Charlevoix county herald. (East Jordan, Mich.) 189?-1953, 1920-03-19
The CharlevOix
County Normal


year class of nine students, who
will graduate in June to help fill the
thirty-one estimated vacancies in the
rural schools OF the county. Threat
ened as we are with the grave danger
of closing part of our schools or low
ering our standard to so great de-
gree that it is worse than closed
doors, 1T is comfort to feel that nine
trained teachers will be ready for the
profession. Whatever mistakes they
may make, whatever may be their
raiiures-we may know tnat untraln-
ed they would OF far less value than
with the year OF training under ex-
perienced teachers who watch, train,
criticise, and tram stilI further every
native talent which they ind in the
student.
Last year the rural schools had
good exhibits at the county fair. In
many cases, in spite of the drawbacks
Uhat the rural SCHOOLS must overcome,
the work In some OIL the subjects COM
pared favorabiy with that OF the city
schools. The judges III the education
al hail spoke tavorabiy OF the rural
schools. 1t is advertisement enough
ior the county normal wnen we say
tnat every school having an exhibit
at the bundlng, except one from
born teacher-ail except this one were
entered by county normal graduates.
IN order to be allowed TO enter tnelr
exhibits they had to first win the
nignest honors IN their own township.
1t was in order to elevate rural
school teaching as profession that
ouk state legislature first passed the
county normal law which made pos
slbie such little vocational school in
our home county. Under this law our
county normal receives twelve hun
dred dollars state aid each year, with
the remainder paid half in half by
City duu COuhIys WhCh buO iOihoAhAht3
expense is a thousand dollars it thus
costs the City of Charlevoix actually
but five hundred dollars to maintain
the county normal and costs the coun-
ty at large the remaining five hun
dred. The county gets value received
several times over in better trained
teachers and in cooperation with a
training school at home, besides hav-
ing one year of college within short
distance of any village in the county.
The City of CharlevoiX receives value
returned for it's small investment in
several ways. The state and county
appropriation more than pay the ex-
pense of the equipment of the normal
room and the salary of the county
normal principal. The critic teacher,
who is also regular grade teacher,
with especially high credentials, is
thus secured for less actual cost to
them than the usual grade contract.
The normal girls also substitute for
the grade teachers in short time abb
sences although to continue this for
long periods would defeat the main
purpose of the rural. The aim of the
normal is to prepare teachers for ru-
raj schools and thus make better ru-
raj students 1t is of direct value to
any city to feel that the eighth grade
graduates who enter the high school
be well prepared, with such prepara-
tion as comes only from we'll trained
a normal trained teacher. 1t is thus
of direct educational and financial
value to Charlevoix to have a county
normal in it's midst and to boost for
that normal every time an opportuni-
tx presents itself.
1t is still early in the year to pre-
dict the size Of next years class, but
prospects look fine for a good year in
1920-1921. Superintendents who have
tried the county normal graduates in
their schools feel favorably inclined
to send students to a county normal.
The state institutions recognize the
value Of the personal work done in
the normal classes and recommend
most highly their own graduates who
enter with previous normal training
from county classes. To the question,
DO county normal graduates make
good?" we answer merely that they
not only do make good but continue
to improve.