The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-10-24
FINE SHOWING OF
 COUNT TRY SCHOOLS
Woman Educator In Iowa Is
 Making Things Hum
TEACHING TO HELP ON FARM
Fairvlew School Has Been Imbued With the Spirit of Learning Which Puts the Institution
 in the Front Rank.
BY HERvEY w. LAIRD.


 BY HERvEY w. LAIRD.
 Private Car. Southern superintendents of Education Clarinda, Ia, October B. Especial IA smart and practical woman. who has been teaching 20 years in the same school and a lad of IA. who has won all sorts of prizes for corn Judging, were the important exhibits of the coun- try schools of Page county, Iowa, pre- scented by the enterpfising woman coun- ty superintendent of education to the southern school men today, along with number of other things that may be taken as only secondary in interest. Miss Jessie Field, the hostess superintendent, had her first schooling from the teacher long in service and took great pride In re- lating the fact
 A profitable stop, however, was that at the high school h Coin, where. under the guidance of Superintendent r. ". Taven- ner, was shown good exhibition of school work, with reference 10 agricul- tural and manual training, and served with a great dinner by the young girls of the domestic science classes. Here was heard small amount of speaking, Superintendent J. Y. Joyner of North Carolina being forced to respond to a welcome. Miss Field, sister of the coun- ty superintendent. read the following verse as part of the welcome:
 Round our hearts these pleasant men
 from Dixie
 Have cast a spell, a spell that's truly
 wondrous.
 Will we forget? Well I should murmur
 nixie;
 We hope these men will come again
 from dear old Dixie land"
 To which, in the following verse, made by MT. Joyner, was response made: "Our hearts you've completely captured. Our souls entirely enraptured; You warm-hearted women of the west, Our prayer as we leave for the south
 land
 Is, that you and yours may be blest
 At Fairview School.
 At Fairview school was shown the pre- vailing spirit of learning to help on the farm. The entire spirit of the place was in this direction. A notable feature, also. was the sympathetic manner Of reaching
 
 studies. One of tho school directors told of the interest in corn testing and how many of the boys in the scaoo1 had been induced to go into it.
 At Norwich school, of which Miss Sarah Huftalen Is teacher, the main in- terest is in drawing and farm arithmetic, examples being worked out in just those things that the farmers need in every day life. In this way the children are taught things that can be of help in the home life. Also all facts about farming and crop growing
 Illustrating the deep desire of the peo- pie to learn, a Mrs. Lincoln wife of Il farmer nearby the Norwich school, who had been of great help to the members of the party in answering questions. brought her boy out snd asked the visit ing school men to shake hands with him and wish him well, as 1t would be in spiration to him in his future life.
 Getting back for moment to Fair view, Mrs. Rilla Waugh, who has been there all these years is just as enthu- siastic as 20 years ago, and her very life Is woven into the lives of the entire com munity for advancement and progress.
 Boy and His Corn.
 AS has already been stated, three boys, after hard contest of almost 200, were selected to represent the county in the corn testing exhibitions. Of these Mar
  school. taught by Miss Elsie Burton, Is the brightest. He gave an exhibition of corn testing for the party. From a large basket he took ear by ear, telling their strong and weak points in a technical way, and making it very clear just what ought to be done to bear out the motto of the clubs, "the best ears are the profit able ones.' Though only a country boy of IA, Martin was entirely at himself and after the testing answered scores of questions with an intelligence and knowl- edge acquired only after the most pains taking study. He also told of his own crop of corn and how he had selected the seed.
 Apples, Cider and Pie.
 At the last school seen, named Kile, Miss Eva Plank, teacher, the visitors found an ideal organization, with all the prevalent evidences of attention to farm life, and a special development of tho literary and the artistic. The children recited pieces based on the crops of the section and told stories about the prod ucts. At the same time interest in regular school work was found to be very active. After a few exercises the teacher and the children, from an improvised stand on the lawn, served apple cider, pumpkin pies and apples
 From there the party returned to the station at Clarinda and were away to St.
 
 travelled in motor cars, and thousands of acres of fine farm lands had been seen that were held for from $100 to $20O per acre, with even higher range near the towns. The people are simply wild about farm life. Everything and anything to help it along they are willing to do, and 1t is getting so a man can hardly buy an acre of land. And why? Because farm ing has become profitable and. therefore, attractive.
 Live Wire Educator.
 At a meeting of the southern superin- tendents of education, held on the call of President J. Y. Joyner this morning, 1t was unanimously decided that Miss Jessie Field, the superintendent of Page county, Iowa, Is live wlre and that the great success of the movement for the adjust ment of rural schools 10 rural conditions is due to her hard work and energy more than to any other cause. It was agreed that if all county superintendents were as active and patriotic as this young woman many of the problems of country schools would soon be solved.
 Dr. D. A. Winship of the New England Educational Journal, called out by Pres ident Joyner to tell of things in Page county not seen by the visitors, told of the great good secured by Miss Field in her institute work. This year she had rural school going four days, taught by . a different teacher each day, and all able to get the best of results out of tho 12S schools there were this year 100 boys to take the corn contests. Page county