The age-herald., 1900-01-15
HOW ID IMPROVE
 RURAL SCHOOLS,'
Valuable Paper Read Before the Southern Educational AsSo-
 citation at Memphis.

J. c. Hardy, superintendent of the Jack son (Miss) schools. was among the speak CTS at the meeting of the Southern Educa- tional association, recently held in Mem pnis. Mir. Hardy's paper was on How to to Improve Our Rural Schools" He said in part:
 The people are looking less and less to the politician and more and more to the teachers of the land for the solution of the problems pressing them sorely on every side They realize that the questions of destiny are being worked out in the school houses of our country and not in the halls of our legislatures. To the teachers have they directed the inquiry as to how their rural schools may be improved and the question now before us is what can We do with it?
 ITO qualify a sufficient corps of trained teachers in the normal and training schools at our command; to provide out of our pow erty, ample means for the extension of our terms; to build and equip commodious and comfortable school houses at the cost of an additional burden of taxation; to meet the extra expense and to overcome the preju- dice of educa ting the negro portion of our population; to improve our public roads so as to facilitate the consolidation of weak and non-progressive schools; to secure eX pert and wise county supervision; to de- veop public sentiment imbued with a suf- ficient vitality of progress to overcome the blighting influence of isolation and to brighten and make happy the social life of the country, are undertakings which, while calculated to discourage and appall the most enthusiastic and brave, are yet at the same time worthy of the best thought and efforts of our most gifted educators and statesmen.
 '"rhe point of contact In taking hold of this educational question is the teacher. q sufficient teachers for our rural schools and all other difficulties will disappear as rapidly as dry stubble before a consuming fire My de- mand is for a trained teacher for every school. Is it possible to secure this under present conditions? Certainly not. So long as the people of the rural districts are sat- isfied with a school system which gives them a school for only four or five months in the year, while the city schools run nine months, they will have to put up with in- competent teachers and inferior schools. Until there can be offered a years work and a years wage, it will be impossible to retain accomplished teachers for our rural schools. What is the remedy? Place them upon an equal footing with our city schools and call to their support the sound Ameri- can doctrine that the property of the state shall bear the burden of educating the youth of the state, and the entire youth of the state.
 "Let our educational organization be by counties, which cover the entire state and embrace every child within the state, and not by cities and separate school districts, which are only in spots. That educational system that gives to the children of our cities nine months schooling each year and to the children of the rural districts only four or five is not only dangerous in it's tendency. but is contrary to the spirit and genius of American institutions.
 "There is a great burden in educating the negro, and the-e is arising greater prej- udice against his education at the public expense. Of course, this stands in the way of the improvement of our rural schools, but we must overcome every obstacle. I, for one, am in favor of the educa ton of the negro.
 ''To vitalize and unify the force of a school expert supervision is absolutely nec- essary. The weak point in our educational system is that the county superintendents are not required to be school men and are not paid salaries commensurate with the work that ought to be done by county su- perintendents. If it pays Memphis, Birm- ingham, Galveston. New Orleans, Atlanta and other cities to employ men to give their entire time to supervision when they run their schools for nine months in the year and are able to employ the best train- ed teachers to be found, how much more would it pay county where schools run for a shorter time, whose equipment is of the poorest ana whose teachers as rule are young and Inexperienced.
 'I would abolish the office of county su- perintendent as political ofiice, making it neither elective by the people nor appoint i've by the state board of education. I would would put 1t upon the same basis as the office of city superintendent, having it fill ed by a county board of education just as the office of city superintendent is filled by the city board of education. would give the county board the same privilege as the city board now has-that of selecting the best man for the place, 1t matters not where they may find him. The average sal- ary paid the county superintendent for the entire country is $S2S while for the south, of course, 1t Is much smaller than that. This will give some idea as to the charac- ter of service rendered in this position. The compensation not being enough to sup port him, he must resort to some other em- ployment, which divides his time and inter- est and thus destroys his efficiency.
 with trained teacher In every school house, with a nine months term for every school, with a beautiful and comfortable school house for every teacher with good roads from every home, with wise, ener- getic supervision in every county-how diff ferent the landscape would appear. The out in such bold relief would disappear and disappear forever. With an educated father and mother In every home, and with the school house the center of the ec& homie, intellectual and social fife of the community, there will come such enjoy- ment from the new, vitalizing intercourse as shall destroy the deadening effects of isolation, which Is now the bane of country ukA"