en these various modes of organization which
I shall not now stop to examine, as it will be sufficiently correct for
my purpose to consider them all as only various ways of organizing the
_employers_, in the contract, by which the teacher is employed. The
teacher is the agent; the patrons, represented in these several ways,
are the principals. When, therefore, in the following paragraphs, I use
the word _employers_, I mean to be understood to speak of the committee,
or the trustees, or the visiters, or the parents themselves, as the
case, in each particular institution, may be; that is, the persons, for
whose purpose, and at whose expense, the institution is maintained; or
their representatives.

Now there is a very reasonable, and almost universally established rule,
which teachers are very frequently prone to forget, viz., _the employed
ought always to be responsible to the employers, and to be under their
direction_. So obviously reasonable is this rule, and in fact, so
absolutely indispensable in the transaction of all the business of life,
that it would be idle to attempt to establish and illustrate it here. It
has, however, limitations, and it is applicable to a much greater
extent, in some departments of human labor, than in others. It is
_applicable_ to the business of teaching, and though, I confess, that it
is somewhat less absolute and imperious here, still, it is obligatory, I
believe, to far greater extent, than teachers have been generally
willing to admit.

A young lady, I will imagine, wishes to introduce the study of Botany
into her school. The parents or the committee object; they say, that
they wish the children to confine their attention exclusively to the
elementary branches of education. "It will do them no good," says the
chairman of the committee, "to learn by heart some dozen or two of
learned names. We want them to read well, to write well, and to
calculate well, and not to waste their time in studying about pistils
and stamens and nonsense."

Now what is the duty of the teacher in such a case? Why, very plainly
her duty is the same as that of the Governor of a state, where the
people, through their representatives, regularly chosen, negative a
proposal, which he considers calculated to promote the public good. It
is his duty to submit to the public will, and though he may properly do
all in his power, to present the subject to his employers in such a
light, as to lead them to regard it as h