"The Course of Teaching: Introduction."

• "'The Not-Quite Profession.'" The century was young when the activist Margaret Haley dared to speak from the floor of the National Education Association's convention in Detroit, challenging the assertions made by its president. Teachers, she complained, were grossly underpaid.

• "The Paradoxical Teacher." In a world that likes to pigeonhole people, Albert Shanker was a paradox.

• "Educating the Educators." In 1857, the year the National Education Association was founded, teacher and lecturer William Russell made a bold proposal: Give teachers control over entry into their profession.

Feature

• "A Teaching Gem." Opal McAlister was young, ambitious, and grateful when she took her first teaching job in 1923. One teacher's journey from Calvin Coolidge to Gerald Ford.

Perspectives

• "Teaching in 2020: The Triumph of ‘the Slow Revolution’?" American schools have long been polite places where no one confronts anyone else too directly.