literature, history, philosophy, etc. This would give breadth of view,
clearness of perception, and a right perspective--elements of
incomparable value in the equipment of the teacher. But yet, in view of
our economic conditions and of a general lack of understanding and
therefore of appreciation in the lay mind of the most vital and
fundamental work of the teacher, we cannot yet hope for teachers ideally
equipt. And our present standards, if insisted upon and the work thus
far be thoro and clear and faithful, will give us increasingly better
results and eventually lead to conditions more nearly ideal.

But this judgment as to criticism must be very different when we look
upon these graduates as possible teachers in the high school. The
scholarship of such a teacher there would be but little, if any,
"broader than the scholarship of his most advanced pupil." While there
is to-day no uniform legislation touching the requirements as to
qualifications of high school teachers in the United States, each state,
and even each school, being largely a law unto itself, there is getting
to be a very decided uniformity the country over as to practise, and in
many ways this is much more significant than formal legislation would
be. For without compulsion, the whole people, each section and each
state, independent of all others, seemingly by the very necessity of the
case, have fixt upon the same minimum standard of qualification for high
school teachers. And that minimum is the completion of a full four-year
collegiate course of instruction, including--indeed, in many cases,
plus--a certain emphasis to be placed upon the subjects to be handled,
and a certain amount of time devoted to strictly professional subjects.
To be sure, in some states legislation has spoken, as in Minnesota,
requiring completion of collegiate work, and practically so in North
Dakota, requiring completion of such work for superintendencies and high
school principalships, and strongly recommending the same for all
teaching positions in the high school. In California a step farther has
been taken in requiring, in addition to that, a full year of graduate
study. The tendency, in several states, seems to be in the direction of
the position taken by California. And with that tendency I am in
sympathy.

This movement upward, however, I do not want to see go any farther. I
deprecate the tendency, seen in some quarters, of setting up as the
symbol of the standard of