SECURING A POSITION.
The problem of securing a position concerns not only the young teacher,
but often the experienced teacher as well. Thousands of young persons
begin the work of teaching for the first time each year. The securing
of the first school is usually a red-letter day for most persons who
are really anxious to teach. Most boards of education and school
officials hesitate to employ a teacher who has had no experience.
It is one of the conditions to be met in all occupations. Often
principals and older teachers are loudest in their demands that only
the experienced be employed, forgetting that there was a time when they
themselves were without experience. For a subordinate place where there
is not too much executive work, I should prefer the young person well
prepared to the teacher who has so much experience that they feel that
they know all that is needed to be known.
Most young persons, unless they have a good professional course to
begin with, teach first near their home. The time is coming, and let us
hope coming rapidly, when one or two years of professional study must
precede any attempt at teaching. It will be well for the pupils, well
for the schools and, in the long run, well for the teachers themselves.
Natural ability being equal, the young teacher who has a year or more
of professional study has a decided advantage. This professional
study gives clearer ideas of school and higher ideals of what should
be accomplished. When school officials and communities insist on
professional preparation and pay salaries sufficient to justify them
in demanding professional preparation, they have taken a long step
in advance toward a profession of teaching. Communities will then be
less dependent upon local teachers--the sons and daughters and nieces
and nephews of local politicians and relatives of prominent families.
Between these on the one hand and the indigent never-do-wells who
have a half charitable claim on the community and are pensioned with
a position in the schools there are many communities in which there
is little incentive for young persons to prepare for teaching. When a
professional preparation is required from all applicants things will be
different. Then those who look to teaching as a serious occupation will
have the advantage.
It is an unfortunate thing for the schools that so few teachers can
be progressive, up-to-date, and thoroughly alive to their own welfare
and continue to teach for a life time in their own locality. There
are a few examples of such teachers and such teaching. The person and
the opportunity met, but in many, many cases, in fact, very few cases
has the worthy person and the worthy position for such person come
together. President John W. Cook, in an address a few years ago, in
commenting upon this lack of opportunity, thought it the duty of the
community to increase the salary until we could have the best teachers
remaining continually at the same school or neighborhood. This sounds
plausible at first. It would seem strange, however, to see a man of
President Cook’s caliber content to continue to teach in the same
district school where he began. We may well wonder if it would have
been the same President Cook of national fame as an educator if he had
done so, or whether he had been dwarfed in the staying into a very
ordinary person--perhaps a cook without the capital letter.
The worthy, ambitious, successful teacher will in more than nine cases
out of ten sooner or later desire a position away from home. Then the
problem of how to secure a position becomes a live one to them. The
first thing, of course, is to find a vacancy, a place where a teacher
is wanted, and the second thing is to make the school officials believe
you are just the person for the position.
A good teachers’ agency can be of much service to you in finding the
vacancy. They serve the same purpose in locating teachers--and a
legitimate purpose it is, that a real estate agent does in buying or
selling real estate. The dealer in real estate brings the buyer and the
seller together. He serves both, and if a man of honesty and principle,
may be of service to both and his business in every way a creditable
one. The real estate man usually knows who wants to sell property,
knows something of the value of property, looks up the title and
records, and then brings the buyer and seller together, or takes charge
of the details entirely. To the person who has ever been served by a
good real estate agency no justification of the business is needed. The
same is true of a good teachers’ agency. A good agency spends hundreds
of dollars each year seeking information of where there are to be
vacancies and changes. School officials learn to depend upon many of
the reliable agencies to aid them in the selection of their teachers.
Agencies also often have some weight in the matter of recommending
teachers. This is especially true late in the season when unexpected
vacancies occur. Agencies are then often asked to select teachers for
the positions and school boards take them upon the recommendation of
the agency.
The greatest value of the teachers’ agency to you in the early
part of the season is in giving you reliable information in
regard to vacancies. They often know where vacancies are to occur
and the particulars of them. You would find it hard to collect
this information--the places where there are vacancies, salary,
qualifications desired, nature of work, etc. The information is
valuable and is worth to you the cost of the commission in that it
widens your field and chances. After you know these things, you must
then push your own claims to secure the place.
A good agency looks up your record as a student, as a teacher, and as a
person of good character, and if your record is not good it refuses you
membership. There are, however, many agencies that are only leeches,
depending upon membership fees for existence and caring little or
nothing for the real business of locating teachers. In selecting an
agency as in other things, you must use good judgment. There are many
agencies that do good, honest work for its members. They usually charge
a membership fee of two dollars and five per cent of the first year’s
salary, but they work faithfully for their members, and will not admit
to membership a teacher whose record is not good. Beware of the agency
that guarantees you a position. It cannot do it and do a legitimate
business.
After you know there is a vacancy, the next thing is to make the Board
of Education believe you are _the_ person for the place. You must
depend upon your own personality and ability in presenting your claims,
together with the aid of your friends. Applications are usually made in
writing, and often personal applications are called for before final
arrangements are made. Your letter of application should be brief,
specific, neatly written and well arranged. School boards are often
business men, busy with other duties besides school affairs. They want
the facts in the case--age, health, weight, education, experience,
success in teaching and governing, something of your personality,
etc. They will want personal references also that they may write and
get information about you direct, and very often ask very pointed
questions. They, in fact, want to know the very things which you would
probably want to know if you were employing a teacher. These facts
should be briefly told, but well. The better the language, the more
straightforward, the more forcible, the better it is arranged, the
stronger the impression, and the more attention it will receive. Into
your letter of application you must put your best self.
Let me emphasize the matter of arrangement of the letter. It goes
without saying that the letter must be neatly and plainly written or
type-written, and free from misspelled words. To my personal knowledge
many teachers fail to arrange the form of the letter to appeal to the
eye, and this is essential. Paragraphing counts for much in a letter
of application. The long, loose, scrawly, disjointed letter, hard to
follow when reading it, with pages mixed until you must turn the sheet
once or twice to tell for sure where the sentence is continued--these
letters often cost the writer a position, and it is right that they
should. Use the standard business letter size of paper of good quality.
Make your left-hand margin uniform. Write a neat, plain hand. Punctuate
properly, and above all paragraph so that the eye catches at a glance
each topic treated. If you are a teacher and do not know the value of
the margin in placing emphasis and attention upon a topic you should
study it before writing letters of application.
Do not ask a lot of questions in your letter of application--such as
size of place, cost of board, railroad facilities, etc. It is true
that these are important items to you. But the secretary of a school
board is too busy to answer all these points until you are seriously
considered for the position. You may be only one of fifty applicants.
With the help of a few members of the board he will in a few minutes
reduce them to probably half a dozen by eliminating those whose letters
do not appeal to them. If your letter of application has been neat
enough and strong enough to make a good impression it will be among
this half dozen. Now comes the actual consideration of the board. They
weigh and study this select half dozen. They may then eliminate two
or three of these and investigate and consider the remaining ones for
several days before coming to a conclusion.
Keep your application before the board. If your first letter is strong
enough to place you among the few to be carefully considered, these
days of investigation are critical times. The skill with which you
keep yourself before them will count much. Manage to write one or two
members of the board every two or three days. Be brief and be business
like, but do not seem to be anxious. Personal letters from those who
know you will be worth much. Have them addressed to different members
of the board. This will impress your name and application upon each
member. Each member will have a vote, and you must reach a majority to
win. Be careful also in the persons who write in your interests. Many
good men cannot write letters of recommendation and do it gracefully.
They either overstate or scatter. The list of references you give will
mean much.
If you are elected to the position then comes the time and opportunity
to make inquiry as to salary, work, expenses, etc., before accepting.
This can be done without giving offense or arousing the suspicion that
you will not accept. You may also accept only conditionally until you
know these points. After you have been offered a place, if you have
any doubts about the work, then ask your questions. Be pointed and
accurate, and expect a prompt and businesslike reply. If the conditions
are such that you cannot accept do not keep them waiting, but tell them
that you decline the place, and give them the reasons.
With your letter of application should go copies of a few good
testimonials from persons who know you and your work. Send also a
good photograph, and a self-addressed, government stamped envelope
for reply. Get some good brief testimonials from those who know you
best--your teachers and one or two business men. If you have taught,
get testimonials from the school board and patrons testifying to the
success of your work. Keep these original testimonials. Have neat
type-written copies made and send a few of these with each letter of
application. Offer to send others, and in writing the board later it is
well to enclose one or two new testimonials with each letter.
In addition to the testimonials, refer them to a few reliable persons
who know you and your worth. Ask the board to write these persons
asking about you. Many persons have little faith in a general
testimonial written to the public and for your own perusal. These
same persons often have much confidence in a personal, private letter
stating the same thing, or answering definite questions about you. For
reference it is best to give the names of persons who have not already
given you public testimonials. Select for such references persons who
know you, and persons who will answer promptly and specifically any
questions asked about you. Many good men who could and would give you a
good testimonial are so negligent and careless that they fail to answer
a letter of inquiry until it is too late. The busy business man who is
accustomed to attending to his mail promptly and on time often makes a
better reference than a man of more leisure. The first writes promptly,
while the second may carry the letter for a week or ten days before the
spirit moves him to reply. This delay is considered by the board making
the inquiry as a reluctance on his part to recommend you.
A good small photograph should go with each application. Good copies of
large photographs are inexpensive and answer the purpose well. Often
these photographs are not returned, and if the copy is a good one it
answers the purpose as well as a more expensive one. The photograph
should be plain, but showing you at your best. A front view is usually
best. The eyes and expression should be good. It should show you
neatly dressed, but modestly and becomingly. Its purpose should be to
emphasize your personality and not to show how pretty you can look.
The low-necked, short-sleeved dramatic-posed photographs sent out by
some teachers will and should defeat the applicant for a position as
teacher. Such photographs might be all right in gay Newport or some
other fashionable resort. But fortunately, a majority of our school
boards are composed of business men of common sense, modesty, and good
judgment. They are not seeking vaudeville performers, nor stage poses,
but persons of modesty and good common sense to teach school. Your
photograph should show these qualities in you, else in most cases it
will serve to defeat rather than to help you to a school position.
Enclose a self-addressed stamped envelope for reply. It will pay. This
will bring you more replies than a loose stamp enclosed. It is even
better if you use the government stamped envelope which may be had at
any postoffice. Applying for a school is a business matter, not social,
and business forms should be used. Use plain white paper, business
size, with envelopes to match, and write on one side of paper only,
numbering pages.
If the position is a good one and the contest close, the board may
request a personal visit. If possible, it is best for you to go. Five
minutes conversation may clinch a position which otherwise you would
lose. Make it a business call, not a social. Dress for business, not
for society. Be well groomed, but seemingly indifferent to dress. Be
at your best. If the trip is a long one stop at a hotel and rest and
dust before calling on the board. Excuses for personal appearance
may be reasonable, but to “land the job” your chances are better if
no excuses are necessary. It is a difficult trial to appear before a
board of strange men, an applicant for a position from them, and yet be
quiet and composed. It is a test of your personality, and if you acquit
yourself well it shows strength and usually secures you the position.
To be composed you may have to use will power and mental effort.
It is possible to do this successfully. In fact much of experience
consists in nothing more than the ability to keep composed under trying
conditions. Neither your life, health, happiness nor future success
depends entirely upon the result of the interview. It may be hard to
believe this at the time, but if you can make yourself realize it you
have struck the keynote to success. The members of the board are only
men, plain, blunt men, not always the strongest men. They are human
like yourself. Be frank, be independent, be courteous, look them square
in the eye, talk to the point, but do not talk too much. The interview
is often a contest of personalities, your own personality, and that of
the board. You must show composure and courage. This will secure for
you the position often over the strongest of applicants.
There is skill and art in one’s ability to secure a position. One
element of advancement and success will depend upon how you master
these.