Statement by United States Commissioner of Education Earl James McGrath to the New York Times

Statement* The primary cause of our inability to attract more young people to the teaching profession, and hold them, is, of course, our failure to offer a pay check more adequate to the needs of modern living. Until we can establish better salaries, it is doubtful that we shall be able to secure the full complement of qualified teachers we so sorely need. There are other factors, however, besides the economic that cause teachers to abandon their profession. Many teachers are overworked to the point where they can "no longer take it.' Others are unwilling to accept the limitations on their personal freedom imposed by certain communities. Still others find that conditions in many school systems act to curb their natural enthusiasm and zeal for "doing a good job." There is no doubt that really thorough-going research into the teacher shortage is long over-due. Such a study should explore all phases of the matter-economic, social and psychological-and attempt to uncover the root causes. We need to know all the reasons why people go, or do not go, into teaching and why they stay or leave it. We need to know what makes a good teacher and what makes a bad teacher. And we need to know what can be done to develop the morale of the profession so that those who enter it will have no cause to regret their choice. *By Earl James McGrath, U. S. Commissioner of Education, Federal Security Agency, Washington, D. C., on "Teacher Morale," to New York Times, January 1952.