Audubon County journal. (Exira, Iowa) 1884-1993, 1903-03-05
Country Schools.
Defects in Present System.


mers Institute and is worthy of the
perusal of every one.
In offering this paper as discussion on the
paper Just read in your hearing ! hope | may
be pardoned the repetition that will be neces
sary. Not being public speaker | am com
peiied TO reduce my remarks to writing. This
OF course has the disadvantage of repeating the
idea but 1t also has the advantage, in that
repetition is positively necessary to make US
remember shall not repeat myself and last
Dill not least shall know when am through
The deficiencies of the country schools are in
deed manifold. shall not attempt to go into
detail but only mention a few of the most glar-
ing. In doing this ] shall aim to be absolutely
tar ana impartial, speaking of the truth as my
observation and experience has revealed it to
me.
First the lack of proper supervision, There
is indeed now little or no supervision over
country schools. The Office of county superiu-
dant while It is supposed to be the head of the
schools of the county, is so crowded with other
work that only the most active and energetic
officers eyer do any real supervisory work. Ger
talnly 1t is MT the officers fault, but the fault
of the law makers who have so multiplied his
work. Besides it would be next to impossible
for him to exercise decided supervision over SO
isolated ii mass as our country schools under
our present system Some head is necessary.
There must be some continuity to any system if
good results are to be obtained and 1T seems to
me that our present system is as far from being
responsible to any central authority as it pos
hope to succeed under such loose methods.
Neither can we expect a school system to be the
best under similar conditions.
second, inefficient teachers. do not mean
by this that all the country teachers are fail
ures. Much of the very best teaching followed
by the best results is to be found in the country
To say that money paid country teachers is
wasted is true in few if any more cases than in
the graded schools where inexperienced girls
and pets of the board employed. The
greatest drawback to country teaching is found
in the great frequency of changes of teachers.
The best teachers only able to get fairly
started in short term of two or three months
and they are followed by another who must be-
gin all again. This changing teachers
every term or every year is very strong indi-
cation of the deficiency of the system, and es-
valid reason why contracts with country teach
ers should not be for at least one year the same
as in graded schools.
The shortness of the term followed by the
long vacations form serious obstacles to good
efficient work. | persuaded that we can
never get the best results from our public
long vacation the child forgets much and
when vacations come three times year he
must spend his school hours in learning what
he once knew.
To secure better teachers better salaries
must be paid. A little calculation may be of
interest on this point. At $1,000 a month a
would pay for board at $3.50 per week. 5000.
For expenses at normal $500 leaving balance
of $l45;oo Out of this she must buy what books
and other supplies she needs. If She keeps up
in her work, clothe herself, and perhaps attend
"a summer school or take a pleasure trip, (for
travel Is one of the very best educators), go to
teachers meetings, county and state and if she
does this what will she have left7 Many i'm
aglne that this money Is earned in eight
months but you know as we'll as do that va
cations come aud there Is nothing a majority OF
| teachers can do to earn more than their board.
Patrons expect the very best a teacher can
give, yet few ire ready to pay anything like the
salary paid IN other vacations! | am not con-
tending that poor and inexperienced teachers
| should be paid high salaries, but do say that
| an up-to-datc, progressive teacher should and
must receive better pay or she cannot afford to
stay in the work. According to the Supernten-
dant of Public Instruction in the last twenty
years the monthly salary of men teachers has
risen only forty three cents Il year and for
women teachers only fourteen cents. 1t should
be the anxious purpose Of the state to give to
| ton equal to that received by his more forum.
ate cousin in town, and show me if you can any
other skilled laborer whose wages have not
| been increased more than that
| According to the same authority the average
j age of applicants for certificates is the same
| today that it was twenty years ago. Yet we al
successful teaching. Why not pay living wages
| SO people can afford ta stay in the profession
| until they become efficient teachers? OF course
| this means that teachers must become better
| scholars They cannot leave the eighth grade
| or come fresh from the country schools and &C
| efficient work. Lack of scholarship is common
| teach what they themselves know only very i'm.
perfectly. Incompetent teachers are dear at
| auy price, but any teacher who holds a thlrd
| grade certificate is worth thirty dollars pei
| month II she is worth anything, and those bet
ter qualified should have more if they are fit to
| each school at all.
| country is irregular attendance and hardness
| Parents fail to cooperate with the teacher to
| 'ecure regularity of attendance punctuality
On the part of the pupil. 10 be sure this ism
| tiways the case but 1T is too often true. Does
| some little chore need doing, the child is sent
| to do it regardless of school. He is permitted
u 10 I.N-f nr ttnp ,nst rio1
| Excuse, go to places and do things that make
| him believe his school work is of secondar,
consideration only, believe these faults arc
| due largely to the lack of knowledge and in
| terest On the part of the parent. This is all thu
| more potent when the parent if he speaks o
| the childs school work at all does it in slight
ing way.
Instead of trying to help the child he makes
fun of his efforts. Ridicule should have n'
place in ones comments on child's work Fn
couragement is ever in place, and no one cal
| give this SO we'll as the parent.
Again, teachers not furnished proper anc
sufficient apparatus and if they are in too man
| cases they would not know how to use it. b
apparatus l do not mean costly anatomica
charts and globes, but simple devices to be hat
and globes is wasted so far as the average dis
trict is concerned Better had it been spent 70
supplementary readers of various kinds or goot
books for the library, if the children have han
| lied books enough to know how to them
| 1t isn't fair to expect child to learn to rea
from single book or to know how to us
|
| Every child should be furnished at least, tw
different sets of readers by different authors
! IN each grade. The added attractiveness of tn
| work to the child would be ample reward, no
to mention his greater accomplishment in read
ing. But parents object to buying books 70
their children. 1t hurts next to paying taxes
| And they sometimes go so far as to let tn
| teacher furnish new books in order to teac
| their children anything take the pupils gu
of school if the purchase of books is insiste
upon.
If Libraries are to be made effective tn
teacher must know enough about tn
books SO she can refer the pupil to the rst
| one to find what he needs. Unless she does til
library will be practically valueess. The pup
will grope in the dark and too often fails to fin
what he wants. Up todate text books di
| ferent subjects are among the very best thing
that can be put in small school library. Tex
books to be studied should be frequently chans
ed. Some of the books now used in our countI
schools have been studied by the entire famil
| even to the father and mother.
The more texts child reads the more il
formation he gets, for no matter how listlessl
one studies book he cannot help getting MOI
from 1t than he could possibly get from on,
he has long been familiar with. Every goo
book one reads gives him ideas, and idea
are what the child needs So say that thes
old back numbered text books, that the boo
companies impose upon the country schoo
should be replaced by modern texts, if we a
to expect the best results from our schools.
But these are among the larger things thu