Madison times. (Tallulah, Madison Parish, La.) 1884-1???, 1885-03-21
COUNTRY SCHOOLS.
The Thing Needed TO Make Them En-
tireIy What They Should BE.

tirely What They Should BE.
The National Bureau cf Education
has just issued very into oresting trea-
tise upon rural schools, their progress in
the past, and means of improvement in
the future. 1t places great stress upon
the fact that the rrral schools should
be made as efficient as possible. They
furnish instruction for more than half
the school population, ali tie formal in
structions that they ever receive. The
type presented is familiar one:
"A school composed of scholars of
both sexes, ranging in study anywhere
from the primer to Euclid, housed in a
school-house of but one room and pro-
vided with one teacher, upon whom de-
wolves all the instruction and discipline
Possibly the teacher changes every
term; probably no systematic record of
studies, classes or progress is kept, and
each teacher takes up the work as if
nothing had gone before and ends as if
nothing were to follow. The teacher
NAV be person of excellt mt education,
wise, conscientious, firm, loving and
/ versatile; many such there aIe, and
their works do praise them but school
may be favored in this respect one term
and the next pass into the charge of a
caliow youth, crude girl, or a man or a
woman of inferior mind and harsh, un.
sympathetic nature, who for consider.
alton, makes confusion wore confound.
ell in Juvenile intellects. OF supervis'
ion there is little, of inspection less, and
of standards Of scholarship and tests OF
work none but those the teacher has
wit enough to supply"
This picture, while it my be drawn
too harsbly TO coneclly represent ex.
ceptional instances, is certainly truthful
in the main. MANY of the best and
greatest minds in this country started
the foundation upon which their fame
is bulded in the country school, the Fit.
tie red school-house" dear to the heart
and celebrated in song and speech; but
that the possibilities of the rural school
are susceptible rs rule to great inn
movement is an undoubted fact. One
great draw back to the greatest success
of the rural schools as educational fac-
tors is that the best teachers have not
been obtainab'e In 1881, in Rhode
Island. thirteen per cent of the teach
ers had only a common-school educa-
tion. In Georgia out of 6,128 Ieacher'
5000 were possessed of only limited
education. In all the States it has been
difficult TO find candidates for teachers
who can easily pass the moderate grade
required. In Michigan, in 1881, the
State Superintendent reported that
twenty six per cent. of the applicants
failed in the lower grade or first trial
and that twenty-one per cent. we're una
nle TO stand the test of the final trial ol
examination. 1t is easy to see that ther'
must be better teachers before We cal
have better schools.
The normal schools are great helps II
improving the standard OF school teach
ers. but the normal school system Il
now far from complete. There ar
293. .294 school teachers in the UnlteC
States. Of course large proportion o
these are employed in ungraded schools
There are 9S normal schools in tn,
country. with an attendance of 10000
r As thirty Der cent of the teachers ar
, changed annually, it is easy to see tina
the normal schools afford but small
f part of the provision required for train
, ING teachers. No doubt the small sal
aries usually paid the teachers Of coun
/ trv schools has great effect in lower
, ing the standard of the teachers obtain
| able. Special training is needed. In
. teacher who has a normal school edit
cation cannot be secured for the countr
schools. because his talent is better pal
elsewhere. To obtain better teacher
better salaries must be paid, and theI
must be more schools for the training
teachers. Communities should take
livelier interest in theiI schools, and al
r their teachers by all legitimate NEAR
in their power. 1t is only by unite
! action that the best success can be o'
taine.i. and country and city and coul
ty and State should work together
o. harmony. with the same high objects
view. Teachers should not be the ere
n tion of accident nor made by the for
L of circumstances. They should be G
D pecially fitted for the great work of ed
cation. Though the common schoo
a are among the proudest boasts of Il
II country, yet they may be said to
lie almost in their infancy a. regards the
,g possibilities. Teaching is a protessi'
a in itself, and requires aptitude and pl
marathon as much as any other.
~ There is hardly anything in viii
Us time and money can be more proitat
ne spent than in improving the count
7 schools. in teaching and the methods
- study, and it is to be hoped that
II more attention will be paid to the 81
ed iect than is now the case. Burling'
he Hawkeye.