Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1891-10-17
: THE DISTRICT SCHOOL.
County Superintendent Marshall
Makes Vast Improvement.
A Info rIn ~ q. em TO be Establtshe ed
as 10 Courses Of study ana
BOoks-The Innovation and
l,s Advantages.

-
throughout the county and to put them
on basis similar to those, of the graded
schools of the city. Realizing the ad.
vantages Of such a change and having
become satisfied from his personal obser-
vations of the school work in his own
county, and investigation of the syste>
matte plans in vogue in other counties in
the state, DIR. Marshall determined, with
the consent of the school directors of the
county, to carry bis plan into execution.
He therefore met with the district di- |
rectors throughout the county. explained |
his proposed system to them and the result |
is that alre ady a uniform graded system |
has been provided for IN half the |
districts in the county, and the directors
all over the county have cheerfully and
enthusiast cally cooperated with MIR.
Marshall to the extent that in short
time the entire county will be under
uniform graded system.
''At the present time" Mr.. Marshall
said this morning, There is no system or
| course of study in the district school
| work. The teachers work Independently
OF each other. In many districts they
| divide the school year into three terms, and
some Of them have IS many teachers as
terms. As l said before. the teachers
work independently of each other, so that
when a new teacher goes into school he
| is obliged % organic from the founds-
| ton. There is no record or anything of
| the kind to indicate what the pupils have
done, or o. what has been accomplished
by the preceding teacher. The result of
| that CONDITION is that the teachers leave
gaps and make laps. ami the child is not
systematic ally advanced In the district
school the teachers have been without
guide, grade or system. In the graded
school each teacher has certain course
of study and definite amount Of work
and the teachers are all within touch
with each other, so that the child is adj
vanced step by step according to his
merits, and has credit for what he has ac>
|
the pupil finishes the common branches is
IA, sometimes Is, whereas 1t is not I'M
common, in fact it is the rule, that we
find pupils in the district schools who have
not completed the common branches ut 10
and even IS and 81. and many of them
never complete the common branches.
While this may be due in a measure
to irregular attendance. it is more largely
chargesble to want Of system in the work.
The plan we propose to introduce is in
tended to obviate this. At meeting OF
county superintendent held some six or
eight years ago, this matter wss talked
over and q committee appointed to pre-
scribe course of study for the district
schools, and this committee was assisted
by such sci DOL men as ex State Superin-
tendent Edwards, Prof. W. S. Mack,
Prof. W. s. Ray, Supt W. II. Hatch. OF
Moline, and others, and the result of it is
this course of study which am now in
Producing into the schools. Ii is no
longer an experiment. 1t is being used
in IS per cent of the counties OF the
state. 1 have personally inspected the
work in two counties of the state, by GO
ing into the schools and talking with the
county superintendents, the teachers and
pupils, and / was satisfied that the edu-
cational standard had been wonderfully
raised by its use. In word the entire
matter can De summed up in sentence.
II q system is necessary in school work,
then the CO lrse of study is necessary. II
system is not important, and desirable
then course of study is not necessary.
The plan to be adopted is valua Bile to
both teacher and pupil, and especially to
young teachers
s'In connection with the course Of study
we use q classification regis>
ter in which will be shown
the classification or grading Of the school
and complete record of the work done
by each pupil, 80 that new teacher is
not obliged to organize the school from
the foundation up. And time is lost In
organizing where the teacher and pupil
are both strangers to each other. and
strangers to the course of study. With
the new system the teacher, with the
classification register in one hand and the
course of study in the other, can begin
work at once. The further advantage
ia that the county superintendent has 9
constant supervision Of the work. Briefly.
we do away with indefinite tasks and
give TO the teacher and the pupil an end
to strive for.
"The county will be divided up into
districts, and q course of eighty years work
prescribed. When the pupils finish the
/ - -.-z, xxro-lx a confral eYaminA ton