604 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



on my own ingenuity; here is the clumsy result. The rural schools should 

 furnish its pupils an education giving them the power of mind necessary to 

 perform the intellectual operations required of good, progressive, honest 

 citizens of a rural community; also, the power of self-improvement. Let us 

 take an inventory first. The enrollment varies from five to sixty. The 

 teachers of the larger schools have under their charge the extremes of be- 

 ginners and those' who are about to quit school or finish the course, and all 

 the gradations of age and ability between them. Under these conditions it 

 is difiScult for the most skillful and experienced teacher to do systematic 

 work. The innumerable acts and duties to be performed in instructing the 

 large number of classes and in preserving discipline often causes confusion 

 and disorder which tends to make the work accomplished superficial and 

 unsatisfactory. In several districts pupils are illy supplied with text-books. 

 In a few, pupils are furnished with a variety of text-books, thus increasing 

 the number of classes. I view the situation in Scott county from the stand- 

 point of an optimist. 



Our teaching force consists largely of good concientious teachers who 

 are doing good work. 



We have some excellent schoolhouses, some that may be classed as 

 medium, and a few that are poor and unfit for school purposes. The out- 

 buildings are generally in a bad condition. Some are demoralizing to those 

 who most frequent them. Nearly all school yards have a sufficient number 

 of shade trees in good condition. Many of the schools are fairly well sup- 

 plied with the necessary apparatus, while others are deficient in this respect. 

 Scott county is to be congratulated upon the fact that nearly all the rural 

 schools are supplied with drinking water from deep wells located upon the 

 school yards. 



ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT. 



There is much room for improvement, however; a good opportunity for 

 intelligent investigation and the exercise of good judgment; and, I believe it 

 is fitting to suggest that the improvements must come through the action of 

 the farmers themselves rather than through State aid or additional legisla- 

 tion, as is so often asserted. 



What must be done to give to the rural population better educational 

 advantages? This is a difficult problem, and we shall probably not be able 

 to solve itJ:oday, for its solution requires better gradation and classification, 

 better attendance, greater interest on the part of parents and pupils, better 

 supervision, teachers with special qualifications for teaching rural schools, 

 and in some instances buildings better adapted to the comfort of their occu- 

 pants. What changes must be made and what plans evolved by means of 

 which we shall be enabled to accomplish such an undertaking? 



Prominent educators intimately connected with the rural schools seem to 

 be agreed that our hope of success lies in consolidation and centralization, 

 with free transportation of pupils included. 



At this point a few words of explanations may not be amiss. 



