The benefits, hazards, frustrations, and challenges that form the career of the English teacher converge to define a profession that is unique, humanitarian, meaningful. While there are many associations of varying size, influence, and benefit available to teachers within the United States, the National Council for Teachers of English (NCTE) is the staple organization that operates on a national level. The official NCTE website establishes the mission of the organization:
"The council promotes the development of literacy, the use of language to construct personal and public worlds and to achieve full participation in society through the learning and teaching of English and the related arts and sciences of language."
The organization provides a brief history through it website that is especially interesting when viewed in the context of our current views, debates, and policies on education within the United States. The NCTE states that it was established in the early 1900's out of a feeling of sedition towards "overly specific college entrance requirements" and the effects these requirements had on "high school English education." In a world without the hyper-connectivity of the information age, the realities of innumerable, solitary pockets of educators with slower methods of communication and professional collaboration at their disposal may seem laborious to educators today. Organizations such as the NCTE made it possible to connect teachers of English and establish associations that foster a sense of professionalism among these individuals.