EDUCATIONAL ENTERPRISES 353 



While the two acts for the establishment of town- 

 ship unit districts in the Upper Peninsula and for 

 the whole State respectively had improved rural edu- 

 cation through the abandonment of small inade- 

 quately supported districts, they lacked the essen- 

 tial and distinctive training in agriculture for the 

 children of the countryside. Thus the adoption of 

 the rural agricultural school under the acts of 1917 

 and 1919, if generally followed everywhere in rural 

 Michigan, would undoubtedly revolutionize Michigan 

 agriculture and rural life within a generation. As 

 yet, only a fair beginning can be said to have been 

 made.^ 



It is notorious that the quality of rural school in- 

 struction is much below that of urban communities. 

 Until recently, normal training was not a prerequi- 

 site to the granting of permission to teach in the 

 schools of Michigan, and, up to 1921, only six weeks 

 of such training were required. Untrained teachers 

 were most commonly found in tlie country schools, 

 where they were extremely young and inexperienced 

 as well. An educational expert of the department 

 of public instruction estimates that 21 per cent of 

 the teachers of the State held third grade (signify- 

 ing lowest grade) and special certificates in 1920, 

 and that another 24 per cent were holders of second 

 grade certificates. Teachers of this class are more 

 common in the rural than in the village and city 

 schools. It is estimated, on the other hand, that 



'Mich. Dept. Public Instruction: Consolidated Schools, 

 Lansing, 1919. 



