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Teaching is often called a vocation, supposedly defined by an additional element of commitment that is viewed as generous giving. Some economists, however, have attempted to show that such an additional element is present in every form of labor. George Akerlof goes as far as to consider that working involves an implicit gift exchange between employer and employees. Is this a coherent view? Is it the surplus Marx had in mind when he talked of “living labor”? This is in the final analysis the question that requires consideration with respect to the teachers’ activity.