Belt Valley times. [volume] (Armington, Mont.) 1894-1977, 1923-01-04
A GOOD INVESTMENT.

One of the industries of Belt not at all negligible is the prep
aration of young teachers for rural school work Started some six
years ago this department of the high school has continually In
creased until today there are forty girls training for this work and
the annual payro of the graduates exceeds $4,000.
According to the state laws there may be one high school in
each county which has the Rural Normal Training department
and this high school is selected by the state superintendent who Is
supposed to select the best equipped high school in the county for
Originally this department was offered to the Great Falls
high school, who did not care to undertake the work. Then it was
offered to Belt, who accepted it.
The first teacher did not succeed in organizing the depart
ment in a satisfactory manner. Mrs. Bertha K. Lawrence of
charge of the same kind of a department in the Brainerd schools
for six years before coming to Belt and so was not a novice at the
work.
She proceeded to organize the department along lines laid
down by the state department, suitable furniture was procured
and a professional library of some two hundred volumes was Sc
The first year showed that a real. teacher had been secured.
The first class was graduated and through the cooperation of Miss
Keeney, the county superintendent, all secured positions.
Before many months reports began to drift in that these girls
had been splenddy trained and were giving excellent satisfaction.
A talk with Miss Keeney revealed the fact that these teachers had
been taught those things which are necessary in a small rural
school. They had been taught how to train the children in sing
ing 9ahsR TG4sses<saas fee4 aeee4at4eH aHH the
numerous little things that delight children. Each girl had had
actual experience in teaching beginners to read. Each girl had
been drilled in PRINCIPLES of economy, rural sociology and school
management. Each girl was taught the difficulties she would
meet and how to overcome them.
The first class was a success, the second class was a success
the third class is a success and the writer has been assured time
and again that these young teachers have proved themselves the
best trained and the most successful of all the rural teachers IN
Evidently the department is a success. The writer has had
an opportunity of visiting other counties where there is Normal
Training in a high school in fact he has visited all of them, and in
no county is there the same feeling of trust and respect as there
Is III dSCdu county IuGdi StCIiDuo lONdI LHt RnIS VI TIE Dcll
Normal Training department.
There are several reasons for this which all trace back to the
same direct cause. The girls are well trained, not only in theory
of education, the dreamy psychology of the impractical college
professor, but actually in those little practical things of school life
which young teachers should know and which they can get only in
contact with the person who knows.
Thus all things trace back to the teacher, Mrs. Bertha X.
Lawrence who is without doubt most exceptional in her qualifca-
tons for this line of work. Comparisons are odious and we shall
make none because in the whole state of Montana there is no nor
ma. training teacher who points to a record as complete a9d with
out exception as the head of the department in the local high
school. We do not believe that our girls are exceptional We do
not believe that they are any better qualified by nature for the art
of teaching than the average girl, but we do know that no girl can
sit in Mrs. Lawrences classes for two years without growing in
ability to teach, responsibility, resourcefulness, tact, womanlness
and personal neatnesss
The cost of this department to the local district is less than
appears on the surface because the state pays onehalf the in
structors salary, so that in reality this department is the least
expensive in the school.
When we see our girls come home from their schools, we'll
dressed, ladyhke, with a certain dignity despite their youthful
years, when we know that many of them have helped their par
ents or brothers and sisters financially, when we learn that others
have the money saved to complete their normal course, when we
hear the good reports coming of their success and the way they
have won a place in the hearts of the communities where they are
teaching, we are proud of them and of the department.