=Professor Phelps quoted.=—­In his very delightful book, “Teaching in School and College,” the author, Professor William Lyon Phelps, says:  “I do not know that I could make entirely clear to an outsider the pleasure I have in teaching.  I had rather earn my living by teaching than in any other way.  In my mind, teaching is not merely a life work, a profession, an occupation, a struggle; it is a passion.  I love to teach.  I love to teach as a painter loves to paint, as a musician loves to play, as a singer loves to sing, as a strong man rejoices to run a race.  Teaching is an art—­an art so great and so difficult to master that a man or a woman can spend a long life at it, without realizing much more than his limitations and mistakes, and his distance from the ideal.  But the main aim of my happy days has been to become a good teacher, just as every architect wishes to be a good architect, and every professional poet strives toward perfection.  For the chief difference between the ambition of the artist and the ambition of a money-maker—­both natural and honorable ambitions—­is that the money-maker is after the practical reward of his toil, while the artist wants the inner satisfaction that accompanies mastery.”

=Attitude toward work.=—­To these sentiments the artist teacher subscribes whole-heartedly, if not in words, certainly by her attitude and practices.  She regards her work not as a task but as a privilege, and thinking it a privilege she appreciates it as she would any other privilege.  She would esteem it a privilege to attend a concert by high-class artists, or to visit an art gallery, or to witness a presentation of a great drama, or to see the Jungfrau; and she feels the same exaltation as she anticipates her work as a teacher.  She sings on her way to school because of the privileges that await her.  She experiences a fine flow of sentiment without becoming sentimental.  Teaching, to her, is a serious business, but not, in the least, somber.  Painting is a serious business, but the artist’s zeal and joy in his work give wings to the hours.  Laying the Atlantic cable was a serious business, but the vision of success was both inspiring and inspiriting, and temporary mishaps only served to stimulate to greater effort.

=The element of enthusiasm.=—­To this teacher, each class exercise is an enterprise that is big with possibilities; and, in preparation for the event, she feels something of the thrill that must have animated Columbus as he faced the sea.  She estimates results more by the faces of her pupils than by the marks in a grade book, for the field of her endeavors is the spirit of the child, and the face of the child telegraphs to her the awakening of the spirit.  Like the sculptor, she is striving to bring the angel of her dream into the face of the child; and when this hope is realized, the privilege of being a teacher seems the very acme of human aspirations.  The animated face and the flashing eye betoken the sort of life that her teaching aims to stimulate; and when she sees these unmistakable manifestations, she knows that her big enterprise is a success and rejoices accordingly.  If, for any reason, her enthusiasm is running low, she takes herself in hand and soon generates the enthusiasm that she knows is indispensable to the success of her enterprise.