TABULATION FOR SCHOOLS FOR WHICH FIGURES WERE NOT GIVEN IN 1900.

4-97 -98 I I

II Pella.

Lat.

Added by the sub committee since the above was put in type-Western Illinois Normal School, Macomb, Ill.

CHAPTER XI.

REPORTS FROM COUNTY SUPERINTENDENTS

THE EDUCATIONAL OUTLOOK.

REPORTS FROM COUNTY SUPERINTENDENTS.

THE EDUCATIONAL OUTLOOK.

In order that we might set forth the educational work of each county, the opening year of the new century, a request was made to the county superintendents for a statement of not more than five hundred words embodying remarks on supervision, institutes, associations, course of study, teachers, libraries, consolidation of districts, educational needs, and other topics.

Of the ninety-nine county superintendents, sixty-six submitted articles.

Remarks on "Consolidation" have been omitted here, since the subject is covered elsewhere in this report.

ALLAMAKEE.

L. EELLS, COUNTY SUPERINTENDENT.

One of the greatest educational needs of our county is some means of securing a more general attendance in the rural schools. This lack of attendance defeats, in a measure, the very object for which our publle schools are maintained. I am convinced that consolidation of the township into one or two schools is the remedy for this great need.

Another great need is, better qualified teachers in the science of teaching. The time has come when every teacher should be trained for his work before being licensed to teach. This fact is too plain to admit of argument.

Our normal institutes furnish excellent opportunities for training teachers, but the time is too short to accomplish much. I am pleased to note the great advancement in our system of normal institute work. It was my privilege to be county superintendent when the first teachers' institute was held in this county, and it is gratifying to witness the progress from no system until at present they have become a source of inspiration to our teachers as well as a means of acquiring a fair knowledge of the art of teaching.

I sincerely hope that the great state of Iowa will soon realize the injustice of requiring the poorly paid teachers of the state to bear the burden of maintaining the institute fund.

Our sister state-Minnesota-generously lifts this, and pays the entire expenses of a four weeks' session annually.

We hope the angel of justice and mercy may lead cur legislators to act more generously in the support of normal institutes.

I highly commend the plan of the Department of Public Instruction furnishing the course of study for the rural schools. It is an excellent means of unifying the school work, and at the same time aiding the teacher to accomplish the most effective work in the least time.

AUDUBON.

ARTHUR FARQUHAR, COUNTY SUPERINTENDent.

Under the New Library Law libraries have been established in all of the townships but one in the county. Much interest has been taken in the libraries and reports from the teachers show that the books are being largely read by the children of the county. Good book-cases have been placed in some of the schools and an effort will be made to supply them all in the near future.

The Revised Course of Study has been placed in all the schools of the county, and is being followed as closely as possible by the majority of the teachers.

In the past year Teachers' Associations have been held in the center schoolhouses in the different townships with very satisfactory results. School officers and patrons of the schools have attended these meetings and better results have been obtained than by holding the meetings in the towns of the county.

The greatest needs of the schools are more teachers who are thoroughly prepared for their work. These can only be obtained by paying salaries that will enable the teachers to prepare themselves and be an incentive to make teaching a life work, instead of teaching only long enough to secure something else that is more profitable. Twenty per cent of the experienced teachers quit the work each year and their places must be filled by those who have had no experience and little or no preparation for teaching.

BENTON.

A. K. RIFE, COUNTY SUPERINTENDENT.

We, in Benton county, for the past three and a half years, have been very active in the endeavor to raise the educational sentiment, to secure a more proficient classification of the rural schools, to give the rural schools a better supervision, to raise the teaching force, and in general to improve our system of public instruction. In this endeavor we have been in a very marked degree, successful.

First, we inaugurated the interest of the teachers by organizing a "Teachers' Association of the county" and held monthly educational meetings in