Connecticut western news., 1907-10-03
POOR SCHOOLS
 IN NUTMEG STATE
SMALL SALARIES FOR TEACHERS

Necessity for Better Rural Schools is
 Apparent-SmaI Schools Should be
 We'll Taught-ConsoIidation is Not
 Always Practicable e-NormaIs Little
 Benefit to Country People.
 TIE NEWS has received the following communication relative to the condition of the district schools of Connecticut and while the writer handles the ques- tion rather vigorously, some good points are brought out and the communication contains food for thought. ED. NEWS
 "I was very glad to read some time since that the Connecticut Legislature had taken up the subject of schools. It is time for thorough investigation and changes of some sort.
 The necessity for better rural schools | is apparent to all who take note of these things. We have been raising mass of untrained voters. Inefficient teachers make lazy inefficient pupils. They stumble through the whole grade of readers aud founder Ill sea of figures for months and years. They cannot then read with understanding and con sequently get no grasp of any studies. I Nothing is thorough and they learn to idle away the time. They get no gener- al information for the teacher has only what she has gleaned from the text books. As=..
 Because there are but a dozen or even half dozen pupils ill district, are they not entitled to the same privii leges al those in other places? Is 1t not ss necessary to the state that they have the same start toward right citizen ship?
 Why should not the country be de- populated and the cities crowded when the poorest man can get his children well educated in town and has but slight chance on the farm?
 The present school system (perhaps we'll devised at the time of its inception) does not now work justly. The di- vision of state money per capital does not help most where most needed. The country schools in our struggling rural neighborhoods get small amount and the large towns where money is more abundant, get the lions share. Some of our farming towns owing to reduced population, are not able to make large appropriations for schools and with what they get from the state, pay such small salaries that it is impossible to get first class teachers. Sometimes they are not even third-class. Consolidation has been the cry as the one panscea for all evils. But that is not always practicable and there arc two sides to every ques- tion. In some of our hilly towns it is impossible from the lay of the land. Again our cold drifting, windy roads are against carrying small children long distances to school. Nor is it desirable to send load of children from all kinds of families, on long ride together twice day. It is very difficult matter to find the wise, careful person to carry and over see them.
 If we want better citizens we must have some changes for the better in our school system. What benefit are our normal schools to the country people who help support them? Four normals in the small state of Connecticut. Do we get any of the teachers? No, they turn up their hoses at the small salary. The farming population cannot pay the trained teachers for they have not the wherewith. They must have help on the farms to get anything and wages are high and profits small
 I've face no theory but condition" not planned for by our grandfathers.
 Since the state does SO much for edu- cation should it not go further? Why should not the normal graduate be obliged for a time to teach i'll the small schools for low wages; -s~r'-3
 Or should not the state appropriate the same amount to each school in rural districts and to each grade or teacher in large schools and the towns add to same on similar basis, but with some regard for the conditions of the work? l The workers in town who pay no taxes get all the privileges of primary and high school, the farmer, whom the taN-gatherer never forgets, has to devise all ways to get fair education for his children.
 We have been told, and it seemed good authority, that many girls attend the normal school, who do not propose to teach. If that be 50, double wrong is done the taxpayers. We are told that tho farm has supplied the strength of the nation. Let our state body polite look to the conditions that surround the children D the farm.
 A RURAL TAXPAYER.