ABSTRACT
Teachers spend much of their working time in a universe of adolescent personalities, yet only by escaping into the universe of ideas do they attain the most coveted symbols of prestige. This chapter examines sociologically some of the common behavior patterns that occur. A candid summation of the importance of research is found in an address to teachers by President Walter D. Scott, of North-western University. The three main agencies for publication are journals of the scholarly societies, commercial firms, and university presses. Despite the disseminative utility of an optimum number of good textbooks, the mass production of them tends to substitute lower motives for higher ones and leads to the establishment of rival and unnecessarily bizarre points of view. Textbook writing is not the only road to a more general renown, for there are other forms of popularization related to the disseminative function of the academic man.
