Pusey Points to Educational Opportunities

"If you are by temperament a scholar or a student, then by all means go into teaching." President Nathan M. Pusey told the Education Career Conference in Kirkland House last night.

"There is more to teaching at a university like Harvard than classroom work itself," he emphasized. An equally important factor is "research," Pusey said; but "learning" would perhaps be a more appropriate word for that aspect of a college teacher's function," he added.

"Don't get the idea that Harvard is the only place in the world where you can live as a scholar," Pusey warned. The University "breeds" that idea in its members, but it has little solid basis in fact, he said.

The supposed conflict between knowledge of one's subject and pure teaching ability is an over-emphasized one, Pusey said. "It is hardly as real it seems to the undergraduate. There is no subject most teachers are more concerned about than their own students," he explained.

But a teacher's interest in his students does not always receive the proper recognition, said another of the panel's speakers, Francis M. Rogers, dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, talking on opportunities in teaching on the college level. Knowledge of subject matter is now the vital criterion for placement and promotion on college faculties, said Rogers, and "that may not be entirely appropriate."

Despite the generally recognized lowness of teaches' salaries, college faculty members can earn a "living wage," Rogers told the Panel. Ph.D.'s just leaving the Graduate School receive first-year teaching salaries averaging from $4,000 to $4,500 a year, he said.

The career conference also heard speeches by Robert N. Cunningham, Dean of the Phillips Exeter Academy, and Professor Harold C. Hunt, former superintendent of the Chicago school system. Francis Keppel '38, Dean of the Graduate School of Education, was faculty commentator.

Discussing private schools, Cunningham stressed the "variety" and "adventure" which a good teacher can inject into secondary school learning through class-work, athletics and public relations. "Teaching is essentialy an act of faith," he said.