9. The Young Man and Electrical Engineering Charles F. Scott, Sc.D., Eng.D., Professor of Electrical Engineering, Sheffield Scientific School, Yale University 10. The Young Man and Civil Engineering George F. Swain, LL.D., Professor of Civil Engineering, Harvard University 11. The Young Man and Farming L. H. Bailey, M.S., LL.D., formerly Director of College of Agriculture, Cornell University, and Editor of Cyclopedia of American Horticulture, Rural Science Series, Garden-Craft Series, Rural Text-Book Series, Cyclopedia of Agriculture, etc. 12. The Young Man and Government Service Hon. William Howard Taft, D.C.L., LL.D., ex- The Author of this volume-The Young Man and Teaching the late Professor Henry Parks Wright, Ph.D., LL.D., of Yale University, had large experience as an instructor, covering more than forty years, and as Dean of Yale College from 1884 to 1909, was eminently qualified to give wise counsel to young men contemplating the work of teaching. In this book the Author has rightly devoted much space to teaching in high and preparatory schools. The majority of college men who enter upon the profession of teaching begin their work in the field of secondary education. The Author has, therefore, given special attention to teaching in secondary schools. For those who are to enter immediately upon the work of college teaching, Chapter VIII will be found especially helpful. Professor Wright has also given large space to the important matter of discipline. Many men, well informed in the subjects they are to teach, and well equipped in methods, fail as teachers because of their inefficiency in matters of discipline. The Author's unusually successful career as Dean of Yale College renders his counsel on this important subject of exceptional value. E. HERSHEY SNEATH. PREFATORY NOTE When a young man has in mind the choice of any particular profession, he wishes to know (1) what the profession has to offer him; (2) whether he possesses such personal qualifications as will enable him to have a good degree of success in it; and (3) how best to prepare himself for the work. If he selects the profession, he wishes to get as early as possible what guidance he can from the experience of other men who have gone over the same road before him. To be helpful to one who wishes to decide whether it will be wise for him to adopt teaching as his profession, or to one who has already adopted it and is just entering upon his new work, is the aim of this book. The material here presented has been drawn mainly from personal experience and observation. I look back upon my undergraduate college days with an increasing appreciation of the faculty by which my class was taught. Twenty men gave the instruction during four years to a class numbering in all one hundred and seventy-seven students, and these were men who left the impress of their high character upon their pupils. My experience as a teacher extended over more than half a century, beginning with a few years in the common schools of Massachusetts, continuing for three terms in one of the largest private schools of the West, and ending with forty years in the College Department of an eastern university. I have had as teachers and as colleagues many who have ranked among the best in their profession, and chiefly from these I have drawn my ideal of what a teacher ought to be. I would not have any one suppose that I assume to have lived up to the standard which I have here set. I have profited by my mistakes and by the discovery of my own deficiencies. In Chapter XI will be found brief sketches of a few of the masters who have shown unusual talent for training boys and whose positions have given them great influence in establishing and maintaining a high standard of teaching in American secondary schools. I have thought that some acquaintance with the life and character, aims and methods of these teachers would be interesting and helpful to a young man who adopts teaching as his profession. Much of the information given in this chapter is taken from books and pamphlets that are preserved in only a few libraries, and hence are not generally accessible to teachers in the preparatory schools. Ezekiel Cheever rightly stands at the head of this list because of his position as the first great American schoolmaster and also on account of his very long period of service. New Haven, November 30, 1916. |