the elementary or secondary schools. They should have a chance to try out these courses by working with the grades for which they are prepared. These trial trips should continue daily for many months if necessary. In one case they covered a period of daily instruction thru the entire geography course, requiring five years of work with the same class. Indeed, there are few things that will do so much for a normal school as the teaching of children daily for all of or at least a good part of each year by the teachers in the normal department. This teaching need not be continued as a regular daily program after courses are worked to a satisfactory conclusion and the teachers have developed a high degree of skill in dealing with their subjects.

These exercises should be carefully studied by the critic teachers and especially by the pupils of the normal department. It will be found that nothing else will have so potent an influence upon the character of the instruction in the normal classrooms. Theory will soon reduce itself to usable form and will test itself by its value as a schoolroom procedure. There will be little talk about "method" but there will be a deal of things accomplished in the way of getting material into shape for use with the children. Here is where the heads of departments can do their greatest work. It is fair to assume that they know more than anyone else about the subject-matter. Let them show that they also know more than anyone else about its best arrangement-perhaps the word "organization" is better-for the uses of the children. Not only should they develop courses of instruction, but they should prepare enriching material for special topics, to be placed in the hands of pupil teachers for oral helps in the lower grades and in the hands of the pupils in the higher grades. This necessitates some convenient scheme of multiplication of prints, a very simple matter with all of our modern devices.

These teachers should meet the pupil teachers of their subjects at least once a week for conference and interchange of ideas. The critic teachers should be present at these conferences. As I have said, the specialists should confine their contributions to these conferences to the subject-matter and its arrangement. They should be magazines of ammunition upon which the pupil teachers can draw at pleasure.

Shall the department heads also perform the function of critic teachers? Shall they meet the pupils and discuss with them their successes and failures in the matter of management and instruction? They should attempt nothing of the kind in a systematic way. My reasons follow: (1) It is impossible that they should have the time to make a thoro piece of work of it; (2) their criticisms will be made from the point of view of their particular subject rather than from the broader point of view of pedagogical principles; (3) there is great difficulty in preventing conflict of comments unless they shall all come thru the same critic; (4) such a plan presents insuperable obstacles to the pupil teacher. She is called

upon to meet far too many teachers and is cast about like a football among them. The inroads that will be made upon her time, the peril of missing close and sympathetic treatment, the divided interest of the department heads, the fact that they can be with the pupil teacher but a small portion of the time at best, all unite to condemn the plan. The critics must devote their entire time to their specific task. This does not mean that they shall not teach classes, for that is indispensable to superior success, but that is to be done, not alone to protect the children, but also to furnish standards of technic and to draw together into a fine unity all the parties involved in the management of the practice school; and (5) there is still another danger in splitting up the work of criticism. There should be a wholeness in the work of the teacher that cannot be expected from such a system. The subjects of instruction play into each other and presuppose each other, consequently they should not be isolated for purposes of criticism of teaching to such a degree as seems to me to be quite inevitable in case of the plan under consideration.

HOW CAN NORMAL SCHOOLS BEST HELP THE FORWARD MOVEMENT IN RURAL LIFE?

J. W. BRISTER, PRESIDENT, STATE NORMAL SCHOOL, MEMPHIS, TENN.

Country life is relatively not as important as it once was. The very shifting of population to the cities has caused a change. The glamor about the fine old farms, princely plantations, social festivities, religious life, economic independence has shifted with the population and now attaches to the city. The thoughts of men are centered there, the ambition of youth moves them in that direction; for the glittering prizes of success seem hung in its shops and temples and halls to dazzle and invite and allure.

The problem of rural life is one of real values. What are the things worth while? Can they be realized in the country? Are there opportunities in the country worthy the consecration and zeal of young manhood and womanhood? Can ambitious youth, dwelling there, realize the highest possibilities of his being and get that enjoyment which success ought to bring? We may not restore the prestige which the country once enjoyed, but can we not demonstrate that happy, contented, reasonably prosperous, and genuinely successful life can be lived on the farm? And cannot life in the country be so reorganized that it will offer to young people opportunities for improvement, success, and enjoyment approximately equal to those which the city gives?

The movement to improve country life is many-sided. It is economic, educational, social. It means a complete reorganization of country life, which involves the determination of the institution or agency around which the organization can best be made. It cannot be the home, church, store,

lodge, or union. All are inadequate, too narrow, or too conflicting in their interests.

The one institution in the country that can serve as a central point in an organized country life is the school. It belongs to all the people; it affects, if properly conducted, the whole life from that of the youngest child to the oldest adult. Belonging to the people, it can be directed as they see fit; its functions can be increased or curtailed; its activities can be enlarged or lessened at their will. Dealing primarily with youthful life, the hopes and ambitions of the people center there. Affecting the thought, directing the study of the people, determining their ideals and standards, it is naturally, logically, the central institution of all life. The educational process is so broad and comprehensive, even that part of it carried on directly in the school touches life in so many ways, that we could not think of organizing any society without considering the part the school must play in the organization.

If our premises are correct, the place of the normal school in the movement to improve rural life is not difficult to see. If the school is the determining factor in the situation, the normal school looms large, because it primarily, fundamentally, always has for its concern the school. The normal school is not an end in itself. It is not a subjective but an objective institution. All of its machinery, faculty, equipment, buildings, apparatus, course of study are for the other school. And it has come to be realized during the last few years that the other school for which it exists and functions is, in a peculiar sense, the country school. The normal schools in the past have not served the country schools as they should, but they are now fully conscious of responsibility, and everywhere plans are being devised with the hope of meeting it.

We make our suggestions, then, as to how the normal school can assist in improving country schools, for in this way we meet the larger issue involved in our subject.

1. The normal school can help make the course of study for the country school, which, with the exception of the teacher, is perhaps the most important factor in determining the value of the school. None of our educational agencies is better fitted to do this than the normal school. It is nearer the country school than any other which has any facilities for making the necessary investigation. It has the educational organization and the spirit of study and research which qualify it for the important task. It can and ought to study carefully and thoroly the field it serves, make surveys of counties and communities and even of the whole state, to discover their condition, educationally, financially, socially, as regards health, taxation, and resources. It will then know the needs of the school and of life; it will have familiarity with the entire situation; and this, combined with its knowledge of educational values, will place it in a position to speak with authority in mapping out a school program. Knowing the problems of life

and the relationship of school to life, it will be able to adapt the work of the school to the pupil's environment and minimize the loss of time and energy and effort in the passage from the activities of the school to those of everyday life. It need hardly be argued that this investigation and knowledge are necessary before the course of study can be properly made; because any satisfactory course is conditioned on the needs of the situation it is designed to serve. It must grow out of those needs and be adapted to them. An important phase of this work will be, not merely to make a general scheme for the whole state, but to arrange it with such flexibility that it can be modified to suit varying local conditions.

2. The work of the normal school is to make teachers-that is its peculiar aim and all else is incidental. But we have too often stopped with this rather vague statement instead of holding as its purpose the making of teachers in certain subjects. If we are going to help country life, it is essential that we organize and develop departments of agriculture, home economics, manual arts, and kindred subjects so that we may prepare teachers thoroly grounded in the fundamentals of these subjects and able to present them in such a vital and convincing way as to show the school's natural connection with the life of its community. These departments must be as thoroly organized as mathematics, English, or any other, and the normal school must be equipped to give instruction in them of as sound and thoro a nature as in any other subject on the whole program of studies. 3. Another most important field in which the normal school is already operating and which it must more completely cover, if it is to render the largest service to the rural school and rural life, is that of supervision. It must enter seriously upon the work of training supervisors for country schools, of grade work, of special subjects, and of industrial work; it must turn out men who can give direction to school activities and efficiency to the teachers' work. It is the experience perhaps of every normal-school man here that it is difficult to get the specially trained normal graduate into the country school; the salaries are inadequate, the surroundings of the school unsatisfactory, the physical conditions insanitary, the social isolation repellent. The teachers we send forth are doing what most men would do under similar conditions; they are seeking positions which offer the largest inducements and greatest attractions, and unfortunately these opportunities are not often found in rural districts. Now and then some choice spirit, with vision and the spirit of service, finds some humble sphere which he can thoroly cover, and he demonstrates his worth by showing the possibilities in even the crudest and most unpromising situation. But we cannot expect all or many of our normal alumni thus to do; and if they are to touch and modify rural life it must be in another way. And the other way is by supervision. One thoroly trained normal student placed in a supervisory position can affect the schools of a whole district, sometimes of a whole county, and the contribution he makes can be felt almost imme

diately over a large area. To prepare supervisors the normal school must first discover their work, must set before them definite aims which will be expressed in the courses offered for their preparation. It is pathetic to note in some states the growth in the number of such officials without intelligent aim on their part or directive suggestion from other state and county authorities. Their aims being vague and indefinite, their efforts are often without effect.

4. Finally, if the normal school is to help to improve rural life, it must do a great deal of extension work. The time is past when a school, any kind of school, can be satisfied with teaching, even satisfactorily teaching, those who register in its classes. The duty of the school stretches beyond the schoolhouse, beyond the campus, into the homes, into the stores, to the farms, into the social and institutional life of the community. Any system of instruction that is confined by the artificial limitations of the schoolhouse or grounds is practically useless to society and has no right to continuance; and the normal school is no exception.

In this extension work I should place first of all the duty of the normal school to the teacher now in the field. There are many noble souls who have given long years to teaching service with inadequate compensation, who feel the situation slipping from their grasp. They need contact with scholarly men, and they have not the means to renew for any length of time the personal association in the school. The normal school must go to them by correspondence, by lecture, and particularly by special courses of short duration in summer terms and other convenient seasons.

Again, I am convinced that the normal school should do more fieldwork. As intimated above, much of its industrial activity, as carried on in the departments of agriculture, home economics, and manual arts, is in danger of being artificialized for lack of application. I feel strongly that the normal school should foster and encourage club work among boys and girls. It should show how these activities can be correlated with the work of the school to the end that their educational significance may be appreciated. If we are to bring educational benefits to all classes, it must be possible for boys and girls to make some contribution to economic life while at school, even as a part of school life. Thru the influence of the normal school, club work can be made an integral part of school activity, and only thus can it have permanency of life and real educational value.

The normal school should participate, I believe, in all movements for the development of educational sentiment and increasing educational interest. In our state there is a most intimate connection between the state department of education and the normal schools; and on every court day normal-school men may be found arguing before county courts for increased funds for elementary schools, for taxes for establishing or improving high schools, for longer school terms, for bond issues for building and equipment; and they are also leaders in the aggressive campaign for