Background
The Manual for Teachers is the third and final book in the original A Course in Miracles trilogy scribed by the Thetford-Schuckman team. Dictation for the Manual began in April, 1972 and was completed in September of that same year. The typewritten manuscsript for the Manual, as published in the 1975 Criswell edition, was only 77 pages.
In the 1975 Criswell edition of the Course, this volume of the set was titled "Teacher's Manual." That title was changed to the present "Manual for Teachers" with the 1976 publication of the Foundation for Inner Peace's 1st edition of the Blue Books.
The original "Teacher's Manual," as scribed in 1972 and first published in 1975, did not contain the "Clarification of Terms." The Clarification of Terms was not scribed by the Thetford-Schucman team, and it is not part of the original Course. The Clarification of Terms originated from the Schuchman-Wapnick team in late 1975, and it was added at the end of the Manual with the 1976 publication of the 1st edition Blue Books.
This late addition of the Clarification explains the remark made by Bill Thetford, "Now they’re saying the Course came over a period of [_10_] years. I always thought it was [_7_] years," as reported by Hugh Prather. Bill Thetford considered that the Course was completed in 1972, disregarding the further editing and additional material produced by the Schucman-Wapnick team during the 1973-1976 time frame.
Many consider the Manual for Teachers a good place to start study of the Course. It is shorter in length and it covers many of the important topics in the Text in an accessable style.
"To teach is to demonstrate. There are only two thought systems, and you demonstrate that you believe one or the other is true all the time. From your demonstration others learn, and so do you. The question is not whether you will teach, for in that there is no choice. The purpose of the course might be said to provide you with a means of choosing what you want to teach on the basis of what you want to learn. You cannot give to someone else, but only to yourself, and this you learn through teaching. Teaching is but a call to witnesses to attest to what you believe. It is a method of conversion. This is not done by words alone. Any situation must be to you a chance to teach others what you are, and what they are to you. No more than that, but also never less."
ACIM Manual for Teachers - Introduction