The Hartford herald. [volume] (Hartford, Ky.) 1875-1926, 1920-07-07
II Your School An Up-to-Date
school ..

The average person does not visit
the school near his own farm, does
NOT know anything about the quali-
6eations of the teacher and does
mot spend a cent of his money on
making the school more efficient or
more comfortable. OF course, the
person who reads this has a hazy
idea about the school in his own
neighborhood; but he needs to get
interested enough in that school to
visit IL and learn about it for him
self
Because the writer felt this way
he arranged, while at a conference.
on rural life at Berea. KY, in May,
to spend a portion of one evening
with thirty-six teachers of rural
schools. that he might learn what
they thought could be done to make
their particular schools better.
These young men and women were
attending the Normal School at
Berea College; most of them were
teaching schools situated in the
foothills or in the mountains.
Practically all of these teachers
agreed that the social life of their
schools was poor or did not exist
t all. One among them had had
er patrons cooperate in the buy
TX of a school library. Another
ad been rather successful in Sc
Gring the help of number of the
Lder people in teaching the child
rem oid-fashioned games. With the
exception OF these two teachers, the
Others complained of their absolute
failure to secure and to hold the
interest of their patrons in the
schools.
This group of teachers was then
questioned as to the school itself,
the grounds about it, the water sup
ply and the care of the school build
ing while il was in use. With
single exception, all have to pay
out of their own meager salaries
for the cleaning of the building,
the building of fires and other
janitor service, or do the work
themselves. Eight teachers out of
the thirty-six said their water sup
ply was first-class in quality and
conveniently located. Nineteen OF
them had to have the water carried
quite a distance, and one teacher
reported his supply mile away
and at the bottom of a hill. Fifteen
teachers announced they had great
difficulty in getting the ordinary
and necessary repairs done. Only
one-half of those present have good
desks in their schools and less than
onelhird of the teachers had mod
ern desks.
Six of the schools represented
had Fairgrounds of more than an
acre in extent. Five reported some
where about a half-acre for the
chiidren's pleasure ground. and the
remainder had less than this space.
In eight school districts there
had been some talk Of consolidation,
fifteen districts were discussing bet
ter roads. and about the same num-
Der were showing an increase of
interest in the schools.
When the teachers were asked IL
the interest had grown to the point
of boosting the local tax rate for
schools, they, each and every one,
shook their heads.
What these thirty-six men and
women from one-room and two
room schools out in the country said
about their problems ought to make
every reader realize that schools
are often poor because no one is
particularly interested in helping
the schools He should realize that
in many ways the little schoolhonse
has not kept pace with the rapid
progress of the times,
The farmer does not plant or har-
vest his crops as farmers did fifty
years ago.
His wife loes not cook over an
open fire as they did fifty years age.
This means that the farmer has
no more right to educate his child
rem in an out-of-date schoolhouse