ers are
regarded as being of the same type. The better teachers, the strong
personalities, are brought into this same class and must suffer the
consequences.

=The "Mode" in Labor.=--This same process of classifying individuals may
be seen in other spheres also. In some sections of the country it is the
method of estimating the worth of laboring men; all in the same class
are considered equal; all of a class are reduced to the same level and
paid the same wages. One man can do and often does the work of two or
three men, and does it better; yet he must labor for the same common
wage.

=The "Mode" in Educational Institutions.=--The same is to a great extent
true of the popular estimate of educational institutions. In the public
mind an institution is merely an "institution." One is thought of as
doing practically the same work as another; so when institutions come
before legislatures for financial recognition in the way of
appropriations, one institution is considered as deserving as another.
The great public is not keen in its discriminations, whether it be a
case of educational institutions, of laboring men, or of teachers.

=No "Profession."=--The fact is that, in the lower ranks of the
teachers' calling, there is really no _profession_. The personality of
many who engage in the work is too ordinary to professionalize any
calling.

=Weak Personalities.=--This condition of affairs has grown partly out of
the fact that we have not, in the different states and in the country at
large, a sufficiently high standard. The examinations are not
sufficiently extensive and intensive to separate the sheep from the
goats. The unqualified thus rush in and drive out the qualified, for the
efficient cannot compete with the inefficient. The calling is in no
sense a "closed" profession, and consequently in the lower ranks it is
scarcely a profession at all.

=Low Standard.=--There is also established in the public mind a certain
standard, or test, for common school teaching. This standard has been
current so long that it has become quite stable, and it seems almost
impossible to change it. As in the case of some individuals when they
become possessed of an idea, it is almost impossible to dispossess the
social mind of this low standard.

=The Norm of Wages Too Low.=--In regard to the wages of teachers it may
be said that there is fixed in the social mind also, a certain _norm_.
As in the case of personality and of standard qual