No Respect for Teachers

School-teaching is the most beggarly profession in the United States. No other calling that is presumed to require anything like the same amount of training and ability is so ill-paid. No other calling that is presumed to require a considerable mental discipline and development is held in such low regard or is so little supported by public admiration. No other learned calling except the ministry is pursued under conditions that involve so much humiliation. But, of course, the real victims are millions of prospective citizens, particularly in the country, on whom we are palming off a dastardly swindle.

—“School Victims,” Editorial, April 6, 1918

This article appears in the March/April 2018 issue of The Saturday Evening Post. Subscribe to the magazine for more art, inspiring stories, fiction, humor, and features from our archives.