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1959: The Profession and George
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 October 2020
Extract
How does a profession, ours or any other, express itself? How does it establish standards and achieve its common purposes? Well, the American way of doing these things is familiar enough. Whenever we discover an interest in common, we call a meeting and elect officers. Then we appoint committees. Presto, we have an organization. It's easy to poke fun at this process, but it's a democratic invention, and one especially valued by teachers, who in point of law (we sometimes forget) are nothing more than hired employees of corporate bodies over which they have no control whatsoever. When we form our own organization and its program fails to take into account the special concerns of a minority, these may start a new organization. American geography being what it is, we are also prompted to form, not only national, but regional, state, and local societies. Because we are now internationally minded, we even join international societies. We have councils and federations, too, plus institutes, “workshops,” conferences, academies, and a great deal of peripheral pother. There is an organization for almost everything, and lone wolves are asked to pay annual dues for their sheep's clothing.
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- Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 2000