Life — May 20, 1909 — page 19: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This illustration depicts a classroom scene where a male teacher (seated, viewed from behind) addresses a group of female students. The OCR text fragment mentions "PROFESSORS VERY MEAGRE SALARIES," suggesting the cartoon satirizes academic compensation. The joke likely critiques the irony of educators earning low wages while teaching privileged young women—possibly implying the contrast between the professor's financial struggle and his students' apparent affluence (evident in their fashionable dress and grooming). The composition emphasizes the gender dynamics of early 20th-century education, where women were increasingly entering higher education. Without the complete caption, the precise satirical target remains partially unclear, but it appears to mock either academic economics or social pretensions in educational institutions.