TEACHERS' COTTAGES 



take a steady boarder, so that if a teacher gets a place to board at 

 all she may be forced to go to farm houses where only the barest 

 accommodations can be secured. 



Under these circumstances, the teaching of a country school 

 often becomes simply a temporary expedient for the teacher the 

 first term after getting a certificate, and ambitious teachers who 

 are anxious to grow in their profession, and make something of 

 themselves, go to the city schools just as soon as possible, where 

 opportunities for learning are greater and living conditions better. 

 The country schools are always left with the largest proportion of 

 young, inexperienced, poorly trained teachers, or with teachers who 

 have been content to go on year after year shifting from one dis- 

 trict to another, without qualifying themselves for the more rigid 

 requirements of the city schools. Out of 9,883 teachers in one and 

 two-room rural schools in Missouri, in 1910-11, but 55 had taught 

 six or more consecutive years in the same location. A teacher may 

 continue for many years with the lowest grade of certificate in the 

 country schools, but this cannot be done in the city schools. In the 

 four states of South Dakota, Kansas, Texas and Wisconsin, there 

 are over 18,000 rural teachers who have not had even a partial high 

 school education. 



The problem from the teacher's standpoint is well summed up 

 by Miss Ellen G. Syse of the North Dakota Agricultural College, 

 from whose manuscript, entitled "The Teacher's Boarding Place 

 and the Rural School, ' ' we quote as follows : 



"Much complaint is made of the inefficiency of the rural 

 schools, and vigorous efforts have been exerted on every hand 

 to build up a more effective and efficient rural school system. 

 But in working out the problem, it has been approached, more 

 or less, from the viewpoint of the needs of the community, 

 and rarely, if ever, from the viewpoint of the needs of the 

 teacher. We have sought to build up an efficient rural school 

 system by making demands upon the teacher, defining her du- 

 ties and determining her qualifications for service, forgetting 

 that only when we create conditions that will attract the well- 

 qualified teacher and justify her in remaining with us, shall we 

 secure the service 'which makes for good rural schools. 



Well-qualified teachers will not stay in a place where 

 boarding conditions are poor, at the worst they will stay only 

 until they have attained the teaching experience required to 

 qualify them for teaching in the village or city schools. Rarely, 

 however, do they remain for more than one term in such a 

 community. As a general rule, those communities providing 

 congenial living conditions secure the good teachers, while 

 those neglecting their teachers must take the less competent 

 ones, making for less efficient work and ineffective schools. 



From a recent investigation in regard to North Dakota rural 

 school conditions, it is evident that many of our rural com- 

 munities are not aware of a close connection between good 

 boarding places and good school teaching. Statements received, 

 from county superintendents and rural teachers of the state 

 show that in a number of localities the living conditions pro- 



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