The Highland weekly news. [volume] (Hillsborough [Hillsboro], Highland County, Ohio) 1853-1886, 1879-04-10

U
8. lie would stimulate popular
interest in,the schools, and in cognate
subjects.
Space will not admit of an elabo-
ration of these points. That they
are not too strongly put will be the
verdict of those who have had good
opportunities for observing the work
] ing5 of county supervision in other
States.
County supervision has its oppo-
nents in Ohio. There are those who
look with disfavor upon the move
ment lately inaugurated by the
friends of education in behalf Of
country schools. They believe, or
affect to believe, that the movement,
if successful, will introduce more
school machinery into our already
complex system Of school manage
ment; that a county superintendent,
however capable and industrious,
could accomplish but little good in
supervising the one or two hundred
schools of a cOunty-these schools
being in session, on the average,
but one hundred and forty days in
the year, and being taught, many Of
them, by different teachers at diff
ferent seasons of the year 3; and that
a largely increased expenditure Of
public money would be required to
pay the salaries of superintendents
and provide such instrumentalities
as would render their services Of any
effect.
The first objection has been part
ly answered The strong point in
favor Of the proposed system of su-
pervision is that it will unity and
simplify our school machinery, es-
pecially so if the bill which creates
the Office Of county superintendent
also provides for the pure township
system. Even without the abolition
Of the army of sub-district directors,
supervision will not increase the
number of county officials, since the
county superintendent under the
new law would take the place Of the
clerk Of the county board of school
examiners, and relieve the county su-
ditOr Of so much of his present du-
ties as relate to the collection Of
school statistics and their compila-
ton for the use of the State Com
missioner of Common Schools.
The second objection has some
weight. A county superintendent
would not be able to devote much
time to each school in the county.
His personal inspection of the teach
ers at their work would necessarily
be brief, but it would doubtless be
sufficient to enable him to Judge of
their ability to govern and instruct
their pupils. The practice, now
somewhat common, of employing
one teacher to teach the winter term
and another to teach the summer
term, should be speedily abolished
then the work of the superintendent.
so far as visiting schools is concerned,
could accomplish nearly twice as
much as it could under present con
ditions. To compensate to some ex-
tent for unfrequent visits to the
schools, the superintendent could
organize an association of teachers
in each township, at the meetings of
which the manner of preparing re
ports could be explained and the
methods of discipline and instruction
presented.
In view of the supposed inability
of one superintendent properly to-
the schools of whole
county, some have looked with favor
upon a township system of superyis
ion. Such a system would require
1,347 superintendents, whose united
would not fall below 81, ,OOO,-
600 a year. In addition to the cost
lness Of such a scheme of superVis-
ion, it would be extremely difficult to
secure so great a number of we'll
qualified officers. The county su-
perintendent could visit each school
in the county at least twice a year,
and when the schools were not IN
session he would have time to pre-
pare reports and discharge all his
office duties. That be cannot do
enough work is no reason why he
should not do some.
The question Of expense cannot
be ignored by the advocates of su-
pervision. It is indeed difficult hon
estly to secure something for moth
ing. If supervision Is worth having
at all it is worth paying for. The
cost Of supervision is greatly exag-
gernted by its opponents. A total
Of S150,000 a year will
secure for each county in the State
the services of a capable person
to supervise its schools. A levy of
O1ae-te1ob Of a mill on the grand tex
duplicate of the State would pro-
duce this SUN. Tax each acre of
land IN Ohio ,fUe mills, or each in
nabitant tire cents, and a sufficient
sum would be real.zed to provide for
an efficient system of supervision in
each Of the ighty-eight counties of
the State.
Schoo in the sub districts are
about 40 DAYS in the
year, at a daily exponse of more
than S28,0OO Keep the schools in
session but enty y-seven weeks, or
i've days less in the year than at
present, and enough would be saved !
to employ a superintendent for each |
county and give him an annual sala-
-y of S1,6OO
II county supervision could in /
crease the average daily attendance
lf pupils in township schools four
per cent, 1t acOUyd cost nothing. It /
has greatly increased school attend /
snce wherever it has been tried.
The county school examiners of
Ohio draw about S25,OOO a year for
their services. Their pay comes
itcm the county fund of the county /
IN which they labor. Of this sum
the clerks of the different boards .
now receive three-sevenths, or SI1,-
)0O a year The county superin- .
sendents, by performing the clerks /
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