The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-07-10
||NSPECTS SCHOOLS
 OF WEST VIRGINIA N. R. Baker Is Back From
 His Trip RURAL SCHOOL WORK New Supervisor of This Branch of States School Work Will De-
 liver Address in North, Alabama
RURAL SCHOOL WORK

N. R. Baker. former assistant super intendent of the Birmingham public
 schools, who has recently been appointed state supervisor of the elementary rural schools, has returned from a visit to West Virginia, where he has been in- that state.
 The appointment of MT. Baker to this important position gave general satisfac- tion not only to his friends, but to the
 educators of the state. He is regarded as eminently fitted by experience and abil- ity for this new departure in the schoo work of the state.
 Since his appointment Mir Baker has
 been busy arranging the details and sys-
 tematizing his work and as West Vir- ginia was the first state to adopt the ! state supervision of country schools he spent several days there investigating
 methods and results.
 Following the lead of West Virginia
 other states have adopted the system
 which includes Florida, North and South Carolina, Georgia, Virginia, Kentucky
 Tennessee, Mississippi and Louisiana, and
 it Is the testimony of these states that
 the work promises untold benefits, as evidenced by the most satisfactory re- suits.
 When it Is known that over 80 per
 cent of the soc, 900 school children of Ala bama live in the country districts or in | unincorporated towns, the necessity of propar cnpa,>risiop ie opparant One of the chief advantages of the city school over the country school is the
 amount and adequacy of supervision. It is held to be self-evident that if this su- pervision is good for the 20 per cent, 1t
 should be good for the so per cent. In this connection 1t Is explained that the
 new work will be supervisory and not directory. The rural school supervisor will be an assistant, as 1t were, to the county superintendent, to work with him wherever needed, as there are various school problems demanding solution at
 the hands of the state department, in
 conjunction with the several superintend-
 ents, teachers and school boards of the state.
 While the work must of necessity de-
 velop and shape itself to the need of
 the hour and local conditions, 1t is pre-
 sumed that among the activities of the state supervisor In addition to those. al-
 ready mentioned will be institute work in the various counties. the advising of the selection by county board of local assistants to the county superintendent with advisory duties the consolidation of schools where practicable. the pro- | motion of the programme and establish
 ment of the state suggestive course of study, cooperation with the library and
 reading circle board and state depart ment in the establishment of rural libra ries, and in the articulation of the ele-
 mentary with the secondary schools of
 the state.
 Today MT. Baker will make an ad- dress before the summer school of the University of Alabama, and tomorrow will address the teachers institute that
 will convene in Morgan county. The rest
 of the week he will spend in the northern part of the state. where he will make
 a number of addresses.