is made by- 
 letter, or through a third person, or by the personal 
 application of the candidate herself, its object is the 
 same, viz., to make such a favorable impression upon 
 the minds of the superintendent and school board 
 as to secure the election. Whichever way the appli- 
 cation is made does not affect the number of rival 
 candidates for the position. If the place is a good 
 one, there will be enough competition to satisfy the 
 fighting instincts of any rational being. It is neces- 
 sary, therefore, for the teacher to marshal and 
 arrange her forces with the strategy of a general 
 on the field of battle; training, experience, person- 
 ality, and appearance, each must be made to act its 
 respective part most effectively. Unexpected com- 
 plications may arise which tact can turn to advantage ; 
 want of tact will render success impossible. 
 
 One of the most striking examples of a display 
 of tact in applying for a school happened several 
 years ago when the writer was connected with a 
 prominent teachers' agency. The call came for 
 a teacher of a special high school subject. It stated 
 
 34 
 
SECURING BETTER TEACHING POSITIONS 35 
 
 that an experienced teacher was required. Our best 
 candidate was a young woman just graduated from 
 college, thoroughly conversant with the subject, but 
 entirely lacking in teaching experience. Two things, 
 however, made me decide to present her as a candi- 
 date : her training and the fact that all her references 
 spoke of her as possessing great tact. Accordingly 
 I wrote and informed her of the opening, caution- 
 ing her on no account to make her application by 
 letter, for if she did it would surely be turned down, 
 but to make a personal call upon the superintendent. 
 Then I waited results with considerable solicitude, 
 for it was taking a long chance. But I soon dis- 
 covered that I had no need for worry, for her refer- 
 ences had spoken the truth when they said she 
 possessed great tact. Contrary to my instructions 
 she wrote the superintendent that she was coming 
 to see him to make a personal application for the 
 position; but she took care to mail the letter so that 
 it could by no possibility reach him before she would 
 be on her way to the town where he lived. She 
 dressed herself in a becoming outing suit, and when 
 she reached his office she entered it with the deter- 
 mination to get the place. On account of her letter 
 the superintendent expected her, but he tried to scare 
 her by stating that the position required an experi- 
 enced teacher, that all the other teachers in the school 
 were experienced, that he had already had some fifty 
 applicants for the place who were experienced teachers. 
 But it didn't work. She wouldn't be scared. She felt 
 that she knew her subject and had confidence that she 
 
36 SECURING BETTER TEACHING POSITIONS 
 
 could teach it. Every reason which the superintendent 
 advanced to prove to her that she was not fitted for 
 the place she used in such a way as to show that that 
 was one of the very reasons why she could make good. 
 For instance, when the statement was made that the 
 teacher of that subject had been a particularly strong 
 one, she said that this made it all the better for her, 
 for the work was all planned out and all she would 
 have to do would be to follow in the same path. Thus, 
 in one way or another, she turned every objection to 
 her own advantage, and she did it in such a tactful 
 way that she finally impressed the superintendent so 
 favorably that he allowed her to call upon the differ- 
 ent members of the school board. But even after she 
 had done this and made them feel that she was a 
 bright young woman and would make a good teacher, 
 it still seemed as though she would not win out. 
 However, to make a long story short, the position 
 was finally offered her, although there were some 
 seventy-five teachers in the race before it was settled. 
 In the instance given above the teacher won out 
 because she convinced the committee that she was 
 equal to the situation, that she possessed ability, that 
 she would be equal to any emergency that was likely 
 to come up. In other words she impressed them with 
 her power. And in every case it is this impression 
 of power which a candidate should aim to give. It 
 makes no difference whether she meets superintend- 
 ents at the instigation of some agency or through 
 her own initiative. At the interview she should by 
 manner, words, and credentials convince them of her 
 ability. 
 
SECURING BETTER TEACHING POSITIONS 37 
 
 Before suggesting how a teacher can give this 
 impression of power, it is well to call attention to the 
 fact that power is of at least two kinds: the power 
 which comes with physique and health, and that other 
 kind of power which is so hard to define but which 
 is the result of confidence in one's own ability. One 
 teacher may say, "John, if you do that again I shall 
 punish you." But in a few days John may be caught 
 doing the forbidden thing again. Whether he receives 
 the punishment or not is immaterial. The warning 
 was not heeded. Another teacher may say, "John, I 
 would not do that again." The tone in which the 
 words are spoken may be low, but there is something 
 in the eye of the second teacher which commands 
 respect, and the offense is not repeated. 
 
 Undoubtedly avoirdupois is a tremendous asset. 
 The large policeman's order to "move on" is more 
 willingly obeyed than that of his less ponderous com- 
 rade in service. But it is, after all, that other kind 
 of power which makes the strongest impression; the 
 power whose existence is impressed on the superin- 
 tendent by inference and suggestion rather than by 
 direct statement. It is the power that comes from 
 enthusiasm, from a feeling of having ability, of real- 
 izing that other teachers with the same or less training 
 have won out under similar conditions. Above all, it 
 is not wise to be too anxious for a position ; or rather 
 it is never wise to let a superintendent feel that you 
 are afraid of not being elected. 
 
 Being careful to come to an interview fresh rather 
 than tired, to come equipped with letters of recom- 
 
38 SECURING BETTER TEACHING POSITIONS 
 
 mendation, to be dressed appropriately and becom- 
 ingly, and above all to come without hesitation and 
 fear, are precautions based on simple common sense. 
 
 One other suggestion. Meet appointments on time. 
 If the interview is at an agency it is well to bring 
 some interesting book to read, for the chances are 
 that the superintendent will be late. To sit about 
 doing nothing is more fatiguing than to work. So 
 come prepared with something interesting to do. It 
 may be all right for a superintendent to be two hours 
 late, but the teacher should always be on time; and 
 if, for any reason, she is delayed or thinks she may be 
 delayed, she should, if possible, telephone stating this 
 fact. It's the little things that count. Don't neglect 
 these little things. 
 
 So much for the personal application; a word 
 now about applications by letter. 
 
 A good rule in writing such letters is to have 
 clearly in mind the facts that you would want a 
 candidate to state in her letter of application if you 
 were the superintendent; then word your letter, not 
 so that it will be odd, but, at the same time, so that 
 it will stand out above all the other letters that the 
 superintendent receives. Speak of your training, 
 your experience, and if you are athletic, or took spe- 
 cial gymnastic work in school or college, mention 
 the fact. If you are never sick you might men- 
 tion this fact. But do not make the letter too long. 
 One sheet should be enough. Then, too, if there 
 are misspelled words or mistakes in grammar it is 
 obvious that the candidate cannot be classed among 
 
SECURING BETTER TEACHING POSITIONS 39 
 
 those qualified to fill the requirements of a teacher's 
 position. 
 
 With the first letter to a superintendent it is well 
 to inclose a small photograph. A copy in miniature 
 of one of your best photographs can be struck off at 
 a trifling expense, or a kodak picture can be used if 
 it is a good one; a poor photograph is worse than 
 none. Select one which gives the impression of alert- 
 ness, power, snap. A good way is to fasten the 
 unmounted photograph to the letter by a clip or by 
 a drop of mucilage, so that as the letter is read by 
 the recipient he is, as it were, in conversation with 
 the writer. Of course the first page of a letter is the 
 best one to use for this purpose. 
 
 It is indeed an art to write a good letter, but it 
 is something worth acquiring, and in the business 
 world a person who can write letters that win can 
 command a large salary. It is needless to suggest 
 that it is customary to inclose a self-addressed enve- 
 lope, properly stamped, although in many cases even 
 this will not bring an answer. When it is remem- 
 bered that a letter is but a means of impressing the 
 personality of the writer on the mind of the superin- 
 tendent or chairman of the board, it will be needless 
 to caution the candidate to use judgment in the com- 
 position of her letters. Even the kind of paper used 
 helps to fix the impression of culture or rusticity. 
 Care should be taken to have the penmanship legible. 
 If the teacher is fortunate or unfortunate enough to 
 own a typewriter, she should not only learn how to 
 use it so as to turn out a good-looking letter, but she 
 
40 SECURING BETTER TEACHING POSITIONS 
 
 should see to it that the machine itself is in compara- 
 tively good alignment. 
 
 In the commercial world it is a mark of a good 
 salesman never to leave a prospect so that he cannot 
 call again. He may not sell any goods at the first 
 visit, but he should never accept a "no" as final. He 
 should be sure to leave the latchstring out so that 
 he can call at some future time if it should seem 
 advisable to do so. There is always a possibility of 
 a letter going astray, so that in case a reply is not 
 received within a reasonable time, as is more than 
 likely to be the case, there is ample excuse for writing 
 a second letter. But in writing any letter, with a little 
 care it can be so worded as to make another letter 
 possible without giving offense. 
 
 There is an interesting little game which is some- 
 times played with children with the aim of making 
 them self-reliant. It is called Supposing, and is played 
 as follows. A situation calling for immediate action 
 is described, and the child is asked what he would do. 
 For example, this description is given. "Suppose 
 sometime when you are alone in the house you heard 
 a great noise like running water, and when you went 
 up to the bathroom you found that some one had 
 turned on the water and forgot to turn it off and it 
 was running over the sides of the tub, and when you 
 went to shut it off the faucet should break. What 
 would you do?" It is a simple little game, but one 
 that makes a person think and helps prepare him for 
 emergencies. Well, let us try this same game now. 
 Let us suppose that we are superintendents and the 
 
SECURING BETTER TEACHING POSITIONS 41 
 
 mail brings us the following bunch of letters from 
 teachers who want to be considered candidates for 
 positions in our schools. Question, which applicants 
 will stand the best chance of receiving favorable 
 consideration, and why? In giving these letters, all 
 proper names have been omitted, because they are real 
 letters, written to real superintendents by real teachers 
 who wanted positions. 
 
 Dear Sir: 
 
 I should like to put my name among your candi- 
 dates for vacancies this coming Fall. I have had 
 two years' experience, and at present I am teaching 
 grades 7, 8, and 9 here, where I have been since the 
 beginning of the school year. I am a graduate of the 
 
 English High School, and took a special course 
 
 in English at college. I also took a course in English 
 at the Harvard Summer School. I make English a 
 specialty and prefer the higher grades to the lower. 
 
 My references are as follows : Names and addresses 
 of three persons follow. If you care to see me I 
 shall be in Boston on Saturday, June 1 and could 
 
 go to if you wished to see me there. 
 
 Respectfully yours, 
 
 My dear Sir: — 
 
 If you have vacancies on your list of teachers for 
 the coming year, will you please consider me an 
 applicant? 
 
 Have graduated from high school and normal 
 school and taught in ungraded school one year and 
 third grade two years. 
 
 As to my success refer to or come and visit 
 
 my school. 
 
 Yours respectfully, 
 
42 SECURING BETTER TEACHING POSITIONS 
 
 Dear Sir: — 
 As I wish to apply for a position as teacher in the 
 
 High School, I am sending in convenient form, 
 
 a statement of my qualifications for that position. I 
 have had such splendid success in an unusually hard 
 position that I wish to urge you very earnestly to 
 write to my references, even if you have no vacancy 
 just now. Since I am very sure that you would like 
 my personal appearance I shall be very glad to visit 
 you at your request. I am very anxious to secure 
 a position in a high school of admitted excellence near 
 
 and accordingly I should regard it as a favor, if 
 
 you would even look into my claims for consideration. 
 Hoping you will be so kind as to answer my letter, 
 I am, 
 
 Respectfully yours, 
 
 Accompanying this letter is a neat, typewritten 
 sheet giving the applicant's training, experience, spe- 
 cialties, success in discipline, personal data, and refer- 
 ences. The letter itself is written by hand, as are all 
 the other letters. 
 
 Dear Mr. 
 
 I have just learned that there is a probability of a 
 
 vacancy in the mathematics department of the 
 
 High School, and if such is the case I should like to 
 be considered a candidate for the position. I am 
 
 twenty-six years old, a graduate of the Classical 
 
 High School, and of College, magna cum laude. 
 
 Mathematics is one of the subjects in which I spe- 
 cialized in college and which I have most enjoyed 
 teaching. I have had about three year's experience 
 in public school teaching. I enclose a copy of a letter 
 from the first principal under whom I taught, and for 
 
SECURING BETTER TEACHING POSITIONS 43 
 
 further information in regard to my work I refer 
 you to (three references follow) where I am now 
 teaching. 
 
 I shall be very glad to go to for a personal 
 
 interview if you will be good enough to give me an 
 
 opportunity any time after Tuesday noon, . 
 
 Respectfully yours, 
 
 Dear Sir: — 
 
 I have just graduated from College this June 
 
 and am looking for a position as a high school teacher. 
 Will you please tell me if there are any vacant posi- 
 tions in your high school? 
 
 Yours truly, 
 
 Dear Sir: — 
 
 Am attending University and would like a 
 
 position as teacher in one of your evening schools. 
 
 Am a graduate of High School and have taught 
 
 four years in the elementary grades of that town. 
 Can give you references. Hoping to hear from you 
 soon, I remain, 
 
 Yours sincerely, 
 
 Dear Sir: — 
 
 I have heard of a vacancy in the third grade of 
 
 the School, and I would appreciate your 
 
 considering me an applicant. 
 
 I am twenty-one years old and am of English de- 
 scent. I am a regular attendant, although not a 
 member of the Congregational Church. 
 
 I was graduated from the High School in 
 
 and attended College . Besides academic 
 
 work I have had training in vocal, piano and violin. 
 
44 SECURING BETTER TEACHING POSITIONS 
 
 Last year I taught the first four grades (primary) 
 
 in and since September I have been 
 
 teaching in the Grammar School, grades five and 
 
 six. 
 
 For testimonials I can refer you to the following 
 gentlemen: (Four references). I have no testimonials 
 in my possession at present but will write to the 
 above mentioned if you can wait. 
 
 Yours respectfully, 
 
 As a teacher will write practically the same thing 
 each time she makes an application, it will pay her to 
 compose a " model letter " which can be modified to 
 suit special cases. After composing such a letter it is 
 a good plan to lay it aside for a few days and then to 
 submit it to careful criticism and revision. In this way 
 incongruities may be discovered and corrected. If the 
 teachers who wrote the letters from which the follow- 
 ing extracts have been taken had done this, their ap- 
 plications would have been pruned of some of their 
 humorous foliage. 
 
 I am unmarried, but would readily marry if you 
 so advised before coming on. 
 
 I can read and speak Spanish, French, German, 
 Latin, Greek, English, and five Indian languages. 
 I have lived among twenty tribes of Indians. I am 
 a natural musician and perform upon quite a number 
 of musical instruments. I am a Christian and a 
 Moralist. I am a strong believer in sound morals. 
 ... I shall remain in anticipating suspense until you 
 reply to me. 
 
SECURING BETTER TEACHING POSITIONS 45 
 
 I shall send you my photograph in the course of 
 a few weeks. Three months of camp life has lessened 
 my weight considerable, so I will wait a month before 
 having my likeness taken. My personal appearance is 
 fair I am rather short, 5 ft. 5 in., Chest measure 
 38, hat band 7^4 inches. I have an iron constitution 
 and live a strictly temperate life. 
 
 I am perfectly willing and qualified to teach any- 
 thing but principally scientific subjects. 
 And Oblige, 
 
 Yours truly, 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 HOW TO SECURE A SCHOOL WITHOUT THE HELP 
 OF AN AGENCY 
 
 This subject will appeal especially to those persons 
 who feel that teachers' agencies are robbers, that no 
 position is worth five per cent of a year's salary, that 
 all an agency really does is to send the teacher a 
 notice that a vacancy exists, and, well, you know how 
 some teachers feel about it. Neither am I going to 
 try to disabuse any one of this opinion, for the old 
 saying, "A woman convinced against her will is of 
 the same opinion still," is as true today as ever it was. 
 
 In another chapter we shall speak of agencies and 
 the work they are doing, but in this we shall describe 
 how to go to work to get a position by one's own 
 efforts. 
 
 Teachers' agencies, of course, get hold of most of 
 the good vacancies and present their candidates for 
 the positions, but it does not necessarily follow that 
 they learn of all of the openings, nor that a teacher 
 cannot secure a school without their help. Occasion- 
 ally, too, there are school officials who do not like to 
 deal with agencies, although such cases are becoming 
 less and less frequent. 
 
 Positions which may be applied for without the 
 help of a teachers' agency may be divided into two 
 classes : present and future vacancies. The first should 
 
 46 
 
SECURING BETTER TEACHING POSITIONS 47 
 
 be applied for in the same way as if the opening was 
 learned through an agency notification. That is, the 
 teacher should immediately make an application in 
 person or by letter, preferably the former. But as 
 in this case she has not the help of the agency in send- 
 ing copies of her papers to the superintendent, it is 
 more necessary for her to send copies of recommenda- 
 tions that have been given her, or better yet will it be 
 if she can get her superintendent to write a letter 
 to the other superintendent in her behalf. Superin- 
 tendents are often quite glad to do this, only they 
 don't like to do it too often: 
 
 The other class of vacancies, those which are likely 
 to occur, may be applied for as follows : First, she 
 should decide in her own mind the places in which 
 she would like to teach ; then she should write a letter 
 to the different superintendents outlining her training 
 and teaching experience. Before doing this, however, 
 it would be well to ascertain the rules and require- 
 ments of the respective school boards ; that is, the 
 training and experience necessary to make a teacher 
 eligible for a position in that town or city. Some 
 places, such as Maiden, Massachusetts, do not elect 
 any teacher to the grades who is not a normal or col- 
 lege graduate, while other cities equally good require 
 a certain amount of experience, but do not nominally 
 insist upon normal training. I say nominally, for even 
 in these places normal trained teachers receive the 
 preference, and the percentage of untrained teachers 
 is becoming less and less every year. 
 
 If the letters of application sent out in this way 
 
48 SECURING BETTER TEACHING POSITIONS 
 
 show gross ignorance and unfitness on the part of 
 their authors, they will undoubtedly be consigned to 
 the waste basket unless they happen to be humorous 
 from a pedagogical standpoint. But if they are good, 
 or fairly good, letters the chances are they will be pre- 
 served, that is, put away in some box or file. Some 
 school committees have special application blanks for 
 teachers to fill out who wish to apply for positions in 
 their schools, and when a teacher writes to a superin- 
 tendent asking to be considered as a candidate one of 
 these blanks is sent her. 
 
 Now just here is where many teachers deceive 
 themselves. They imagine because they have been 
 asked to fill out a blank that the superintendent will 
 keep them in mind when such an opening as they are 
 fitted to fill occurs. So when they have once filed their 
 application they think the work is all done. 
 
 Well, what would you do if you were a superin- 
 tendent and a hundred teachers applied to you for 
 positions this year and each one filled out a blank, and 
 next year a hundred more good teachers, and so on? 
 Question, would you consult last year's list ? And why 
 not? Simply because you would know that a large 
 number of last year's applicants would not then be 
 teaching in the same schools in which they were when 
 they made the application. That is, when the appli- 
 cation is received it makes an impression on the super- 
 intendent, and if he has a vacancy at that particular 
 time for which the teacher seems to be a good candi- 
 date there is a possibility of her "arrow shot at a 
 venture" hitting the mark. But if the application 
 
SECURING BETTER TEACHING POSITIONS 49 
 
 does not happen to arrive at such an opportune moment 
 and it is consigned to the cabinet, where it associates 
 with the dead or stagnant applications of innumerable 
 other teachers, its fate is not likely to be very different 
 from theirs. 
 
 But can nothing be done to remedy this sad state 
 of affairs? Certainly. Let the teacher keep herself 
 in the mind of the superintendent until she is either 
 elected or permanently turned down. One way is to 
 keep him informed of her school program whenever 
 it is changed; to notify him when there is a change in 
 the train service, when the vacations come, and when 
 the school is closed by reason of sickness in the com- 
 munity. In short, assume that he is interested to visit 
 your school sometime, and make it easy for him to do 
 this by furnishing him with the necessary data regard- 
 ing your schedule, ways to reach the school, etc. Then, 
 too, if one is planning to take a course at a summer 
 school of any kind, this data should be added to that 
 already given on the application blank, and as this 
 blank is in the hands of the superintendent the only 
 way is to write a letter telling him of the proposed 
 course. 
 
 Another way is for the teacher to make personal 
 calls upon the superintendents. There is no reason 
 for hesitating to do this, as every superintendent 
 expects vacancies to occur and is always glad to 
 learn of good teachers. Most superintendents have 
 special office hours when these calls can be made. 
 
 But the most practical way for a grade teacher 
 whose spring vacation comes at a time when other 
 
50 SECURING BETTER TEACHING POSITIONS 
 
 schools are in session is to go to a town or city 
 superintendent and acquaint him of the fact that she 
 will be glad to substitute until her own school opens if 
 he should need her. If he gives her the chance to 
 teach in this way, she has the finest opportunity in the 
 world to show what she can do, and to establish a 
 reputation with the principal so that when a vacancy 
 occurs in that school she stands a fine chance of 
 having it offered to her if she made good. There are 
 always openings along this line, for the duties of a 
 teacher in our city schools are so arduous that as 
 spring approaches many of them are so tired that 
 they give out, and substitutes are put in for a longer 
 or shorter time. Agencies find great difficulty in 
 furnishing substitutes at short notice, so that any 
 teacher who is on hand is likely to get the work ; and 
 even though it may not result in her being offered 
 a position in that particular school or town, the 
 superintendent or principal may be very glad to help 
 her with other superintendents by allowing her to refer 
 to him when applying for other schools. Help of this 
 kind is always very valuable, as superintendents and 
 principals are in the habit of suggesting good teachers 
 to one another when they meet at superintendents' 
 meetings and conventions. By this way of being 
 "Johnny on the spot" many a teacher has worked 
 her way into a good position, to the amazement of 
 agency managers. 
 
 It is the custom in some places to give a teacher 
 who has a large room an assistant, and in many cases 
 the assistant is inexperienced, or with but very little 
 
SECURING BETTER TEACHING POSITIONS 5 1 
 
 experience. The salary paid is so small that it hardly 
 pays an agency to bother much about such a place, 
 but a position of this kind offers a fine opportunity 
 for an ambitious teacher, for if she makes good she 
 will be offered a school of her own, which means 
 increasing salary until the maximum is reached. It 
 may, indeed, be hard to work for $1.50 a day, but 
 it may be wise to do this for a year if it means a good 
 position the second year. 
 
 In trying to get a position without the help of an 
 agency a teacher should use every means to extend 
 her acquaintanceship among other teachers and super- 
 intendents. This can be done at conventions and 
 summer schools and in other ways. Such acquaint- 
 anceship is especially valuable, as principals and 
 superintendents are usually very willing to consider 
 candidates who are recommended by teachers whom 
 they trust. Oftentimes teachers know of vacancies 
 not only in their own school or town, but in other 
 schools and towns, even before the superintendents, 
 and they are frequently willing to help their friends 
 by informing them of openings. In this way the 
 candidate's letter to the superintendent may come at 
 an opportune time and be most effective. 
 
 Then, too, if a teacher carefully reads the daily 
 papers with a view to discovering openings she will 
 learn of resignations from time to time which she can 
 follow up. Of course a great many vacancies are 
 filled before the resignations are reported in the papers, 
 but in many cases the reverse is true. 
 
 In short, if a teacher uses the same enterprise and 
 
52 SECURING BETTER TEACHING POSITIONS 
 
 perseverance which the agencies use and does not 
 "wear out her welcome" by trying for places which 
 neither nature, training, nor experience fit her, she 
 can undoubtedly secure a school without the help of 
 any agency. But whether she can get it soon enough 
 by her own unaided efforts to offset the loss in in- 
 creased salary which a better school pays while she 
 is doing this is another matter. There is such a thing 
 as being "penny wise and pound foolish." 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 HOW teachers' agencies help their members 
 
 In the preceding chapter we have shown how a 
 teacher can go to work to secure a position by her 
 own efforts. We shall now show how an agency can 
 help a teacher secure a position, after which we shall 
 leave it to the good sense of each teacher to decide 
 for herself whether she shall make use of the help 
 of the agencies or rely wholly on her own efforts. 
 
 To show some of the ways in which an agency 
 can help its registrants, let me cite a few typical 
 cases the truth of which I can vouch for, as most of 
 them came under my personal observation. 
 
 A teacher enrolled at one of the well-known 
 agencies. She was a woman of good personality, 
 good training and experience. She wanted a better 
 position, and several principals and superintendents 
 were induced to visit her school. All seemed favor- 
 ably impressed with her work, but none of them 
 offered her a position. She could not understand the 
 reason for this sudden change of opinion, and came 
 to the manager of the agency for advice. 
 
 It happened that the principal of the school where 
 she was teaching made a remark in this agency to 
 the effect that he would never help any of his good 
 teachers to get a position. This was the key to the 
 situation. The manager asked the teacher if she had 
 
 S3 
 
54 SECURING BETTER TEACHING POSITIONS 
 
 referred the visiting principals and superintendents 
 to her own principal, and she answered in the affirm- 
 ative. She was then advised not to do this again; 
 and also the next time a superintendent was sent to 
 visit her he was "put wise" to the attitude of her 
 principal, with the result that she was immediately 
 offered a good position. 
 
 A case which shows a different phase of agency 
 work is that of a young woman who was fitting her- 
 self for teaching by taking post-graduate work at a 
 well-known university. She was doing some practice 
 teaching when a call was received for which she 
 seemed a very suitable candidate. The superintendent 
 was to meet teachers in Boston, and she was selected 
 as a candidate for the position and was duly notified. 
 She replied that she had school work which she did 
 not want to lose, and so declined to meet the appoint- 
 ment. As it happened that the superintendent came 
 from a distance and was to be in the city all day, we 
 succeeded in arranging for another appointment for 
 the afternoon. 
 
 Then we called her up by telephone and impressed 
 upon her the extreme importance of coming to Boston 
 and applying for the position, even going so far as 
 to offer to pay part of her expenses if she should 
 prove unsuccessful in securing the position. She 
 finally consented to come to Boston, where she met 
 the superintendent and was elected to the position. 
 Afterwards she realized that besides the commission 
 she owed the agency a debt of gratitude for not allow- 
 ing her to throw away a splendid opportunity. 
 
SECURING BETTER TEACHING POSITIONS 55 
 
 Still another example is that of a teacher who 
 applied for a position in a neighboring state. Copies 
 of her papers were forwarded by the agency, and after 
 examining them the committee invited her to meet 
 them at their expense, as it was inconvenient for them 
 to come to Boston. This she did, and at the close of 
 the interview was offered the school. She did not want 
 to accept on the spot, for she was also trying to secure 
 a position in a school near Boston which she was ex- 
 ceedingly anxious to get, as she was a Boston girl. 
 She fully expected to learn the decision of the super- 
 intendent in regard to the Boston position before the 
 time set for her answer to the out of town school 
 board, but upon her return home she discovered that 
 complications had arisen which postponed their de- 
 cision. She was in a quandary what to do, and at our 
 suggestion wrote the committee asking them to allow 
 her to defer her decision a little longer. This so riled 
 the chairman of the board that he wrote us a letter 
 in which he said he would not take her under any 
 consideration. As she was a woman of fine sensibili- 
 ties I did not dare to tell her about receiving this 
 letter, for I realized if she knew about it she would 
 never go there; so I evaded her questions and hoped 
 for the best. In the meantime, however, the Boston 
 position was decided adversely to her interests. A few 
 days later I was called up on the long distance 'phone 
 by the chairman in regard to other candidates for the 
 position. Again I called his attention to this teacher's 
 peculiar fitness for the place, confessed frankly that I 
 had not told her the contents of his letter, and in- 
 
56 SECURING BETTER TEACHING POSITIONS 
 
 formed him that she was still available. This smoothed 
 the matter out, the committee was glad that I acted 
 as I did, she accepted the place, and when I visited 
 the town a year or so later they were most enthusiastic 
 about her. She never knew how near she came to 
 losing the school. 
 
 During one of his "hunting trips" the representa- 
 tive of an agency discovered a grade teacher of excep- 
 tional disciplinary and teaching ability. She was then 
 drawing a salary of $500 a year. Her name was pre- 
 sented to a superintendent where very much higher 
 salaries were paid, and he was urged to visit her school 
 and see her work. This he agreed to do. But after 
 several weeks had elapsed it was found that he had 
 not visited her nor sent any of his principals. Her case 
 was again brought to his attention, and once more he 
 was urged to visit her school. But not until a third 
 call had been made upon him did the agency succeed 
 in getting him to make the desired visitation. And 
 the funny part of the incident is that this teacher 
 thought the agency was making too much money 
 out of getting her the position, although in her new 
 school, after paying her commission, she still had 
 over a hundred dollars extra salary, while the cost of 
 living remained practically the same. 
 
 One other illustration. A personal friend of the 
 writer, now a very successful grammar master, several 
 years ago made application for a position, but failed 
 of election. So strong an impression, however, did 
 he make upon the committee that they kept him in 
 mind. So when in the course of time the position 
 
SECURING BETTER TEACHING POSITIONS *fi 
 
 again became vacant they recalled the favorable im- 
 pression he had made upon them, and telephoned the 
 agency through which his application had been made 
 to ascertain where he was then teaching, and to have 
 him meet the committee if he would like to consider 
 the opening again. This was a number of years ago. 
 He still holds this position. 
 
 Incidents like these can be told ad infinitum, but 
 these are sufficient to show that there are things an 
 agency can do for a candidate which she cannot do for 
 herself. The fact that college deans and presidents, 
 principals of normal schools, superintendents of 
 schools, and successful teachers indorse the agencies 
 is conclusive proof not only that they have come to 
 stay, but that they are of real assistance to teachers, 
 and therefore no teacher can afford to do without 
 their help if she would attain the fullest measure of 
 success of which she is capable. 
 
 Of course there are poor agencies as well as good 
 ones, just as there are bad and good teachers; but 
 the real reason why some teachers fail to get the 
 desired help is because they do not do their part, but 
 expect the agency to do it all, even, as it were, to 
 the making of "bricks without straw." If no replies 
 to letters are received from the registrant, if she 
 persistently refuses to apply for places which come 
 within her capacity, if she places such restrictions 
 on the kind of place she is willing to consider as to 
 make it impossible to find such a place, if she habitu- 
 ally enters the agency with a sour face and a "Well, 
 I don't suppose you have anything for me today," if 
 
58 SECURING BETTER TEACHING POSITIONS 
 
 she feels aggrieved at the agency because her lack 
 of training or experience debars her from teaching 
 in certain places, is it any wonder she can truthfully 
 say, "The agencies never helped me"? But if she 
 is appreciative of what the manager is trying to do 
 for her, if she realizes that he does not make the 
 rules and regulations of the various school boards, 
 that he is not responsible for the personal preferences 
 of superintendents, that he is as put out as she is 
 when a superintendent does not keep his appointment, 
 or do as he promises, there will be little reason to 
 complain of her treatment at any of the good agencies, 
 and she will find the advice and help of the manager 
 of great value to her, even though he sometimes may 
 seem exacting and arbitrary. 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 HOW TO GET THE BEST RESULTS FROM MEMBERSHIP IN 
 A TEACHERS' AGENCY 
 
 Having thus "exposed" some of the inside facts 
 about agency work and methods, it now remains to 
 give a few suggestions in regard to how a teacher 
 should go to work to get the best results from her 
 membership in a teachers' agency. And in doing this 
 let us start at the very beginning and suppose an 
 ordinary, every-day case. Miss Brown we shall assume 
 to be a teacher in a country school who wishes to 
 secure a better position. She writes to one or more 
 of the many teachers' agencies which she has heard 
 recommended, or whose advertisements she sees in the 
 school journal which she takes for their so-called 
 "manuals." In a few days she receives this literature, 
 and with it comes an application or enrollment blank. 
 This document states the condition of the contract, 
 worded variously by different agencies, but amount- 
 ing essentially to the same thing, viz., that if, through 
 the help of the agency, Miss Brown is elected within 
 a specified time as a regular teacher, she agrees to 
 pay said agency a sum equal to five per cent of her 
 first year's salary. If it is the case of a substitute 
 position, the percentage is usually somewhat larger, 
 but is based only upon the salary she receives for the 
 actual time she teaches. Further particulars are given 
 
 59 
 
60 SECURING BETTER TEACHING POSITIONS 
 
 as to the adjustment of this commission should the 
 position she takes as a substitute teacher become a 
 permanent one, and explanation is made in more or 
 less detail as to what is meant by securing a position 
 through the help of the agency. 
 
 Now perhaps it is the first time that Miss Brown 
 has had dealings with an agency, and consequently 
 she does not realize that superintendents frequently 
 ask to see the registration forms as well as the reports 
 of the references, and so she will quite likely begin 
 to fill out the blank without first reading it over. The 
 result will probably be that she will make some mis- 
 takes, so that when she is through the blank will look 
 anything but neat. This is no exaggeration. Again 
 and again I have seen registration blanks come back 
 soiled, blotted, or otherwise showing carelessness on 
 the part of the registrants. 
 
 Discretion, too, is needed in answering the different 
 questions. For instance, blanks of some agencies ask 
 the teacher to state the lowest salary she will accept. 
 In view of the fact above stated that superintendents 
 see these registration blanks, it is unwise for any 
 teacher to state the lowest sum she will accept, for 
 human nature is such that superintendents sometimes 
 take advantage of this information in fixing the 
 salary. A better way, however, is not to leave this 
 space blank for some one else to fill in, but to answer 
 the question by a dash. It is all right to confide in 
 the manager as to the salary one would be willing 
 to accept under certain conditions, but the informa- 
 tion should not be made public. And right here I 
 
SECURING BETTER TEACHING POSITIONS 6l 
 
 might add that an experienced manager is in most 
 cases a better judge of a teacher's earning power 
 than are her friends and relatives. 
 
 Somewhere on every blank will be found spaces 
 for names of references. Teachers sometimes think 
 it is necessary to ask permission before they give the 
 name of a reference, but this is not so if the refer- 
 ences are school officials. The references should be 
 the names of persons who know about her school 
 work and educational training, that is, superintendents, 
 principals, fellow-teachers, professors, and teachers. 
 In regard to references I may be pardoned if I make 
 one suggestion : do not give the name of your clergy- 
 man unless he is intimately connected with the school. 
 And even then do so with caution. The effect of 
 a man's business upon his habits of thought are recog- 
 nized by psychologists, and a good pastor dealing with 
 men of varied temperaments, whose troubles have to 
 be smoothed out without involving himself in any 
 way, can write an ideal recommendation of a teacher, 
 and at the end of it put in a sentence or two which 
 relieves him of all responsibility for what he has said 
 and shows he really knows nothing at all about her 
 school work. 
 
 As the agencies always inclose return envelopes 
 when sending out these "letters of inquiry," most 
 of the references respond immediately, and in the 
 majority of cases the replies about any special regis- 
 trant will be fairly uniform. Occasionally, however, 
 it happens that the replies of two references will 
 express opinions diametrically opposed. For instance, 
 
62 SECURING BETTER TEACHING POSITIONS 
 
 one reference may speak in the highest terms of a 
 teacher; another, to use a slang phrase, declares that 
 she is N. G. When such conflicting reports are 
 received the agency feels certain that spite of some 
 kind exists between certain members of the board, 
 and that the one making the adverse criticism has 
 personal reasons for doing so. It may be he has a 
 daughter who wanted the school, or a son whose 
 attentions were obnoxious to the teacher. Agency 
 managers are so experienced in reading "between 
 the lines" that reports of this kind do not prejudice 
 them against a teacher. Furthermore, these discreet 
 and "unfriendly" papers have a faculty of becoming 
 "mislaid." 
 
 But to return to Miss Brown, who has filled out 
 and returned her application for membership in the 
 agency, with the customary registration fee. In the 
 course of time the receipt of this will be acknowl- 
 edged; letters of inquiry will be sent to the refer- 
 ences for particulars about Miss Brown, and when 
 these are received they will be placed on file accord- 
 ing to the system used in that particular agency. To 
 keep all the papers of the different members straight 
 entails an immense amount of care on the part of the 
 agency force. As Miss Brown's references are re- 
 ceived they are carefully studied, and in this way 
 the manager forms his judgment of her ability and 
 decides to what kind of schools he can recommend 
 her with a possibility of her being elected. Of course 
 no man's judgment is correct in every case, but one 
 who has handled papers of hundreds of registrants 
 
SECURING BETTER TEACHING POSITIONS 63 
 
 learns to form accurate estimates of a teacher's ability, 
 and the candid advice of a manager should be care- 
 fully weighed before exception is taken to it. His 
 close study of schools and school conditions enables 
 him to tell in many cases to a surety whether a teacher 
 who has been successful in one school can be suc- 
 cessful in another school. Principals of schools and 
 committees have their own peculiarities as well as 
 teachers, a fact teachers often lose sight of. Many 
 a young teacher has made a failure in a position, not 
 because she was a poor teacher, but because she 
 accepted a school where conditions were against her 
 from the start. 
 
 The filling out of the registration blank and pay- 
 ment of the membership fee by Miss Brown, the 
 sending out of letters of inquiry to Miss Brown's 
 references, and the proper filing of application blank 
 and replies of references by the agency constitute 
 what might be called Act I in the drama of getting a 
 school. The second act is as follows. When a super- 
 intendent finds that one of his teachers has resigned, 
 unless he already has another teacher in mind for the 
 place, he immediately notifies some of the agencies of 
 the vacancy and describes the kind of teacher he wants. 
 And the agency manager at once consults his records 
 and selects what he considers to be the most desirable 
 candidates for the place. Sometimes the restrictions 
 imposed by the superintendent are so unusual that it 
 is extremely hard to find a teacher meeting all the 
 requirements. For this reason it is very important 
 for a registrant to be specific in her statements as 
 
64 SECURING BETTER TEACHING POSITIONS 
 
 regards her training, experience, and what she is quali- 
 fied to teach. Also it is important for her to keep her 
 agency informed of every change in her address, as a 
 mistake in sending the notice of a vacancy may cause 
 just enough delay to mean a loss of opportunity. 
 
 Having made a selection of candidates, the agency 
 notifies these teachers, sending them such particulars 
 about the position as will enable them to decide whether 
 or not they wish to try for the place. The form of 
 notice varies with different agencies, but every agency 
 expects a reply from each notice it sends a registrant ; 
 and if a teacher is to avoid complications resulting 
 from belonging to more than one agency, or of trying 
 for positions on her own initiative as well as through 
 her agency, she needs to be particular to answer all 
 agency communications immediately upon their re- 
 ceipt. In declining to become a candidate for a posi- 
 tion it is often of help to the manager to have the 
 registrant state her reason, but in doing so care 
 should be taken not to give the impression that one 
 is hard to please. 
 
 In deciding what places to apply for, Miss Brown 
 should not be too critical, nor should she conclude 
 that because she is not up in every subject which a 
 special position calls for she stands no chance of 
 getting the school. A superintendent or principal 
 can frequently change the apportionment of subjects 
 which one teaches if he feels that it is for the good 
 of the school to do so. But no teacher should make 
 a strong application for a place which she does not 
 intend to accept in order to get her own school board 
 
SECURING BETTER TEACHING POSITIONS 65 
 
 to increase her salary, unless she is willing to pay a 
 commission on the salary she would receive if she 
 accepted it, provided the offering of it to her brings 
 about the desired increase in her salary in the school 
 in which she is then teaching. Some teachers do not 
 realize this. 
 
 One other thing which may prove of help to 
 Miss Brown is to inform the agency manager in 
 regard to replies, or lack of replies, which she receives 
 from superintendents to whom she wrote in response 
 to notices from the agency. In this way he can often 
 advise her what further steps to take, or can cooperate 
 with her by again writing the superintendent in her 
 behalf. In short, Miss Brown should keep in close 
 touch with her agency until she secures a school 
 which she accepts. 
 
 Human nature is the same everywhere. As chil- 
 dren we plant a seed, and in a few days dig it up to 
 see if it is growing. As adults we want dividends 
 from our investments at once. Therefore, as soon as 
 Miss Brown joins an agency she naturally wants to 
 receive notices of a great many vacancies, and is in- 
 clined to feel that an agency which sends her only 
 an occasional notice is not keeping her in mind as it 
 should, when the reverse may be the case. Undoubt- 
 edly some agencies get hold of a greater number of 
 vacancies than do others, but there is a marked differ- 
 ence in the number of notices which different agencies 
 send out in regard to the same vacancy; so that in 
 most cases it is reasonably safe to assume that when 
 a registrant receives a large number of notices from 
 
66 SECURING BETTER TEACHING POSITIONS 
 
 an agency a large number of other teachers receive 
 the same notices from that agency. 
 
 There is also a difference in the way agencies put 
 their candidates to the expense of taking long rail- 
 road journeys to meet superintendents and committees. 
 It is so very necessary in most cases to make personal 
 applications that teachers should be willing to bear 
 any reasonable expense ; but to make a teacher spend 
 several dollars for railroad fare when there is small 
 likelihood of her securing the position shows lack of 
 consideration on the part of the agency. 
 
 In the preceding paragraphs we have shown how 
 an agency can do things for a teacher which she 
 could not do for herself, and have given a few direc- 
 tions which may be helpful to one about to join an 
 agency. There only remains now to divulge the 
 secret of getting the manager of the agency to give 
 one the preference when he makes his selection of 
 candidates. And right here I would caution regis- 
 trants about trying to get preferred service by offer- 
 ing to pay an extra commission; that is, ten per cent 
 instead of five. Offers of this kind are sometimes 
 made, but they are more than likely to make a bad 
 impression on the manager and thus defeat their 
 object. 
 
 Some teachers rightly feel that they do not get as 
 much out of their membership in an agency as they 
 ought to. But the fault does not so often rest with 
 the agency manager as in their lack of ability to use 
 the manager to their advantage. Why is it that one 
 person gets better service at a store than another 
 
SECURING BETTER TEACHING POSITIONS 6/ 
 
 person ? Why do you enjoy trying to help one friend 
 more than another? So among the members of the 
 same agency some get better service than others 
 because they have so impressed their personality on 
 the manager that instinctively he thinks of them when 
 vacancies occur for which they are at all eligible. 
 There is an old saying, "Out of sight, out of mind." 
 Applied to agency matters this means that a teacher 
 should keep in touch with her agencies. She should 
 call occasionally at the agency rooms, should write to 
 them from time to time about her work and her ambi- 
 tions, and should let them know that she appreciates 
 what they are doing for or trying to do for her. In 
 short, she should make them like her. Or, in other 
 words, she should use the same tact in dealing with 
 agencies that she uses in her regular school work. 
 
 In dealing with teachers' agencies there is one last 
 suggestion I should like to make. If Miss Brown 
 should join more than one agency, as is quite likely 
 to be the case, the chances are that she will be placed 
 by one of them, although the others may have worked 
 quite as hard for her as did the one which actually 
 secured her the school; and when she accepts this 
 position she should not only notify the other agencies 
 of the fact that she has secured a position, but she 
 should state where the school is. And it would be 
 well, also, for her to add a few words of appreciation 
 for the efforts which the unsuccessful agency exerted 
 in her behalf. This information will enable the man- 
 ager to keep Miss Brown's papers up to date and be 
 of assistance in placing her at another time. It also 
 
68 SECURING BETTER TEACHING POSITIONS 
 
 makes him feel more kindly disposed toward her, for, 
 after all, agency managers are human and like a few- 
 words of appreciation. After working hard for a 
 candidate it is somewhat annoying to receive such a 
 letter as the following : 
 
 Dear Sir: — 
 
 I have secured a school and shall not need the help 
 of your agency any longer. 
 
 Yours truly, 
 
 (Miss) . 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 THE PRIVATE SCHOOL PROPOSITION 
 
 Discipline, methods of instruction, and duties of 
 teachers in private schools often differ materially from 
 those in public schools, owing to the difference in 
 conditions under which the two kinds of schools are 
 operated. 
 
 In the public school attendance up to a certain age 
 is compulsory; in the private school it is dependent 
 on the will and purses of the parents or guardians. 
 The public school is supported by the town or city; 
 the private school, except in the case of an endowed 
 institution, is dependent for its support on the tui- 
 tion of its pupils. This means, on the one hand, 
 that unless there are pupils there can be no fund, 
 and, on the other hand, that the school is in a posi- 
 tion to refuse pupils who seem undesirable. 
 
 In the public schools order must be kept ; in private 
 schools order is desirable, but it must be maintained 
 as far as possible without giving offense. Public 
 schools are not boarding schools, while most private 
 schools are of this type, the teacher of necessity being 
 on duty night and day. Public schools are made up 
 of a cosmopolitan group of pupils from well-to-do, 
 humble, and even poor families; the majority of 
 private school pupils come from the homes of the 
 wealthy or well-to-do, and represent in many cases 
 
 69 
 
JO SECURING BETTER TEACHING POSITIONS 
 
 different sections of the country, some pupils even 
 coming from abroad. 
 
 The private school is preeminently a school for 
 the individual. The classes are small, so that each 
 student receives a large amount of personal attention. 
 For this reason pupils who have failed to keep up 
 with their classes, when placed in a private school 
 often not only regain lost ground, but frequently 
 surpass their former classmates; and those who wish 
 to fit for college in a short time can do it more easily 
 at such a school. 
 
 This catering to the individual tends to make the 
 discipline and methods of instruction radically differ- 
 ent from that in the public schools; so different, in 
 fact, that after one has taught in a private school 
 for a few years it is difficult to secure a public school 
 position. It is natural, therefore, to look for a more 
 or less distinct type of teacher in each of the two 
 school systems. The proprietor of a private school 
 is not hampered by the rules and regulations of a 
 school board in selecting his teachers. He can engage 
 a woman of ability, even though she may not possess 
 the frills of a college degree, so that we find in many 
 private schools excellent teachers whose training would 
 show up so badly on a registration blank as to make 
 them poor candidates for public school positions. 
 
 The salary in private schools is often higher than 
 that paid teachers in public schools doing the same 
 grade of work. But there is another difference in 
 regard to salaries which some teachers have unfortu- 
 nately discovered. In public school work, while pay- 
 
SECURING BETTER TEACHING POSITIONS Jl 
 
 ment of the teacher's salary may sometimes be delayed, 
 much to her inconvenience, she is sure of receiving 
 it in the end, for the debt is incurred by the town 
 and must be paid. But if a private school becomes 
 insolvent, the teacher may lose the unpaid portion of 
 her salary. 
 
 The duties of a teacher in a private school, whether 
 of the day or boarding school type, cover a wider 
 field than is usually the case in public school work. 
 Often there is correspondence to attend to, both from 
 parents and from prospective patrons who wish infor- 
 mation about the school before entering their children 
 or wards. Frequently, too, it is necessary to call upon 
 these prospects in order to induce them to enroll their 
 children. In some cases this work is done by the prin- 
 cipals, but often it is delegated to one of the staff of 
 teachers. In boarding schools there is dormitory 
 supervision as well as supervision on the school 
 grounds, a kind of work which is likely to become 
 irksome by reason of the steady confinement which 
 it imposes. 
 
 We have stated that the salaries paid private 
 school-teachers are often larger than those paid in 
 public schools; besides this many private school- 
 teachers earn considerable extra money during the 
 school year by tutoring pupils out of regular hours. 
 In some public schools there are chances of this kind, 
 but as a rule private schools offer more opportunities, 
 as the pupils usually come from wealthy homes. Also, 
 a popular private school-teacher is more likely to be 
 invited to act as companion to some of the pupils, 
 
*J2 SECURING BETTER TEACHING POSITIONS 
 
 during the summer vacation, which often means a 
 trip to Europe. Owing to the longer summer vaca- 
 tion enjoyed by private school-teachers, some of them 
 find profitable employment in running summer camps, 
 which are now so popular. Twenty-five or thirty 
 years ago there were only five or six camps in New 
 England. Now there are probably a hundred or 
 more, some of them such large institutions as to take 
 the entire time of the director, although the camps 
 themselves are conducted for barely three months in 
 the year. 
 
 In regard to getting a private school position by 
 one's own efforts, the best method is to write to the 
 schools whose addresses can easily be obtained from 
 directories or the summer issues of the leading maga- 
 zines. Most agencies do the bulk of their business 
 with public schools, but there are some which have 
 a large private school patronage; and in working 
 through an agency one should be selected which 
 makes a specialty of this kind of business. 
 
 After all, it is largely a matter of chance whether 
 one goes into public or private school work. When 
 a position in a private school at a good salary is 
 offered the young graduate, there is naturally a temp- 
 tation to accept it without considering what it may 
 lead to. One's first position is not often a permanent 
 one. In a year or two the chances are that another 
 school must be sought. If this first school is a private 
 school in the South or West, and the teacher, being 
 an Eastern woman, wishes an Eastern position or 
 one in public school work, she will find that her 
 
SECURING BETTER TEACHING POSITIONS 73 
 
 teaching experience, however successful it may have 
 been, does not count for its true value in new locali- 
 ties or different kind of work. In short, after teach- 
 ing a number of years in private schools, it is diffi- 
 cult to change to public school work, and if the 
 change is made it is quite likely to be at a sacrifice 
 in salary; so it is wise before deciding whether to go 
 into public or private school work to consider the 
 matter carefully from all standpoints. 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 THE YOUNG COLLEGE GRADUATE'S OWN CHAPTER 
 
 Many normal graduates secure their first schools 
 without the help of a teachers' agency; but with the 
 college graduate it is different. Some do, indeed, 
 secure positions through their college bureaus, but 
 the great majority are forced to rely upon the regular 
 teachers' agencies. On account of this fact, and be- 
 cause the ordinary college graduate is "different from 
 other people," her case demands separate treatment. 
 
 Of all persons to be pitied the young college 
 graduate seeking her first school takes the lead. The 
 Fates seem to conspire against her. If she has spe- 
 cialized in Greek, she finds that it is seldom taught 
 in high schools. If Latin and mathematics are her 
 strong studies, all the calls include French, German, 
 English or history, or some other subject on which 
 she is "not up." For four long and happy years she 
 has been living under idealistic conditions. Now 
 she is suddenly brought face to face with realities. 
 She finds that her theories about how things ought 
 to be fail to coincide with the way they actually are. 
 Things which in college life she considered of vital 
 importance, in real life have a different value. She 
 feels she is not appreciated and wonders what the 
 reason can be. 
 
 Colleges close in June, leaving their graduates 
 74 
 
SECURING BETTER TEACHING POSITIONS 75 
 
 stranded upon the vast shore of opportunity. Under 
 these circumstances the prospective teacher naturally 
 wants to get the matter settled as soon as possible. 
 Just here is where a serious mistake is often made. 
 There is no work more strenuous than hunting for 
 positions, and the new graduate, tired out by the 
 functions of the closing days of college, is in no 
 physical condition to go through this ordeal the 
 moment she receives her degree. What she needs is 
 a chance to rest, recuperate, and get in touch with 
 real life. Instead, then, of immediately seeking to 
 secure a position, she should simply make a call upon 
 the teachers' agencies in which she has registered, 
 so as to become acquainted with the managers. This 
 is quite necessary if she would get the best results 
 from her membership, for it is much harder for any 
 agency to work for a teacher with whom it is not 
 personally acquainted. As soon as she has done this, 
 however, she should "hike off to the woods" for a 
 rest of three or four weeks. During this period her 
 whole aim should be to have a "bully good time." If 
 the agency sends her notices of places which appeal 
 to her, she should attend to the necessary correspond- 
 ence ; but she should not worry if she does not receive 
 any replies to her letters, for July is not the month 
 when inexperienced teachers are likely to be placed. 
 
 But when the first of August approaches it is time 
 for her to get down to business. She should notify 
 each agency of her correct address and inform it how 
 to reach her by phone, telegraph, etc. She should 
 pack her grip so that she can come to the city at a 
 
j6 SECURING BETTER TEACHING POSITIONS 
 
 moment's notice. If she is planning to visit the city 
 in which her agencies are located, she should advise 
 them in advance, so they can be in a position to make 
 appointments for her to meet superintendents. If 
 her own home is at a considerable distance from the 
 city or not easy of access, and she can arrange to do 
 so, it would be worth while to engage board in or 
 near the city, so that she can be on hand to meet 
 appointments at short notice. As the season advances 
 there are a great many "hurry calls," and those who 
 are on hand to meet them stand the best chances. 
 
 From time to time it may be necessary to come 
 to the city to meet an appointment at an agency, and 
 at such times it is a good plan also to call at the other 
 agencies. It may seem an unnecessary precaution to 
 take, but experience has proved to me many times 
 over that it is extremely wise for a teacher in leaving 
 the agency rooms to inform the manager where she 
 can be reached during her stay in the city, even though 
 that stay may be only a few hours. Not infrequently 
 a registrant barely leaves the agency rooms before 
 some superintendent calls for a teacher to fill a posi- 
 tion for which she is exactly fitted. But if she has 
 not told how she can be reached, the opportunity may 
 be lost so far as she is concerned. 
 
 These two facts, then, the college graduate should 
 bear in mind: first, that most inexperienced teachers 
 are placed after the third week in July; second, that 
 a teacher who looks well and strong and feels rested 
 is a far better candidate than one who knows more 
 but looks physically worn out. 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 HOW TO AVOID AND HOW TO ADJUST COMMISSION 
 COMPLICATIONS 
 
 The subject of complications over commissions 
 is one of the hardest to treat, but if this book is to 
 be of real help it must deal with this as well as other 
 business phases of teaching, and deal with it plainly. 
 The thought of having to pay twice for the same 
 place is disheartening; yet every teacher who joins 
 more than one agency knows, or should know, that 
 by doing so complications may arise which will make 
 this possible. As a matter of fact, however, there is 
 little need of being frightened by the thought of two 
 agencies claiming commission, for the chances are 
 not great. 
 
 We all know that when we take a journey by train 
 there is a possibility of being mixed up in a wreck; 
 yet the chances are very slight that this will happen. 
 But if, before we start, some kind friend narrates in 
 our presence tales of railroad disasters, it is quite 
 likely to diminish the pleasure of the trip. So the 
 effect of this chapter must inevitably be to arouse 
 apprehension in the minds of some teachers; but to 
 evade the subject for this reason is manifestly unfair. 
 So while I recommend teachers to register in more 
 than one agency because of the increased opportuni- 
 ties it gives, I also wish to state clearly that the time 
 
 77 
 
78 SECURING BETTER TEACHING POSITIONS 
 
 may come when complications will arise because of 
 such membership. Usually such complications can be 
 avoided by the teacher's using due care, and when 
 they actually occur an equitable adjustment may gener- 
 ally be effected if a teacher stands firm to have such 
 an adjustment made before she pays either agency. 
 
 In order to have a clear understanding about 
 double commissions one should understand very fully 
 the demands and restrictions sometimes placed upon 
 agency managers by superintendents who employ their 
 help in getting teachers. 
 
 We have already described how superintendents 
 have candidates apply to them through agencies, and 
 how the notices of vacancies are sent out to the regis- 
 trants, thus giving them the option of applying or 
 not applying for the position as they may choose. If 
 it were always possible to follow this method there 
 would be little chance of complications arising; but 
 sometimes superintendents do not want candidates to 
 apply to them, but instead ask the agency to recom- 
 mend teachers, or to furnish a list of teachers for 
 them to visit. Here, too, usually, there is opportunity 
 given for the agency to inform the teacher in regard 
 to the matter. Occasionally, however, superintendents 
 request a manager not to mention the matter to the 
 teachers at all, so that it sometimes happens that an 
 agency does considerable work for a teacher without 
 her suspecting it. 
 
 Again, it is sometimes necessary to place copies 
 of a teacher's papers in the hands of school officials 
 before word can be obtained from her as to whether 
 
SECURING BETTER TEACHING POSITIONS 79 
 
 or not she wishes to be a candidate, with the result 
 that two agencies to which she belongs may be asked 
 to recommend teachers and both may send her papers. 
 Of course, if she does not accept the position she will 
 not have to pay a commission; but if she is elected 
 and does accept it, there may be difficulty in deter- 
 mining to which agency she is indebted. 
 
 It is the duty of an engineer of a train, if possible, 
 to bring the passengers to their destination on time. 
 When there is a fog there is danger in running his 
 engine fast, but it may be necessary to do this. So 
 the agency manager, acting in behalf of the teacher, 
 sometimes has to do things without consulting her, 
 but if it helps her in obtaining a position she owes 
 him for the work he did. 
 
 With this explanation it is easy to see how com- 
 plications in regard to commissions can arise; but, as 
 we stated before, they can usually be avoided. Agency 
 managers intend to be fair, preferring frequently to 
 waive claims which a strict interpretation of their 
 contract would entitle them to receive. In return they 
 expect to be fairly treated by their registrants. When 
 difficulties arise, therefore, and claims are made by 
 two agencies, the teacher should not ignore or try to 
 evade the matter, or write the manager a sharp letter, 
 but should seek to find out the grounds on which his 
 claim is based. For instance, a letter like this may 
 be written: 
 
 Dear Sir: — 
 
 I am much surprised to receive a bill from you for 
 commission on my position in , for I was not 
 
80 SECURING BETTER TEACHING POSITIONS 
 
 aware that I was indebted to you. I wish you would 
 kindly explain the grounds on which you base your 
 claim. Awaiting your reply, I remain, 
 
 Very truly yours, 
 
 It would also be well to write the other agency in 
 regard to the matter as follows : 
 
 Dear Sir: — 
 
 I have just received a bill for commission from 
 the agency. What shall I do about it? 
 
 In a few days replies from both agencies should be 
 received and further correspondence will be deter- 
 mined by the nature of these replies. In all the corre- 
 spondence the teacher should make copies of every 
 letter she writes, and the best way to do this is by 
 the use of carbon paper. In writing these letters she 
 should be careful of two things: first, to make each 
 agency feel that it is her intention to pay her just 
 bills; second, to make it plain that she wants the 
 matter adjusted before she pays either bill. 
 
 In the settlement of complications over commis- 
 sions, a superintendent may often render valuable 
 help, for an agency does not like to push a claim 
 which is considered unfair by a superintendent with 
 whom it is doing business, for fear it may lose his 
 patronage. 
 
 Unfortunately some agencies try to frighten a 
 teacher into paying by threatening to put the matter 
 in a lawyer's hands. As a matter of fact no agency 
 likes to go to law over a commission, although some- 
 
SECURING BETTER TEACHING POSITIONS 8l 
 
 times it has to be done in order to get what is rightly 
 due. Therefore when such a threat is made, which 
 I repeat will not often happen so long as a teacher 
 plays fair, instead of being disturbed she should say: 
 
 "All right, Mr. , go ahead on this basis if you 
 
 think you have a good case, but it seems to me you 
 will have your trouble and expense for nothing. I 
 mean to be fair in the matter, and when you make 
 me see that you are entitled to a commission I shall 
 be glad to pay it." In case he should get a lawyer to 
 write a letter, do not let even that frighten you, but 
 go to some man whom you can trust and put the 
 matter in his hands, so that future dealings will be 
 with him instead of with you. This will save you a 
 lot of worry. Preferably such a man should be a 
 lawyer, but it is not necessary for him to be one. He 
 should, however, be a person of good judgment. 
 
 Naturally it is good policy for the teacher to 
 arrange a settlement on the basis of a single commis- 
 sion, but in some cases this is manifestly unfair to 
 the agencies without whose joint efforts the positions 
 could not have been secured. Where a teacher mate- 
 rially benefits by her membership in two agencies she 
 should be willing to pay for this extra help. In such 
 cases, if she will pay a third more than a full com- 
 mission, the four-thirds thus paid can be equally 
 divided so that each agency will receive two-thirds of 
 a commission. In this way each agency sacrifices a 
 third, and the registrant pays a third more, which 
 makes a fair adjustment to all concerned. 
 
 But disputes over questions of double commissions 
 
82 SECURING BETTER TEACHING POSITIONS 
 
 are not the only ones which arise. The fact that 
 agencies often have to work without being able to 
 obtain the direct consent of the registrant, as has been 
 explained in a preceding paragraph, must sometimes 
 inevitably lead to misunderstandings. When this 
 occurs, before passing judgment on the validity of a 
 claim, the ground on which it is presented should be 
 clearly understood. And when it is shown that the 
 agency had a hand in securing the position, the teacher 
 should pay for the service rendered. 
 
 Agencies mean to play fair and teachers mean to 
 do the same. But there are teachers who willfullv 
 cheat the agencies, and there are teachers who unwit- 
 tingly do so. The great majority of teachers, how- 
 ever, are fair and square, and only occasionally is 
 there an agency which is not square. 
 
 An example of how a teacher may unconsciously 
 attempt to cheat an agency is the case of Mr. C, the 
 principal of a grammar school. Through the efforts 
 of an agency he became a strong candidate for a 
 similar position in another town, and the chances 
 looked so favorable for his election that his own super- 
 intendent had a long talk with him, during which he 
 offered him an increase of salary to remain. Mr. C. 
 thereupon withdrew from being a candidate for the 
 other position and accepted the offer of his own 
 superintendent. 
 
 Did Mr. C. owe his agency a commission? Of 
 course he did. If he had not wanted a better position 
 he would not have applied for the other school. If 
 he had not considered his present position at an in- 
 
SECURING BETTER TEACHING POSITIONS 83 
 
 crease of salary better than the other school he would 
 not have remained. And if it had not been for the 
 work of the agency he would not have received this 
 increase of salary. He was indebted to the agency 
 because through its efforts he received the benefits of 
 a new position or its equivalent. Just here is where 
 teachers are apt to get confused. 
 
 When a man is teaching at fifteen hundred dollars 
 a year and an agency helps him to get two thousand 
 dollars a year, so far as the commission is concerned 
 it makes no difference where this two thousand dollar 
 place is. It may seem at first that if he stays in his 
 present position at a five hundred dollar increase it 
 is not the same as if he went to a new place at two 
 thousand dollars; but when one considers that he 
 would have continued to teach at fifteen hundred 
 dollars were it not for the efforts of the agency, it 
 is hard to see why the commission on the two thou- 
 sand dollars is not rightly due the agency, nor why 
 this commission, amounting in all to one hundred 
 dollars, is not a small amount to pay for the five 
 hundred, dollar increase in salary. 
 
 In the insurance business as conducted in Massa- 
 chusetts there is what is called the standard policy, 
 and some teachers' agency managers believe it would 
 be a good thing to have a standard agency contract. 
 Sooner or later, I believe, such a contract form will 
 be adopted, and when it is, provision should be made 
 for the settlement of questions involving complications 
 in regard to commissions; but the insertion of such 
 a clause cannot relieve a registrant from fulfilling her 
 
84 SECURING BETTER TEACHING POSITIONS 
 
 obligation to the agency when she voluntarily receives 
 its help. 
 
 "An ounce of prevention," says the old adage, "is 
 worth a pound of cure." Complications or disputes 
 of any kind are annoying and distract the mind from 
 its regular work. It is better to avoid them when- 
 ever possible. To do this, as we have said before, a 
 registrant should be careful to answer agency notices 
 promptly, and not to allow an agency to help her 
 unless she expects to pay a commission if elected to 
 the place. A careful record should be kept of each 
 position that is applied for. This record should show 
 how a knowledge of the vacancy was obtained, when 
 the application was made, etc. It doesn't make any 
 difference whether these records are kept in a book, 
 by the card system, or in some other way; but it is 
 extremely important to keep them in such form that 
 when a notice of a vacancy is received from an agency 
 it will be evident at once whether the position is a new 
 one or whether an application has already been made 
 to the superintendent. With information at hand that 
 will enable one to determine this, there is no excuse 
 for letting two agencies work for one for the same 
 position unless one feels the need of this extra help 
 and is willing to pay full price for it. That it is 
 sometimes wise to employ the help of more than one 
 agency in order to secure an especially desirable posi- 
 tion goes without saying; but one agency can usually 
 give all the help that is necessary. 
 
 It may be of help to add here a few simple sug- 
 gestions about the payment of commissions. Strictly 
 
SECURING BETTER TEACHING POSITIONS 85 
 
 speaking, these are due when the positions are accepted. 
 As a matter of fact, a teacher usually pays her com- 
 mission after she has earned the money in her new 
 position. Some agencies require her to give notes 
 which will come due at certain times, while others 
 simply rely upon her sense of honor. 
 
 Now, when a position is secured at the close of 
 the spring term, or during the summer vacation, it 
 will be September or October before the teacher can 
 earn any money in her new position, so that an agency 
 is often glad to discount the bill if the money is paid 
 at once. For instance, suppose Miss Brown is elected 
 the last of July to a five hundred dollar position. 
 The commission is twenty-five dollars. Even though 
 the payment is deferred until the last of October, the 
 interest which the twenty-five dollars would earn 
 if left in a savings bank for the three months would 
 amount to only twenty-five cents, whereas an agency 
 will often be willing to discount $1.25, or five per 
 cent of the bill, thus reducing it to $23.75. By tak- 
 ing advantage of this discount Miss Brown can make 
 her money earn five times as much as would be the 
 case if it remained in the bank. But better still 
 is to have a father or a brother who will enable her to 
 take advantage of the discount without encroaching 
 on her bank account. 
 
 There is no question of the fact that the agencies 
 are doing good work in helping teachers secure better 
 positions than they could get by their own unaided 
 efforts ; but whether a teacher joins them is voluntary 
 with her. There are persons so constituted that they 
 
86 SECURING BETTER TEACHING POSITIONS 
 
 hardly dare eat or drink for fear of being bitten by 
 some microbe or other ravishing, microscopic parasite. 
 But the majority of mankind still enjoys a square 
 meal ; and most teachers are wise enough not to let 
 the possible possibility of possible complications over 
 questions of commissions deter them from deriving 
 the actual benefits which agency membership affords. 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 
 WHEN SHOULD TEACHERS CHANGE THEIR POSITIONS? 
 
 Many teachers believe that the best vacancies 
 occur at the end of the school year. Undoubtedly it 
 is true that more resignations occur at this time and 
 during the long vacation which follows ; but to assume 
 on the strength of this that the summer is the best 
 time to make a change is not good reasoning. It's 
 the farmer who raises the early berries who gets the 
 highest price. It's the teacher who can change when 
 the right opening comes who stands the best chance 
 of getting the coveted position. 
 
 There is a kind of unwritten law among teachers' 
 agencies to the effect that it is dishonorable to try to 
 move a teacher before she has taught a year in a 
 school, or until the summer vacation. The same 
 general rule applies to teachers, and many superin- 
 tendents will not consider a teacher who has not held 
 her position a year. Besides this, it is the logical 
 thing to finish the term, and one term follows another 
 with so short an interval of vacation that there seems 
 to be no stopping place until the end of the year. 
 Thus it is that most of the vacancies occur, as stated 
 above, at the end of the spring term or during the 
 summer vacation. 
 
 Now the effect of so many resignations being 
 crowded into so short a period of time, and the fact 
 
 87 
 
88 SECURING BETTER TEACHING POSITIONS 
 
 that the normal schools and colleges are at this same 
 time graduating such a large number of students who 
 expect to teach, is to give the superintendent a great 
 number of candidates to choose from, and the inevi- 
 table result follows that the competition is keen and 
 strong. 
 
 On the other hand, when a vacancy occurs in mid- 
 term, instead of there being a large number of eager 
 candidates the superintendent discovers that it is almost 
 impossible to find any good teachers who are available. 
 It is the repetition of the old law of supply and 
 demand. 
 
 It will pay a teacher to take cognizance of this 
 fact and arrange her work so that she can change her 
 school in mid-term if the right opening comes. This 
 does not mean that she should not apply for positions 
 during the summer, but merely that she should not 
 look upon the summer season as affording the only, 
 or even the best, chance to make a change. 
 
 It is seldom possible to predict when any special 
 vacancy will occur, but if we follow the rule of the 
 old Farmer's Almanac and write opposite the months 
 September to June, "Begin to Expect Vacancies 
 about this Time," we shall be sure to hit the truth. 
 February is, indeed, likely to be a dull month, but it 
 is a short one, and all the rest of the time there is 
 something doing. When the schools open in the fall 
 an unexpected influx of students may make additional 
 teachers necessary. Then in a few weeks comes what 
 is known in agency parlance as "the crop of failures." 
 The custom in country schools of engaging teachers 
 
SECURING BETTER TEACHING POSITIONS 89 
 
 by the term results in many changes for the winter 
 and spring terms. As soon as there begins to be a 
 feeling of spring in the air, proprietors of private 
 schools, realizing that they will soon have to get out 
 their new catalogues, know that they must select such 
 new teachers as they may need in season to have their 
 names printed on their faculty lists; and superintend- 
 ents of public schools, in anticipation of vacancies in 
 their teaching forces, seek the aid of agencies in mak- 
 ing out their itineraries for the visitation of teachers 
 who may be good candidates for the positions which 
 they will have to offer. Following April come May 
 and June, with an ever increasing rush of business. 
 Toward the last of June, however, superintendents 
 and principals are busy with graduations, and the first 
 of July finds everybody tired and in want of a few 
 days of rest. 
 
 After July 12 up to the last of August things hum 
 with increasing vigor. First come the calls for ex- 
 perienced teachers. Then in August superintendents 
 who have lost their teachers of one or two years' 
 experience must find others to take their places. Not 
 many inexperienced teachers are placed before August, 
 so that it is wise for the young graduate, as is pointed 
 out in another chapter, to take during July a much 
 needed vacation, and above all things not to worry 
 about "getting located." Even after the first of Sep- 
 tember a good many find positions, so that it does 
 not pay for any candidate to get discouraged. 
 
 The study of the subject of vacancies is a most 
 interesting one, for the filling of one place usually 
 
90 SECURING BETTER TEACHING POSITIONS 
 
 means the creating of another vacancy. It is a kind 
 of puss-in-the-corner game. Only when the vacancy 
 is filled by the election of some one not then teaching 
 does the game stop, or rather pause, for it does not 
 stop, but immediately begins in some other school. 
 No wonder that the life of an agency manager is a 
 busy one ; for it is necessary for him not only to learn 
 the progress of these vacancies, but it is incumbent 
 upon him to select the successful candidates before 
 rival agencies do this. "Eternal vigilance is the price 
 of liberty." The time to get a position is when the 
 opening comes. The time to be registered at an agency 
 is all the time. 
 

JUL 5 1910 
 
One copy del. to Cat. Div. 
 
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS % 
 
 022 158 963 4 
 
 rii 
 
 -•''>'.' :;v ■■■■'■ . 
 
 Ill Wm Hi 
 
 JT 
 
 '•■■'-. ■:■■■■■.■'. ■'■-■■■■. s 1 - 
 
 
 ."'.■. v.;/: ; /■■-'"•• ■■■■;.■■■■ 
 
 HI 
 Rial