The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1904-04-21
s County Superintendents.

It vas mentioned recently by our
S7nle,yh. II correspondent that Il number
OF counties III nll parts of North Caro-
lima has decided through their boards OF
commissioners to pay the tuition Of their.
siublic school teachers ut the Agrlcul-
@turnl ard Mechanical Summer School,
which begins It's session on July Isl, and
that Rockingham county had gone SO
far as. to agreefto pay both tuition and
railroad fare Of such teachers as should
attend the school VA # Is 81 Y 5 VI AIS Il At
Thut would hs q good plan for the
Virginia counties to adopt. II In the rural
districts tho pay OF teachers Is so small
that they are barely able to 8eke out a
scant living. They are not able to pay
the cost or railroad fare, tuition and
board ana other Expenses incidental to
itlloir attendance upon he summer school
in, this State y ct, It II Of great import
9unce that the Virginia teachers should
attend the summer s chool and brush up
OIL their studios and receive instruction
III tic modern meth DDS of teaching. Af-
ter ali the success Of any school depends
~
,ponl tho teacher, ana It goes without
saying that If We mu ST have good chools,
we must have good teachers, Tea ching
tx a profession, and ~ by no means fol-
lows that every educated person IS
teacher There must DO Training In the
fine art Of teaching, IL + we would fit our
teachers for the best work.
But while tho summer schools are good
iii their way /, their sWor Is necessarily
limited, ana the great need In Virginia
and tho other Southern States Is some
jSmeans in each and every county OF Civ
ling training to teachers by competent
l3instructors. This subject is low engag-
ing the attention of educators in all parts
ofsthe5 South, and there IS general gree
nIcnt that the most practicable means
to this end would be the employment in
each county of q superin tende1l wno
Is ht.nself an expert teacher and compe-
tent, not merely to teXrclse general ST. ST.
rorvision overt the schools. but to give
practical instruction To teachers
,ia&But We cannot hope to engage the ser
vices of such a, superint endent at the pit
| iful sun which Is nowFpaid to that off,
cial. The man who is competent to do
1 5til; VI ork properly and who is willing
to give his whole time to It, will GER
lstainly not work for 500 or 500 a year.
lIrhereforc, it, has been suggested that
tho General Education Board and the
A trustees Of the Peabody Fund could not
|@elnploy u portion of the money at thet1
command to better purpose than in sup
i plement.ng tho salaries OF county super
\ sntenGents- II these two organizations
| would agree to pay half the salary of an
\ expert In counties here and there. the
I. probability is that the counties to which
sthis &csicr should be made would pay the
\ other half without murmur If this should
4 be done in a dozen or more OF the Wiz
\ gnia counties, the Improvement In such
4 counties would he SO manifest that Other
lFcounti.as would doubtless follow the ex-
I: ample In little while; and live could
1 have in each and every county in Vir-
/ ginin an expert superintendent. q man
! who lis thoroughly consecrated to the worl;
! ana enthusiastic for education, we should
! have III every such county q vital force
THAT would soon make itself felt Such
q nan would do more than supertntend
1.-the work and train the teachers; nc
| would arouse public sentiment by solng
lin ana out among the people and TALKING
! education all the tins and especially BY
s showing Improvement IN the work Of tht
schools, s
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