The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1914-11-05
standard of work done.

standard OF WOfk uOne. -Ea,a
3. The Thirty-fifth General AS
sembly did a real service to educa-
ton in giving the Office of county
superintendent more dignified pro-
fessional standing. 1t ought to be
understood, however, that one man,
even with the aid of deputy, is not
able TO meet adequately the require
ments of supervision. Provision
should be made for assistants or as
sociates who would share with him
the responsibility of supervision and
cooperate with him in his work, and
in making recommendation for the
improvement of the schools. In dis
tricts having the township as the
unit of organization, a principal
teacher might be employed who
would be given supervisory authority
over the schools of the several sub
districts, and who would cooperate
with the deputy superintendent in
the interests of the schools of his
district.
4. Vocational training should
have a prominent place in the work
of the rural schools. The new law
requiring that domestic science, agri-
culture and manual training be intro
duced into all schools of the state
makes it desirable that some prOvis-
ion be made for the proper teaching
of these subjects In the schools of
he cities and towns special teachers
of these subjects are already quite
common while the equipment pro-.
vided is such as to make excellent
tea, hing possible. Until some such
provision is made for the rural
schools the quality CT the instruction
given Will not be of the most satisfac
tory type.
Your committee recommends that
the legisla ture be urged to make
some provision for creating funds to
cal e for the extra amount and kind Of
teaching required by the introduce
ton Of the new subjects into the
school courses In many districts of
the state the school enumeration is
so small that the amount of tax that
would be levied under the law is not
large enough to carry on the school
for nine months and pay the wage
that may be demanded under the
minimum wage law We would
recommend that the legislature be
asked to consider the propriety of
raising the limit for the levy for the
teachers fund. This, we believe,
might make possible the. emDloym snI
OF sneCial teache1s to have charge Of
the ira1 S rial wo.k in adjoining dis
tricts. The special teacher would
meet with the ,egu lar tea. hers once
a week to give them instruction IN
the work they would he expected 20
do during the tine he special teacf
er was in other schools. Until W.
can have teachers who have made =
study of these subjects we can have
little or no scientific teat hin, a-CN
these lines.
5. Very important are the Ta'
lows provisions made by the gene a
assembly Gath and 35th) relative
to improved teaching. This is funda
mental 1t is of little use to create
schools if there are no
teachers with adequate training to
up to the requirements OF
An effort must be
made to give professional standing
to teachers in rural schools. Under
present conditions it is possible to
secure this in individual rural
schools, but not in all. There is no
thought of permanency in the rural
school room, and little thought con-
terning the personal and technical
of the teacher for the
work to be done. There are at
present too many teachers in COM
parison with the number of pupils in
rural communities. Consolidated
schools would correct this and en-
able school officers to pay better
salaries. 1t is disgrace to our edu-
cational system and to our state that
there are 5000 teachers in our pub
lie schools practically without quail
fication for their work, except such
as they have incidentally secured by
attendance at county Institutes.
We believe therefore that the i'm
provement of teachers in service is a
matter that should receive the most
careful consideration, and we would
that the legislature be
requested to make some provision
whereby more professional training
may be offered to the teachers dur
ing the school year.
6. The rural school, particularly
the consolidated school, as COM
munity center, is a subject of vital
public interest. There can be nc |
question that the public school build
ing and the ground surrounding 1t, |
a.