Sharp County record., 1885-02-19
COUNTRY SCHOOLS.
The Thing Needed to Make Them EntireiS
What They Should Be-

What Ihey SnOulu DC'
The National Bureau OF Education
has lust issued very interesting 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 rural schools should
be made as efficient as possible. They
furnish instruction for more than hall
the school population, all the formal in-
structions that they ever receive. The
type presented is familiar one:
"A school composed of scholars of both sex
es ranging in study anywhere from the prm'
er TO Euclid housed in a schOOl-house OF but
one room and provided with one teacner;
upon whom devOlves all the instruction ana
discipline. Possibly the teacher changes every
term; probably no systematic record OF stud
les, classes or progress is kept, ana eacn
teacher takes up the work as if nothing had
gone before and ends as if nothing were to
follow. The teacher may be person OF eX-
cellent education, wise, conscientious, hrln,
loving and versatile; many SUCH there are;
and their works do.praise them;' buta schooI
may be favored in this respect one term ana
the next pass into the charge OF caloW
youth, crude girl or a man or woman OF
inferior mind and harsh, unSympatheuc ma
ture, who, for a consideration, makes con-
fusion worse confounded' in juvenile intel
lects Of supervision there Is little, OF lnspec-
ton less and of standards OF scholarship ana
tests of work none but those the teacher mas
wit enough to supply
This picture, while it may be drawn
too harshlv to correctly 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
builded in the country school, the lit
tie red school-house" dear to the heart
and celebrated in song and speech; but
that the possibilities of the rural school
are susceptible as rule to great I'M
provement is an undOubted fact. One
great drawback to the greatest success
of the rural schools as educational fac
tors is that the best teachers have not
been obtainable In 1881, in Rhode
Island, thirteen per cent. of the teach
ers had only commOn-school educa-
ton. In Georgia out of 6, l28 teachers,
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. were una
BILE to stand the test of the final trial or
examination. 1t is easy to see that there
must be better teachers before we can
have better schools.
The normal schools are great helps in
improving the standard of school teach
ers, but the normal school system is
now far from complete There are
293, ,294 school teachers in the United
States. OF course a large proportion of
these are employed in ungraded schools.
There are 80 normal schools in the
country, with an attendance of 10000.
As thirty per cent. of the teachers are
~a.---. 5.~-l l.--,--=-Allr II is-easV 10 see that
the normal schools afford but a s1nalf
part of the provision required for train
ing teachers. No doubt the small sal
aries usually paid the teachers of cOun-
try schools has a great effect in lower
ing the standard of the teachers obtain
able. Special training is needed. The
teacher who has normal school edu-
cation can not be secured for the coun-
try schools, because his talent is better
paid elsewhere. To obtain better
teachers better salaries must be paid,
and there must be more schools for
the training Of teachers. Communities
should take a livelier interest in
their schools, and aid their teachers by
all legitimate means in their power. 1t
is only by united action that the best
success can be obtained, and country
and city and county and State should
work together in harmony, with the
same high objects in view. Teachers
should not be the creation of accident
nor made by the force of circumstances.
They should be especially fitted for the
great work of education. Though the
common schools are among the proud
ests boasts of the country, yet they may
be said to be almost in their infancy as
regards their possibilities. Teaching is
profession in itself, and requires apti-
tude and preparation as much as any
other.
There is hardly anything in which
time and money can be more prOtitably
spent than in improving the country
schools, in teaching and the methods Of
study, and it is to be hoped that far
more attention will be paid to the sub
iect than is now the case.-BuTJiRqtOn
Hawkeye.
At the Rink.