ITA ANIOL PROKOP.




PROFESSOR AND TEACHER.


The two words that recur most frequently perhaps in the discussion of
matters of education are "teacher" and "professor;" yet there are
no two that are used so carelessly and loosely. It seems as if the
thought that they may not be synonymous seldom, if ever, occurs to
those using them. If one of our writers or speakers upon education
were suddenly called upon to state exactly what he meant by a
"professor" in distinction from a "teacher," he would be at a loss for
an answer. He might reply, after some hesitation, "Why, a teacher is
a man who teaches at a school or an academy, and a professor is a man
who teaches at a college." If he were pressed still more closely, and
asked to give the precise difference between a "school or an academy"
and a "college," it is safe to assume that he would find himself
nonplussed. There are colleges in the country, some large and others
small, some old and others young, some good and others poor; but aside
from the fact that they provide a curriculum of four years and teach
a certain amount of Latin, Greek and mathematics, they do not possess
features enough in common to enable us to define with exactness "a
college." It is not in the power of language to devise a formula so
elastic as to embrace Harvard, Brown, Princeton, Trinity, Cornell
and Michigan University, without at the same time ignoring the
characteristic features of one or the other. Even if we admit that
there is a vague ideal unity underlying the so-called college system,