The office of teacher has not, until late years, been regarded as other vocations are. Men were educated in law, or medicine, or theology, or learned the trades of craftsmen, because they expected to make practical use, during their life-time, of the knowledge and skill they acquired. But men and women drifted into the school-room as teachers—and in too many cases still do so—not because they expected to make teaching their business, but because, for the time being, they could find nothing else to do. Many of these teachers were and are, undoubtedly, well qualified for educational work; many of them have achieved marked success in this work, and, growing to like it, have continued in it. But many others, and far the largest number, I fear, of those who engage in teaching as a mere temporary make-shift, do not fairly earn even the poor salaries they are paid. No one can succeed at anything if he does not put his heart and mind into his work. “Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might,” is a lesson which the teacher must take to heart, or his or her teaching will come to naught. And surely there can be no more important work than that of an educator in the schools. Year by year this fact is strengthening in the public mind, and as a result the teacher is growing in public appreciation and pecuniary value. The underlying spirit, the clear purpose of the State Normal, is not to educate lawyers, or doctors, or ministers, or tradesmen, but to educate, train and fit men and women for the profession of public educators. They who enter this Institution with any other purpose in view, are guilty of a fraud on the generosity of the State. The General Government educates young men, at West Point and Annapolis, for the army and navy. There is no law which compels them, after graduation, to enter either branch of the service. But there is an unwritten code which, appealing to their personal honor, is stronger than any statute, and which compels these graduates of the Nation’s schools to serve two years in its army or navy. They may then resign, but in the event of war, they must promptly tender their services to the Government. Some such code of ethics should govern graduates of the State Normal. They are educated by the State, as teachers, for the purpose of elevating the standard and qualifications of its public educators, and they should feel in honor bound to fulfill this implied personal obligation. And surely there can be no nobler ambition than to be a really great teacher—such a teacher, for example, as Arnold of Rugby, or Horace Mann. To rule and shape human minds, to mould and fashion children and youth for the highest and noblest duties of life—is not this a work which should enlist in its service the best heart and brain of all the land?