Association a prestige and an authority that would make it what it ought to be a court of last resort to which the public might come with confidence for wise and timely advice and for a clear expression of the best and latest thought on all educational themes.

In further evidence of present conditions and the possibilities of the proposed plan, let us consider the following:

There is a great and apparent need in this country for a better and closer organization for developing professional opinion among teachers and focusing their thought in ways best fitted to affect public opinion. We have county and city institutes, summer training schools, reading circles, section teachers' meetings within the various states, state teachers' associations, conventions of colleges and preparatory schools, and many other organizations, all of which are doing much good. Their work, however, fails of completion thru lack of correlation. Has not the time come for a careful consideration of some plan by which all of our state and local associations may be brought together into an effective relationship with the National Education Association, and could not this be accomplished most certainly thru the assistance of an advisory council?

In many communities and states the battles of teachers and associations for better conditions and laws are too frequently lost or made unnecessarily difficult because of the lack of such support as could be afforded thru the definite encouragement and approval of this Association. Often, too, the good work of one legislature is overthrown thru the ignorance or lack of information of a succeeding legislature. The authoritative approval of good measures by this body of educational leaders would help to win many a contest and would firmly establish many a worthy measure.

With the proper and necessary machinery, this Association could foster the organization in various parts of the country of certain educational councils made up of representative members of the profession, to whom the superintendents or communities may appeal in case they wish to have any careful consideration of educational problems. Any superintendent who is under criticism for what he is doing in his school system ought to have a group of his colleagues to whom he can refer his problems and from whom he can draw advice. In the same manner communities which are about to start school inquiries ought not to be left to the tender mercies of technically unskilled and untrained investigators.

The National Education Association could and should undertake systematically to foster certain lines of scientific investigation, an activity that would easily be more significant than reforms which can be undertaken in the schools.

Perhaps in no other field is the process of adjustment and scientific inquiry proceeding so satisfactorily as in the departments of education in our colleges and universities. Here not only the whole philosophy of institutional training is studied historically and pedagogically, but also the

individual in all his social relationships. It is here that much of our present research is conducted. Thru these departments and in collaboration with a corps of teachers representing the high schools, the problem of secondary education could be studied carefully, with reference both to the kind and character of the entering body and to the quality of its output.

Perhaps the greatest service of the National Education Association in the future will come by developing a more intimate relationship to the profession of education. In this way it would gradually come to embody the ideals, ethics, and aims of the profession. It would stimulate research, encourage forward movements, place its stamp of approval or disapproval on current happenings and trends, and it would do all these things with a somewhat more direct regard for the profession of education than it has in the past.

The volumes of Proceedings of the National Education Association are a rich mine of the history of American education and as such are invaluable; but they are huge volumes and are reference books rather than a source of present information. The National Education Association, thru its able advisory council, might well appeal to its members thru a periodical which would appear with enough frequency to make it the vehicle for current educational discussions and for current educational contributions. This periodical would in no sense undertake to occupy the field of the various state educational publications, but would be the official organ, which would be a constant reminder to the members of the Association of their duty to the profession and a medium for that type of information which can come only thru some periodical constantly coming to hand.

These are but a few of the many possibilities that conceivably would grow out of the plan for placing this Association upon a modern business basis.

Finally, if this organization is to continue to perform the high service to which it was dedicated and if it is to be in the future, as it has been in the past, a powerful instrument for educational good, there must be a more complete solidarity and unity of purpose among the teaching body of this country and a closer correlation with all the great forces at work for the world's betterment.

An army of more than five hundred thousand teachers united is an irresistible force to which all things are possible. Thus shall the words of Horace Mann become a true prophecy: "By a national organization of teachers, great and comprehensive plans may be devised, to whose standard each state may be gradually brought into conformity."

WHAT SHALL WE DO WITH THE SINGLE-ROOM SCHOOL?

M. P. SHAWKEY, STATE SUPERINTENDENT OF PUBLIC SCHOOLS,

CHARLESTON, W.VA.

The prestige of the "little red schoolhouse" rests on something more substantial than mere sentiment. That little old school yet remains one of the biggest factors in our educational problem. Even numerically it is big. In the number of teachers employed it shows up a total of 212,000, as compared with an aggregate of 300,000 in all the consolidated, graded, village, and city schools of the nation. According to the notable monograph put out a few weeks ago by Dr. Monahan, of the United States Bureau of Education, the rural schools enroll something over half of all the pupils of the country, and of these 60 per cent, or 6,689,000, are to be found in the single-room schools. If territorial extent were to be considered, it would probably be found that four-fifths of the country knows no educational institution beyond the old-time one-room school. If, then, as many as two-fifths of all our people are educated by the single-room school, it is a big factor, and if its work is a failure, that fact should cause alarm. But is its work a failure? Yes, and no. Blair of Illinois was right when he declared that general accusations against the rural school are unfair. Quoting the same authority further:

This is a big country, and the differences in climate, physical resources, and character of the people effect great differences in their social institutions. These differences perhaps are most marked in the schools of the different sections of the country. And amongst schools, the rural schools differ most. It is quite within the bounds of truth to say that the worst country school differs from the best in efficiency as much as the ancient reaping hook differs from the modern self-binder. These differences are both spiritual and material. Some are superficial and easily seen by the inexperienced eye; others are deep seated and are revealed only to the trained eye upon close study. Yet we hear from high places such statements as "the country school is the tragic phase of education," "the laggard in public education," "a failure," 'a disgrace."

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Now, there may be whole states where some or all of these terms truly describe the one-room country schools, and even in the most favored states these terms may apply to certain schools and sometimes to whole counties. But in all our discussions of these oneroom schools, we must ever keep in mind that they differ in quality and usefulness so greatly that no single generalization will describe them as a class.

The whole truth in the case is bad enough, however. My only thought here was to venture a few words in appreciation of the work of those heroic souls in the little school who have caught the inspiration of their opportunity, and rendered the service which only the great-hearted know how to render. My regret is not only that so few teachers have done this thing, but that conditions in the country generally are not conducive to that kind of service. Perhaps indeed the really efficient country school is in the minority.

Admitting, then, that a majority, or even a formidable minority of the single-room schools are failing, such a school becomes a problem for

serious consideration. What we shall do with it is a question that it would be presumptuous for me to attempt to answer, were it not for the fact that the collective experience of the various states has demonstrated at least a few of the fundamental principles involved in the case. I would say:

1. Abolish it, by the process of substitution. There are a great many of these schools that can offer no better reason for their existence than that of the small boy who ran into his mother's French plate mirror and smashed it, giving as his reason that he got a-going and couldn't stop. In every state in the Union there are still more or less of these isolated little schools that have got a-going and can't stop. They should be brought together at some central point and made a part of a larger and better school there.

Some enthusiasts go so far as to prescribe consolidation as the one great cure for all cases. But like Christian Science and the man with the broken leg, there are instances where the remedy doesn't apply. I need not take time to point out such cases. They are easily recognized; and because of the mountains, soil, and climate in many sections, they are probably permanent fixtures in our educational system, and that in no inconsiderable numbers.

What then shall we do with the single-room school, if consolidation will not solve the problem? I would answer:

2. Reinforce it with competent supervision. In all respects the coldest, dreariest, most desolate and hopeless picture in our whole educational scheme is that of a remote single-room country school, an unattractive box on a knotty half-acre, alongside of a muddy road, poorly heated, fearfully ventilated, supplied with rough furniture, without a library, pictures, paint, or other decorations. To make the picture complete, imagine as the arbiter of the destinies of this situation a young girl teacher, inexperienced, untrained, and perhaps snatched from a town or city environment to teach the six months' term of school and then be gone. What are we going to do with a situation like that? Get rid of it by all means as soon as possible, but there are a great many instances where it does not seem possible to get rid of such conditions at present.

In nearly all such cases, however, it is possible to supply helpful local supervision. Such supervision is being provided in Washington, West Virginia, some of the New England states, and some of the southern states. Barring consolidation, it is perhaps the greatest step toward the redemption of the rural schools that has been made in a quarter-century.

In the city we provide a supervisor for every nineteen teachers, the great majority of whom are not only professionally trained but experienced. But in the country with its doubly difficult task we throw the young teacher, without training or experience, overboard, and say, "sink or swim." Little wonder that in so many cases it proves to be a "sink."

It is amid conditions such as these that the rural supervisor renders

his greatest service. He is a friend and counselor. He adds to the success of the strong teacher, and saves the weak one from certain failure. He may get the teachers of his district together for a conference every week, thus enriching their social life as well as refreshing their enthusiasm and giving some help in matters and methods. He can easily obviate many of the blunders of the young teacher groping her way along without the advantage of professional training. He can also exercise a restraining influence upon such teachers as are thoughtless or rash and likely to bring trouble upon themselves and dissensions into their work. He can back up and reinforce substantially the good work of every teacher in his district. The district supervisor improves the teaching, the discipline, the attendance, the spirit, and the ideals of the school.

In one of the states where this plan of close rural supervision was put into operation five years ago, it has been found that the percentage of attendance in all the schools thus supervised increased in three years from an average of 69 per cent to a general average of 86 per cent, a gain of almost 25 per cent in that short period.

A two-teacher school has double the opportunity for efficiency that the one-teacher school has, and the one-teacher school supplied with competent supervision close at hand is in effect a two-teacher school, and supervision is possible in many cases where the larger school is an impossibility. Some who have made a study of the plan of rural supervision which I am describing claim that it will increase the working efficiency of the single-room school from 25 to 40 per cent. That estimate is perhaps well within the bounds of conservatism.

3. I have a third remedy to propose for cases where neither of the other two will solve the problem. I would change its sex. We should change the sex of the one-room school, not because men are the better teachers they are not-but for the very substantial reason that the man may stick to his job, but the woman teacher will not. The difference is that when the man teacher marries he not only continues teaching, but he goes into it with increased earnestness, but when the girl marries she throws her profession into the fire, and never thinks of it again. Therefore, if the one-room school is to become a thing of permanency and power in the community, it will call for a man teacher in the majority of cases.

If the community will then go one step farther and provide a home for that teacher, a neat, cozy house with garden and orchard, near the schoolhouse, so that the teacher may not only keep the school plant alive during the entire year, but rear his family under decent conditions, that school will make itself felt in the community.

If the country is a laggard in schools and social conditions, is it not because the country has not had a fair chance? The products of the farm are collected in the towns where the accumulated treasure of wheat,