Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1914-01-30
TELLS DEFECTS OF
RURAL SCHOOLS
Commissioner Kendall Says Too
Many UnskilIed Teachers Is
the Main Fault.

TRENTON, Jan. 30.-Dr. Calvin N.
/ Kendall at today's session of the for
/ ty-nrst annual meeting of the New
/ Jersey State Board of Agriculture
addressed the delegates on Some
Needs of the Public School system of
New Jersey"
DR.. Kendall urged better trained
| teachers for the rural schools and
earnest cooperation with the State
Department of Education in solving
the many problems of educating chill
dren in the country districts.
Commissioner Kendall said that
there are possibilities for the develop
ment of rural schools which have
been only imperfectiy realized. There
are many unsolved problems in edu-
cation. The number of such prob
lens is greater than the public itself
knows. No one is more keenly aware
of this fact than live superintendent
and principals and progressive teach
ers
The commissioner stated that it
would be the aim, and he hoped it
was the aim, of the department of
public instruction, to cooperate with
the boards of education in rural dis
tricts in bringing about better
schools. Only by cooperation be-
tween the local authorities and the
State authorities can Improvement be
made.
Too Many UnskiIled Teachers.
Too many teachers in rural schools
are unskilled or unframed teachers
Toe many teachers in the rural
schools regard their work in such
schools as only temporary in char
acter. Too many teachers in rural
schools teach only year in one po-
stion. In one courtyard this
county is typical of others-more
than one-half the teachers in the one
room schools are new this year to
their positions Much of the in
efficiency is due to the fact that the
teachers are greatly underpaid in
many sections of the State. If sal
aries could be better the waste and
inetficiency of many schools would be
greatly reduced.
The first problem that presents
itself, said Mr. Kendall, Is how to
secure and retain good teachers in
the country schools. either the
State Department of Education nor
the State Board of Education can
solve this problem without the CO.
operation of local school authorities.
rural school should be one Of the
most attractive places in the whole
township or neighborhood. Too often
it is not so. This does not mean
necessarily an expensive schoolhouse.
Instruction in Agriculture.
The commissioner stated that the
movement to consolidate schools has
not gone on as rapidly as might be
wished in New Jersey, but still some
progress has been made. A CONSOLE
dated school means usually more
efficient school, because such a school
can be a graded school, because in
such a school the individual teach
Ell is not burdened with an ex-
cessiVe number of classes; because the
consolidated or graded school is more
attractive to good teachers than a
one room school. The commissioner
said that it was not the purpose of the
of public instruction in
any sense TO force consolidate The
department has neither the legal right
nor the disposition to do so. Reading
and writing and arithmetic are essen
tials in all schools, he continued. but
in the rural school the older pupils
should, in his Judgment, have instruc-
lion in agriculture, and this is particu-
larly true of rural high schools. In
one of the rural schools a girl, by
means of instruction, had raised and
sold $75 worth of tomatoes from one
tenth of an acre of ground, he de- |
clared This girl is a high school pu-
pill. She is also receiving instruction |
in English and mathematics in the
high school, but she is receiving in
structon too in a practical subject |
which viii make her economically in /
dependent and self-supporting She is
also doing her little part, by means of |
training and education, to solve the |
high cost of living.
Turn Learning Into Money.
He instanced another school where |
the children are learning the care of |
to produce eggs-and |
where this instruction is connected |
with the work in arithmetic and work |
in English in the school. He also cited |
the case of boys who are producing |
more corn to the acre than their faith
ers are producing, because these boys |
have received instruction IN the grow |
ing of corn. He believed that there |
are large unworked possibilities in in
struction in agriculture, by means of |
which boys and girls may be brought |
to see the economic possibilities in |
New Jersey farms by means of which
lItGt 6lA IL anu bOyS may diSO ItCtiN6
substantial mental training
Too many OF these young people are
drifting to cities in search of the
chance and often temporary, employ
ment that the cities offer. The schools
have done too little to counteract this
tendency. The schools must face this
condition. The situation cannot be
met, or conditions remedied, simply by
talking about the advantages of rural
life. The schools, in their courses of
instruction, must train these young
people SO that they can put brains
and skill, as well as industry, into
their work on the farms and gardens
of the State.
The commissioner stated that it
might take a generation to bring
about this condition of affairs We are
making some progress, he said, but
the progress is not as rapid as might
be wished. The great problem of the
schools is a higher quality of citizen
ship, but a higher quality of citizen
ship cannot be obtained by merely
having a school; it can be obtained by
having fine and strong teachers, by
having courses of study that meet the
needs of modern life, by having school
buildings and equipment in which
children and teachers can properly