Smyrna times., 1919-02-12
'',nopT ON THE PUBLIC {
SCHOOLS IN DELAWARE
r1rn FROM SIXTH PAGE

,ow annual salaries and in.
selul e'laote provisions for teacner traill
sdeQua'S. .,rularlv for the training o1
bs paw, tory teachers. The school term
elenens'.iiof sniof that annual salaries are
. 50 .ren y though monthly salaries are
loE e' ss few schools in Incorporated
fah 70 % RIM more than nine months,
dlSIloop -oSool teachers receive an annu
bgn .rT S. Of approximately $50, ele'
q tary Sa teachers an annual salary OF
nslL"t. . S5S5 Rural teachers receive an
sDOu, o, salary of approximately S42O
snnO~r annnal salary of cOlOred teachers
'lns nssnnroximately $315. These salaries
81 nfp not attract well trained and eX'
"'s,enced teachers.
matter of fact, while high
teachers can be trained at Del
.rs snU1, College and the Women's Col
SS1'C. =. delaware, the state possesses
W. soo,1Ities whatsoever for training
y ,...ootary rural school teachers. Its
...abi6r corps is therefore largely un'
I'd 80 or ill-trained and distinctly
p-aarnoId The state cannot hope tC
w. an adequate staff of good teach
IN the elementary schools unless II
es -,dos = nroper facilities for their
living and pays such salaries as
I'.,netent teachers require for their
.~n1ort The report urges the i'm
Sortonce of adequate provision for
tr.iping teachers for both white and
eolored schools.
School Buildings.
Tho enc room rural schOOlhouses
.s,oupbout Delaware are with few eX-
cpntions of a very old and convention
Al tvne One of these exceptions is
tbo school in District "a, New Castle
comfy. There are practically no re-
eant buildings in Kent or New
Castle county; in Sussex county,
ubere several schOOlhOuSes have
bepn built lately, attempts to intro
dnce modern features into the build
iues have mostly failed. The situation
in villages having two and three room
schools is equally bad. The Du POnt
School and the Caesar Rodney SchOO
are the only modern buildings to bt
fm1nd in small towns and villages
There are small number of 0ldel
bindings that answer fairly well.
instruction.
Perhaps fourth of the rural schools
sisited give a good type of old fash
ioned instruction. The children ar,
vigorously held to their texts; no US
Is made of the experiences gained a
home. on the farm, or in their environ
pent: nevertheless the pupils are il
a fair way to master u substantial
body of information and are receiving
what would formerly have been calle,
a good elementary schooling.
The remaining rural schools ar
poor. The teachers, after one or tw
and occasionally three years in tn
neighbOring high school, merely g
through the motions of school keeping
II must be admitted that war cOnd
ions, as we'll as influenza, have thi
fall disOrganized the schools to an III
usual degree. Yet, so far as the wOr
observed is concerned, very little di
ference could be perceived in I'll
schools in question between the qualit
of the instruction of teachers who ha
just entered the service or who ha
returned after an absence of SON
years and the instruction of teache
who had been continuously in Servic
In respect to quality of instructio
the situation in the larger villages al
towns is better. Yet, the best that ca
be said Of the elementary schools
the larger villages and towns is tn
they do a fair type of old fashiOne
formal textbook work; the childrr
master the tools of learning g-readin
writing and arithmetic-and devO
some time to the study of phySiOlO
and hygiene, geography and histOl
But even in these schools the instrI
ton is formal and boOkish; it appeS
almost entirely to the meNOry, lit
or nothing being done to train
senses, cultivate observation, or to {
VelOp the Imagination. High schC
instruction is of the same bOOkish tyl
The situation is complicated by irr'
ularity of attendance. With after
anee in Delaware as it now is, it wOl
take children of the incorporated q
trlcts on the average about 10 yea
OF rural districts something over
years, and cOlOred children about
years to complete a standard {
mentary course. In consequence,
average child in Delaware actua
completes nothing like a full elem
tary course of study.
Expenditures Too Low.
The expenditures, state and local,
public education in Delaware are
100 low to secure good facilities
good teaching. Even the highest
capita expenditure in any county
district Is, compared with what OF
states do, really low. Delaware b
a low and cheap brand of educat
Probably not more than seven OF
states spend so little on education
delaware. 1t is, however, still
mat Delaware pays high for wha
gets. Indeed, 1t is difficult to see
a state could get less for it's none
Apportioning State Funds.
The report calls attention to the