Bowman County:

McHenry County:

Everywhere the consolidated school has been successful and has shown far greater efficiency than the scattered one-teacher schools. This gives promise that the consolidated rural school will in a few years prevail.

THE RURAL SCHOOL-TEACHER

In a number of states visited by the writer the prevailing type of rural school-teacher was a girl of from eighteen to twenty years of age. That the country school-teacher is an astonishingly young person is attested by all reports on the subject. An educational survey of South Dakota [35] showed that the largest group of rural teachers range between nineteen and twenty-five years of age; twenty-nine teachers were under seventeen years of age, and fifty-three were just seventeen.

Most of the teachers about whom the writer collected information were serving their first or second year. Only a few had been teaching for three or more years. According to the above survey of South Dakota, 31 per cent of the rural teachers were teaching their first school, and only 9.6 per cent had taught as many as four schools. Few teachers, the report showed, have taught more than one or two years in a school, while the average teaching life of a rural teacher is three and three quarters school years. The instability of the profession is so great that it is necessary for the state of South Dakota to recruit annually about one third of its total teaching force of 7,000.

An investigation made by the United States Bureau of Education in 1915 covering all sections of the country found that the number of school years taught by the average rural teacher was six and one half, but stated that the large majority of these teachers fell far below the average. The average time spent by a teacher in one community is extremely brief; the investigation showed that it is less than two school years, or considerably less than one calendar year. Even this average is considered a high one for the majority of the teachers.

Equally illuminating figures on this point are contributed by the state of Wisconsin. The state Superintendent of Education reports as follows:

A number of the teachers that the writer interviewed had only grammar-school education, with a year or two of high school. Only a few had full high-school training. In general the training which qualifies the rural teacher for his work is appallingly slight. Of the rural teachers in South Dakota covered by the survey mentioned, 58.3 per cent had completed a four-year high-school course; 45.8 per cent reported attendance at professional schools; 54.2 per cent became teachers by taking examinations instead of by going through normal schools and colleges of education.

The investigation of the United States Bureau of Education referred to above brings out the striking fact that about one third of the rural teachers have had no professional preparation whatever, not even summer courses or other short courses. It was discovered that 4 per cent of them had less than eight years of elementary training, and that 45 per cent of the rural teachers have completed four years of high-school work, but have not done more.

A bulletin of the United States Bureau of Education [37] presents the following facts regarding the training of rural school-teachers: The average rural school-teacher remains in the teaching profession less than four school years of 140 days each. This means a complete turn-over of teachers every four years, or that about 87,500 new teachers must be provided annually. During the school year ending 1915 the normal schools graduated 21,944 students. It is quite certain that most of these found positions in towns and cities, as did most of those graduating from schools of education in universities and colleges. Therefore the great majority of the 87,500 new teachers needed annually for the rural schools must go to their work professionally unprepared.

Extracts from the reports of county superintendents in various states show the same low level of qualifications; one reports that nearly 40 per cent of his teachers have been untrained and inexperienced. The following quotations are taken almost at random from the 1916 reports of county superintendents filed in the office of the state Superintendent of Public Education of North Dakota, [38] and might be duplicated by reports from almost any other state having a largely rural population.

Bowman County:

Logan County:

The teachers in the rural districts, especially in the backwoods places, impressed the writer as having little influence upon the surrounding community, particularly in cases where the community was composed solely of immigrants. The immigrants seem not to take the teacher seriously. A number of them said that they do not go for any practical advice to the school-teacher, believing that such a young girl knows little. In personal interviews the teachers said that they are doing some Americanization work by explaining to the children certain big historical events in the country's life, such as Washington's crossing of the Delaware, the battle of Bunker Hill, the liberation of the negroes. Their understanding of the difference between the American democracy and the European autocratic and aristocratic governments seemed to be vague. Even their knowledge of American history was mechanical rather than conscious or interpretative. In general, the writer was impressed that teachers of this type—young girls—themselves need further development before they can do effective educational work in the schools, not to speak of the community.

The teachers themselves complained of low salaries, difficulties in handling boys, especially immigrant boys who come from big cities. There are hardships in finding suitable living quarters and board, particularly in new immigrant colonies where the people live in shanty-like shelters and continue to eat pork and sauerkraut, sour milk, herring, onions, etc. One teacher, a girl about nineteen, told the writer that she could find an American farm only at a distance of five miles from the school and that she had a hard time to reach the school from her boarding place in the winter snows and blizzards.

Not one of the teachers interviewed expected to make teaching a lifetime profession. They all looked upon their present position as only a stepping-stone to a better life. They hoped either to continue study and go through college, or to take up skilled office work, such as that of a stenographer or bookkeeper.

The average salaries of rural teachers are given in the reports of various state superintendents as follows: Average monthly salary of teachers in rural schools in
North Dakota: [39]
Year ended June 30, 1914$53.25
Year ended June 30, 191554.92

Average monthly wages of teachers in rural districts in
South Dakota: [40]
Year ended June 30, 1915$53.75
Year ended June 80, 191655.04

Average monthly salary of teachers in Nebraska, year ended
July, 1916: [41]
Males$73.21
Females50.94

Average monthly wages of teachers in rural districts in
Minnesota, 1916: [42]
Men$62.00
Women52.00

Teaching salaries of rural school-teachers in Wisconsin,
1914–15: [43]

In regard to the influence of the nationality of the teacher upon her work in a public school there have been no authoritative data published. In a number of the immigrant colonies investigated by the writer immigrant teachers were employed. While both the colonists and their leaders claimed that a teacher of their own nationality can get better results in her work than a native teacher, because of her intimate knowledge of the colonists and their children, the school authorities and the native neighbors did not believe there was any difference. If a teacher of foreign parents was born in America or immigrated in childhood, has received American schooling and normal training, and if she speaks perfect English, knows and loves the country, there cannot be any difference.

In one case the head of a native family expressed his dislike of a teacher of Finnish nationality on account of her defective English and because she taught foreign songs and plays to the American children. As the teacher was on vacation, the writer could not interview her. The colonists themselves believed that she was a good teacher, for the children liked her; and the county superintendent was satisfied with her teaching progress.

In Vineland, New Jersey, there were four teachers in the public schools of Italian parentage. These teachers would be counted as Americans in every way. As they understand Italian, know the Italian immigrants and their children, they get better results in their school and community work than the native teacher. One good thing is that they stay in the same school much longer than the latter.

In general the writer is inclined to the opinion that, given equivalent abilities and training, the teacher with the command of the foreign language can do better work in an immigrant community than a native-born teacher who speaks only English. Such a teacher must be thoroughly imbued with the American spirit and traditions. She will have a better chance of imparting these to her pupils and their parents if she has also a knowledge of, and sympathy for, the nationalistic backgrounds and inclinations of the people in her community. This is a rare combination to find in a rural school-teacher, but it typifies the characteristics needed to succeed in amalgamating the colonists, both young and old, into a common life and purpose.

IRREGULAR SCHOOL ATTENDANCE

It is a fact that school attendance is much poorer in the agricultural sections than in the industrial centers. It is believed that on an average about 20 per cent of the rural children of school age do not attend school at all. The attendance of the children of immigrant settlers is less than that of the children of native farmers. The immigrants are more used to child labor in the old countries. They are hard pressed financially, often paying off mortgages and developing new land. The land and colonization companies are sometimes known to encourage rather than discourage the use of child labor by the settlers in their newly created colonies.

The states vary in the length of school term provided for children, ranging from about five months to over nine months. In only three fifths of the states, however, are children compelled by law to attend the full school year. [44] In only rare cases are the compulsory attendance laws completely inforced, so that the average amount of schooling the child gets is less than that prescribed by law, and in a number of states less than the amount of schooling available. This is especially true in rural districts.

The situation in some of the states where land settlement is being carried on is indicated by the data given below. Although urban and rural figures are not distinguishable, those given are for predominantly rural territory. Wherever city populations are included it is a safe assumption that the attendance showing is better than in the country districts alone. In Arizona, where conditions are almost entirely rural, the percentage of children not attending any school is 14 per cent or above in every county, and runs as high as 48 in one of the counties.

The irregular attendance of children at the schools in rural districts of Minnesota is commented upon as follows:[46]

Anoka County:

Kittson County:

The per cent of attendance for the entire state of North Dakota was, for the year ending June 30, 1914, 87 per cent, and for the following, 88 per cent. [47] County superintendents in the state sent in the following reports for 1916.

McIntosh County, which is largely populated by Germans:

Ransom County:

In South Dakota the actual attendance of those enrolled in the country schools is less than 60 per cent. [48] From Campbell County it was reported as follows:

The Superintendent of Public Instruction of Nebraska reports for 1916 as follows:

In California the compulsory-school-attendance law is rigidly enforced, except in the case of floating families. In this connection the Commissioner of Public Education made the following explanation to the writer: The California industries are mostly seasonal, which means that the vast majority of labor forces are seasonal and floating. During the seasons of fruit and hop-picking, cannery and lumber operations, large numbers of laborers' families move from place to place. To keep track of their children and to compel their school attendance is almost beyond the power of the present school authorities, especially as they are now organized.

The state school-attendance laws vary greatly, and one finds still more variety in the enforcement of these laws. The greatest difficulties are experienced in the rural districts. Using child labor in farming is a deep-rooted tradition. The children are looked upon by their parents as their economic asset. Moreover, it is a hard-headed conviction among the rural population that child labor is beneficial to the children themselves; they learn to work, their bodies are strengthened, they acquire good habits of life, etc. That the children are deprived of the opportunity to play—to develop as their nature requires—and to acquire a general education; that this results in their mental abilities and social instincts being undeveloped, the young people remaining bashful and shy; and that even their physical development is greatly restricted by overwork—the rural advocates of child labor cannot understand nor recognize.

In many cases the county school superintendents are elected by the people who, in the main, are the parents of children. When the position of the superintendent depends upon the will of the parent farmers, it is often impossible to enforce the attendance law.

PRACTICAL CURRICULUM NEEDED

There is widespread dissatisfaction with the present program of the public schools among the rural population. They say that no practical training is given to their children. They feel that the teaching is aimed to prepare their children for high schools and colleges only, where only a very small percentage ever go. For instance, the Minnesota Department of Education reports for 1915–16 that approximately 70 per cent of the country children do not go beyond the elementary grades. Only 5,532 out of 215,427 children in rural schools graduated from the eighth grade for the year. Those who do enter high schools, and, later, colleges, are indeed lost to the rural population, for the college-trained boys and girls seldom return to the soil. The children who do not enter high school remain on the farms, but they have secured almost no practical training for rural life, either as farmers or farm laborers. Instead, they have been prepared for high school.

The school program was especially sharply criticized by the Russian sectarian peasants at Glendale, Arizona. "Why, the school is making out of our children dancers and soldiers of war, instead of farmers—soldiers of the soil!" exclaimed a gray-headed "prophet" in disgust. Another peasant, perhaps not so high in the sectarian hierarchy, wanted the school to teach their boys how to run and repair automobiles and tractors.

The observations and inquiries of the writer led him to the conclusion that the criticism of the school program by various elements of the rural population is justified to a large extent. The school program at present generally prevailing offers little practical training for farmers' boys and girls. A native farmer in New Jersey explained to the writer: "There is no use keeping my children in school after they have acquired knowledge of reading and writing. They grow and learn more on my farm than in the school, for I want them to become land tillers and cattle raisers." This is perhaps an exaggerated and overdrawn statement, but, nevertheless, the present rural public-school program works in favor of the city at the expense of the rural communities.

Up to recent years the prevailing teaching language in the public schools has been English, but in a number of the public schools in the immigrant rural sections the teaching language has been German. This is true in the states of Nebraska and North Dakota. A prominent church head informed the writer that there are at least half a dozen schools in McIntosh County, North Dakota, paid for by the money of the state, under the direction of the County Superintendent of Schools, in which the entire teaching is in German.

The writer found still more numerous cases where a foreign tongue was a subject of study in the elementary public school, though English was the teaching language. Both a foreign tongue as the teaching language and a foreign tongue as a subject of study in the elementary public schools are now done away with under the pressure of public sentiment against these practices.

NEED FOR EXPERT ADMINISTRATION

The limitations to efficient rural-school administration are many. According to a recent bulletin of the United States Bureau of Education [49] in more than half of the states the county superintendents are elected by the people, and in the remaining states they are either elected or appointed by county boards, county courts, state boards, state Commissioner of Education, Governor, president of township boards, district boards of education, city or town boards, township directors, parish boards, local school boards, or union boards. In the majority of cases the parents control the local school inspection and direction. Such democratic control would be desirable provided the parents were as enlightened and expert in school training and education problems in general as school-teachers and their inspectors and superintendents. As a matter of fact, the parents, especially in the rural districts, are quite backward, and often even ignorant, in these problems. This is the root of the trouble with the local school inspection and direction. A county superintendent is not always elected for his merits as an educator, but often for his popularity, influence, and "agreeableness." An elected county superintendent usually cannot come into conflict with the parents—for instance, by insisting on a rigid enforcement of the school-attendance law entailing the arrest of the parents for disobeying the law—without losing his position at the next election. This condition causes frequent change or "rotation" of the county school superintendents, and is in itself a considerable defect of the existing system of school inspection and direction. With a few exceptions, county superintendents who were interviewed complained of this "rotation" to the writer.

In most cases no educational or experience qualifications are required by any higher authority for inspectors. As a result local politics, village gossip, and jealousies have free play. Usually there is no provision for office expenses, assistant, or clerical force. The superintendent's salary is low, often lower than a teacher's salary. The superintendent of Ziebach County, South Dakota, received only $44.76 monthly, while the average teachers salary was $55.04 per month. Another county superintendent told the writer that all his salary went for gasoline and repairs for the automobile with which he made his inspection tours. To the question why he served the county without compensation he answered, "Because I love the 'game' and have my own private income."

Another defect is the fact that the superintendents have to cover too large a field. A county contains from one hundred to three hundred teachers, and nearly as many schools. The county superintendent is able properly to inspect all the schools under jurisdiction only once or twice a year, which is not sufficient for the direction of the school work. Quite a number of the county superintendents complained about the lack of authority over teachers, especially in their selection and appointment. Under such a condition, if a teacher carries out the superintendent's wish or advice, she does so merely from courtesy.

On the whole, most of the local school inspectors and superintendents interviewed by the writer impressed him favorably so far as personal character went. They seemed to like their work and were doing what they could under the circumstances.

PROPOSED MEASURES

There is no other public institution in the country so varied in its organization, its strength, its methods and ways as the elementary public-school system. It ranges from a shanty-like to a palace-like building, from a teacher almost illiterate herself to a teacher with an education and training which fit her for a college chair, from a few hundred dollars of yearly appropriation to tens of thousands of dollars for upkeep of a single school, from one teacher to a staff of teachers in one school, from an almost voluntary attendance to a rigid compulsory attendance. All these wide variations, in themselves picturesque, are a weakness of the system.

When the writer speaks of the weakness of the elementary public schools he uses this term in a relative sense, keeping always in mind that there is no other tool in the hands of the government so powerful in stamping out and keeping out illiteracy and hyphenism as the public school.

To make it meet these tasks a uniform public-school system based on standard requirements should be established throughout the country by the Federal, state, and local governments closely co-operating with one another for this purpose.

The Federal Bureau of Education should certainly be developed and elevated to the status of a department similar to that in a number of the states, and in almost all foreign countries.

The reorganization and the support of an efficient public-school system would require heavy public expenditure, a substantial part of which should be contributed by the Federal government to the states as an inducement to the latter to meet the minimum standard requirements in regard to the public-school system and to accept Federal inspection of the schools for the purpose of ascertaining that the states and the counties were keeping to the minimum requirements, which might be as follows:

(1) Enlargement of one-teacher schools through either consolidation or development; no less than two teachers and no less than three classrooms in each school.

(2) At least a general high-school education, two years of training in teaching methods, practical and theoretical acquaintance with agriculture, with library work, with first aid and with recreation and community activities, should be the minimum requirements for candidates for teachers in the rural public schools.

(3) The rural teacher must receive a satisfactory living salary throughout the calendar year, to be gradually increased as the years of service increase. A pension for old age, and accident and health insurance, should be provided. Near the schoolhouses there must be established "teacherages," small experimental farms with family living houses for the teachers.

(4) The school year should be made to coincide with the calendar year, with a number of short vacations during the time of special farming seasons, such as planting in the spring and harvesting in the fall. The work done by the children for their parents during the vacations should be considered as a part of their school curriculum. They would report on their work to the school, and receive instructions on how to do the work in a better way, and at times the teacher in charge of the children's home work would make inspection and instruction tours in the district during the vacation periods.

(5) Each child must be compelled to attend the public school, or a private school which fully meets the requirements of the public school, until he has completed the elementary-school education. Such school attendance should be rigidly enforced throughout the country, which would be possible if the local school authorities, in the enforcement of the law, were made more independent of the will of the parents in their districts. In addition to the inspection by the local authorities, a Federal system of inspection and direction should be established.

(6) English should be the teaching language in all public schools.

(7) There should be included in the school program instruction in farming methods, varying according to the local soils, climate, and other conditions and requirements.

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