Unfortunately, the first part of [Wilhelm Heinrich] Riehl’s harsh remark – that the ranks of teachers are recruited from the middle-class proletariat, only to form the intellectual proletariat afterwards – contains a kernel of truth. The second part of his remark would not even have been applicable to all teachers in the 1820s; referring to teachers today, it is merely a sign of ignorance or arrogance. The terms “education” and “scientific education” are so open to interpretation, so confused, that it is in the eye of the beholder whether certain professions or categories of civil servants are regarded as belonging to the educated classes or not. Today, Germany’s elementary school teachers may expect to be considered as part of the educated classes. They may do so not only because teacher training in all German states now lasts for a minimum of three years, but because the choice of subjects and the breadth of the syllabus show a clear desire to provide general knowledge to students, so that they will be recognized by scholars as of their own kind. [ . . . ]
The greater competence of teachers and the more comprehensive nature of their education can also be discerned from the greater demands society places on them. Teachers belong, as [Friedrich] Diesterweg says, to the educated professions, those from which continued education in all directions is expected. One demands that teachers participate in all municipal matters and that they embody the knowledge to which the entire Volk aspires.
Fulfilling such great demands requires an inclination and a certain frame of mind, and it is therefore short-sighted to make dismissive judgments about the entire professional group if not all teachers conform to the expectations. It fills us with satisfaction, indeed, when we hear that the teacher helps in some shape or form to promote the cultural progress of a town, no matter if he contributes to the improvement of agriculture and fruit-growing through lectures and advice, gives classes in handiwork, points to the untapped wealth of edible mushrooms in the forests, teaches children to recognize poisonous plants, or founds a society for the prevention of cruelty to animals. It is truly praiseworthy if a teacher puts himself in the service of the Enlightenment and fights against delusion and superstition, or in the service of art and refinement by founding reading circles [ . . . ] and on winter evenings reads the poems and dramas of our great poets with the local farmers, with each role assigned to some participant.
It goes without saying that elementary school teachers in particular are expected to cultivate patriotic sentiment and loyalty to the Kaiser and the Reich. In some parts of Germany, another benefit follows from the work of the simple teacher: the strengthening of German identity [Deutschtum] through the introduction and preservation of the German language. It is an established principle, substantiated by successful experience, that nothing is more effective in recovering the long lost roots of the Fatherland than the simple Volksschule and the loyal activity of the teachers. [ . . . ]
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