The St. Johns herald., 1922-12-07
The Improvement of Rural
 Schools BY. ELLWooD P. CUBBERLEY
THE PROBLEM

4uG past uCCduS AAS DcSu du cSpcCldA- ly fruitful one in the field of public education. New interest has been awakened, additional support has been provided, many new forms of educa- tional effort have been undertaken. and everywhere questioning and criticism have taken the place of an earlier con- tentment with existing conditions. Notable advances have been made or begun in many directions. The high school is being reconstructed and greatly enriched and expanded. The upper grades of the grammer school, long almost stagnant, are being vitaIiz- ed and are taking on new life. Domes- tic, industrial, and vocational training are being introduced very rapidly, and in many parts of the country. Mass instruction is giving place to the in- struction of individuals, and the health of school-children is today receiving an attention previously unknown.
 The country school has not been omitted in this process of reconstruc tion and criticism. and probably no part of our school system has received more thought and attention during the past decade than has the problem of how to improve the rural school. Probably. also, no part has shown so little inn provement. Hundreds of articles have 1 been written, addresses made, and re- ports printed on this subject. State superintendents of public instruction, county superintendepts, normal school presidents, professors of education, and 1 institute lecturers have considered the question, and have proposed ways and means looking to a solution of the pro- blem or problems. Many committees have been appointed to consider the matter. A few citizens, interested in an improvement of. rural education, have also taken part in the discussion, Many improvements have been sug- gested and some have been made, and still the problem remains before us, as yet in large part unsolved
 For time it was thought by many that an improvement in the quality of the teacher was the key to the problem, and efforts were concentrated on the preparation of better type of teacher for the schools This certainly was needed, and there is still much room for further improvement along this line. Teachers institutes, reading circles. and summer sessions of normal schools and colleges have rendered valu- able services to the rank and file of the teaching body, and have done much to give to new teachers a professional point of view. For the training of new teachers for the rural schools a number of normal schools have, within the past decade, organized rural teachers training classes, provided a rural observation and practice school, and have offered special courses prepar- ing directly for teaching in the rural schools. In a few states further efforts have been made looking to the prepara- tion of a least partially trained body of teachers for the rural schools, by the organization of county training, schools, in connection with the high schools. These give one-Year pro- fessional course, intended primarily to prepare for rural school work, and state aid has been offered usually to such schools. A very few states have gone even farther and have ordered that all teachers, after a designated date, must have had some kind of professional training. To provide this a number of institutions within the state have been designated to act as state training schools, and to offer twelve-weeks' summer courses to prospective teachers. These courses have usually been speci- fled somewhat in detail by the state, and have been intended primarily to prepare teachers better for work in the country schools. The net result of all these efforts has been an undoubted improvement in the mental equipment and the teaching capacity of the teachers in our rural and village schools. The rural school problem. though, still confronts us. and we see clearly that an improvement of teachers alone can never solve the problem. It does not touch it deep enough down.
 To Be. Continued