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The Teacher

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Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Aug 6, 1908

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 85, No. 32.

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The Teacher

By Charles W. Eliot

Tenure of Office

THE only tenure of office which is fit for a teacher is the tenure during good behavior and competency; and this is the only tenure which will secure the services of competent professors in colleges and universities. The frequency of the elections of teachers is a very bad feature in our public-school system. Permanence of tenure is necessary to make the position of a teacher one of dignity and independence. Young men of vigor and capacity will not enter a profession which offers no money prizes, unless they are induced by its stability and peacefulness, and by the social consideration which attaches to it. The system which prevails in most of our large cities and towns, of electing the teachers in the public schools at least as often as once a year, is inconsistent with this dignity, peacefulness, and consideration, unless a firmly established custom of re-electing incumbents converts the constantly recurring elections into mere formalities. —Charles W. Eliot.