THE PROBLEM IN RURAL EDUCATION 



vided for the teacher are far from satisfactory, and that in 

 many places they are so poor that the teachers are jeopardizing 

 their health by staying." 



The final result of this combination of circumstances is alto- 

 gether unfair, since nearly 60 per cent of the children of school age 

 in the United States are in the rural districts. In the city schools 

 there is manual training for the boys, domestic science for the 

 girls, laboratory equipment of many kinds, and the best teachers 

 that can be secured. The ordinary country school has but little 

 more equipment than it had 25 years ago, which makes it doubly 

 important that the lack of equipment be compensated for by teach- 

 ers with more attractive personality, better training, and greater 

 resourcefulness. The disparity between the city schools and the 

 country schools will continue to increase until some means is found 

 to get and hold more experienced and better trained teachers in 

 the country districts. Better teachers result in better school houses 

 and equipment as is well stated by A. C. Monahan of the U. S. 

 Bureau of Education: 



"It is true that a good school may exist in the poorest 

 building and with the poorest equipment, but, as a rule, the 

 condition of the building and equipment is a good indication 

 of the instructional work of the school. In other words, in- 

 structional work of a high grade in a school reacts upon the 

 material equipment for whether the good instruction is due 

 directly to the teacher or indirectly to a good supervisor through 

 her, its influence is sooner or later felt by the school directors 

 and by the school patrons, and results in a general improve- 

 ment of the material facilities. Investigation, as far as it has 

 been carried out, seems to show that, as a rule, wherever the 

 greatest advance has been made in rural schools, improved 

 buildings and equipment have followed improved teaching." 



How to secure better teachers is a problem in which every 

 country tax payer is directly interested, as a simple matter of get- 

 ting a full dollar 's worth for his investment, and a problem in which 

 everyone is concerned, because it involves the entire question of 

 community development and better citizenship. 



The state of Washington has taken the lead with a simple, prac- 

 tical solution of this problem a solution which is so simple now 

 that it has been found, it seems strange that it was not discovered 

 long ago. This is 



THE TEACHER'S COTTAGE. 



The teacher's cottage, or "teacherage," is a permanent resi- 

 dence for the teacher, built near or in combination with the school 

 house. It serves the same function that a parsonage does in con- 

 nection with the church. 



A few years ago an energetic young country school teacher in 

 the state of Washington was utterly unable to find a family that 

 would accept her as a boarder for the school term. Nothing 



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