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 injusticeof 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 each of the ten districts into which the county is divided. These meetings were the means of arousing the interest of the district officers and the patrons. These additional interests were the occasions which afforded the opportunity for a round table discussion of all points of discord and the many petty annoyances that enter all school work. These discussions threw much light on the subject of education and all were filled with an inspiration to go at the work with more earnestness than ever before. In this way we demonstrated the meaning of the oft repeated maxim, "United we stand," as never before realized. We have not only stood but have made great strides in an upward progress of the educational sentiment in Benton county. And now the prevailing sentiment of the people of the county is to have the pupils of the rural schools complete the public school course. It is done in this When pupils finish the common school course, or the first eight years of the public school course they are expected to take an examination prepared and given by the County Superintendent. All pupils who pass a satisfactory examination are granted a common school diploma. This diploma entitles the pupils to enter the high schools of the county. In this way pupils are enabled to complete thepublic school course. manner: We have reason to be pleased with the results of our efforts to secure a better classification of the rural schools. Now at the close of each term of school a classification report taken from the classification register is sent to the County Superintendent that he may be able to know something of the classification of every school in the county. These reports have been verified by both the approval of the sub-director and the County Superintendent in his tour of inspection and visitation. This betterment of the classification of our schools has aided very materially in imparting knowledge in a more systematic and thorough manner. The time is now here when the school is classified and every teacher is following, so far as practicable, the course of study as found in the hand-book for Iowa schools. The Superintendent has personally inspected the work done in each school once a year and in many of the schools two or three times within a year. This personal contact with the teachers enabled the superintendent to impress upon the minds of the teachers in a direct way that a school to be well taught must be well governed; must have a careful and systematic arrangement of study and recitation hours; have a definite plan; keep the pupils pleasantly and busily employed with work; and provide instruction as well as training in habits of care and industry. Our teachers are better equipped to take up the very important work of instructing the young. Many of our teachers are graduates of the State Normal and many more have attended this excellent school for teachers two or three terms. The teachers of this county realize that it is their duty to give this work their best efforts, which they are doing in an admirable manner. We realize that it is in the educational world as in the industrial and commercial, demands are enlarging, therefore greater educational facilities are needed to supply this greater demand. Teachers, school officers and patrons have done nobly in keeping the wheels of progress turning in the great and mighty factory of mental and moral instruction. |