Newark post., 1919-02-12
nnnnnl snInries and D

"a particularly for the training Of
elementary teachers. The school term
is so brief that annual salaries are
low, even though monthly salaries are
fair. AS few schools in incorporated
districts run more than nine months,
high school teachers receive an aunU-
al salary Of approximately $50, ele-
mcnf0ry teachers an annual salary Of
about $3.50. Rural teachers receive an
annual salary of Approximately $420.
The annual salary of cOlored teachers
is Approximately &315. These salaries
viii not attract well trained and OK
pericntpd Teachers
AS It .nmttcr of fact, while high
school teachers can be trained 1T Del
aware College and the WOmpn's Col
lcge of Delaware, the state possesses
no facilities whatsoever for training
elementary rural school teachers. Its
teaching corps is therefore largely un-
trained or ill-trained and distinctly
undCrpaid. The state cannot hope to
have an adequate staff of good teach
ers in the elementary schools unless it
provides proper facilities for their
training and pays such salaries as
competent teachers require for their
support. The report urges the i'm
pOrtance of adequate provision for
training teachers for both white and
cOlOred schools
School Buildings.
The one room rural schoOlhouses
throughout Delaware are with few eX-
ceptiOns of a very old and conventions
al type. One of these exceptions is
the school in District "a, New Castle
county There are practically no re-
cent buildings in Kent or New
Castle county; in Sussex county,
where several schoolhouses have
been built lately, attempts to intro
duce modern features into the build
ings have mostly failed. The situation
in villages having two and three room
schools is equally bad. The Du Pont
School and the Caesar Rodney School
are the only modern buildings to be
found in small towns and villages.
There are small number Of older
buildings that answer fairly well.
instruction.
Perhaps a fourth of the rural schools
visited give a good type of old fash
ioned instruction. The children are
vigorously held to their texts; no use
is made of the experiences gained at
home, on the farm, or in their environ
ment; nevertheless the pupils are in
a fair way to master a substantial
body of information and are receiving
what would formerly have been called
good elementary schooling.
The remaining rural schools are
poor. The teachers, after one or two
and occasionally three years in the
neighbOring high school, merely 90
through the motions of school keeping.
1t must be admitted that war condi-
tions, as well as influenza, have this
fall disorganized the schools to an un-
usual degree. Yet, SO far as the work
observed is concerned, very little diff
ference could be perceived in the
schools in question between the quality
of the instruction of teachers who had
just entered the service or who had
returned after an absence of some
years and the instruction of teachers
who had been continuously in service.
In respect to quality of instruction,
the situation in the larger villages and
towns IS better. Yet, the best that can
be said Of the elementary schools of
the larger villages and towns is that
they do a fair type of old fashioned,
formal, textbook work the children
master the tools of learning-reading,
writing and arithmetic-and devote
some time to the study of physiology
and hygiene, geography and history.
But even in these schools the instruc-
ton is formal and bOokish: it appeals
almost entirely to the memory, little
or nothing being done to train the
senses, cultivate observation, or to de-
velop the Imagination. High school
instruction is of the same booksh type.
The situation is complicated by irreg-
uarity of attendance. With attend
ance in Delaware as it now is, it would
take children of the Incorporated dis
tricts on the average about 10 years,
of rural districts something over -
years, and colored children about 20
years to complete q standard eie-
mentary course. In consequence, the
average child in Delaware actually
completes nothing like a full elemen-
tary course of study.
Expenditures Too Low.
The expenditures, state and local, on
public education in Delaware are far
too low to secure good facilities or
good teaching. Even the highest per
capita expenditure in any county or
district is, compared with what other
states do, really low. Delaware buys
a low and cheap brand of education.
Probably not more than seven other
states spend so little on education as
Delaware. 1t is, however, still true
that Delaware pays high for what it
gets. Indeed, 1t is difficult to see how
a state could get less for it's money.
Apportioning State Funds.
The report calls attention to the diff
ficulty of obtaining accurate informa-
ton regarding income and expendi-